Overturning failed oral test is ‘unlikely’
ROUNDWOOD’S LUCY FINDS VISA TEST FAILURE IS ‘A BIT OF A COMMON THING’
THE father of a Roundwood vet who failed an English fluency test said it is unlikely that the decision will be overturned.
Seamus Kennedy, father of Louise (Lucy) Kennedy, said that the company overseeing the automated computer test is standing by its decision to award a fail grade on the test despite the fact that Lucy is a native English speaker.
Thirty-four-year-old Lucy, who is the middle child of Seamus and Magdalen Kennedy from Djouce Meadow in Roundwood, had applied for permanent residency in Australia by way of a skilled immigrant visa having worked as a equine vet on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland for two years.
Lucy who is married to Adam, an Australian, is due the couple’s first baby in 12 weeks time and wanted to put the wheels in motion before her current visa expires in September.
Despite being a native English speaker with two university degrees, the young professional was deemed insufficient in her native tongue by an automatic scoring system.
For a skilled immigrant visa applicants need to take an English proficiency test.
Lucy said that when she went for the test she didn’t give it much thought.
‘I didn’t think much of it but it was quite easy. But I came up five points short.
‘Basically you have a headset and there is a few different components to the test – speaking, listening, writing. I passed all the others with a score of 90 or more but in the oral fluency I got 74.
‘It’s a pretty straightforward test. You read a paragraph and repeat it. You describe a picture or a graph or something. There’s nothing difficult about it.’
Lucy’s experience has resonated with other native English speakers who have also failed the exam.
‘I’m not the only person that this has happened to. I’ve received messages from people on Facebook who are native English speakers and they said they also failed the oral fluency component.
‘It seems to be a bit of a common thing unfortunately.’
Lucy who has one sister and one brother said failing the requirements for the skilled immigrant visa was ‘a huge nuisance’ but said she was one of the lucky ones.
‘Luckily, I’m in a good position. I married my Australian husband in February so I’ve been able to apply for a spousal visa but if I wasn’t in that position I’d be coming home right now because my current visa expires in September.’
However, applying for a spousal visa doesn’t come without a cost.
‘Because I’ve had to apply for a spousal visa I’ve had to pay extra. It’s $7,000 to apply for that but to apply for a skilled migrant visa is less than $4,000 so we’ve had to pay the extra money.
‘It’s not the best time for us to have to pay the extra money but at least I can stay here.’
Lucy and husband Adam are due their first baby, a girl, on October 26.
Since failing the test Lucy said that she had been slagged off by her friends.
‘ They have been having a laugh about it alright, especially the Aussies. They have been having a good old laugh about it.’
Lucy who had a touch of an Australian accent and doesn’t have a strong Irish accent says she doesn’t believe that her Irish accent caused her to fail the test. ‘I don’t think it was an accent thing.’
Her dad Seamus believes that it is highly unlikely there will be an reversal of Lucy’s test results.
‘ The company is standing by its story that it was the right result.
‘ They offered to let her resit the oral test but it would take too long and her current visa expires in September so she is going to go down the route of a spouse visa but it is a lot more expensive.’
Seamus feels the decision is unlikely to be overturned saying the government would need to overturn it adding that is very unlikely because they would be expected to do it all the time when someone fails.