American edtech company Duolingo lobbied Ottawa for approval as an official language test provider for immigration applications, but was ultimately unsuccessful in its attempts.
Lobbying records show that Duolingo, which offers popular online language courses, was trying to get its online-only English test accepted by the federal immigration department as one of the approved language tests for the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot, or EMPP, an immigration stream that grants permanent residency to high-skilled international refugees.
Federal approval of a digital language test could potentially help scores of prospective migrants from war-torn regions with no access to physical language test centres to complete their immigration applications, which require proof of English or French competency.
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Current rules around language tests at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada do not allow for remote online testing, and decree that applicants need to perform a test in person at designated testing centres across the world. There are three English tests and two French tests currently accepted by IRCC, including the International English Language Testing System, or IELTS, test.
Federal lobbying records show that representatives of Duolingo met with IRCC officials five times between August and December, 2025, to discuss “improvements” to the EMPP program, including the merits of digital language testing options. The lobbying records also stated that Duolingo had discussions with IRCC about English testing for federal immigration programs more broadly.
Two sources close to Duolingo said that government officials were concerned about the integrity of Duolingo’s online tests, specifically how to ensure that the person performing the online test was actually the applicant themselves. The sources spoke to The Globe on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by their employers to speak about internal lobbying efforts.
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Duolingo language courses and tests soared in popularity during the pandemic, when most countries were under strict lockdown and remote learning became the norm. The Duolingo English Test (DET) eventually became widely accepted by many colleges and universities in Canada, Britain and the U.S. as a language proficiency test for international students. In 2021, Ireland began accepting the DET as part of study visa applications.
In an e-mail, Duolingo’s Canada spokesperson Marlene Olsavsky said that the company was no longer in conversation with IRCC, and declined to elaborate on whether its lobbying efforts might resume.
For Hamdan Albuhaisi, a Palestinian citizen residing in the Gaza Strip, IRCC’s requirement that language tests have to be performed in person at a designated testing centre has affected his application for the EMPP program – and now become the subject of a judicial review in federal court.
Launched in 2018, the EMPP program was specifically designed to attract skilled immigrants who are designated as displaced persons or refugees by the UN Refugee Agency. Recently, Ottawa temporarily suspended the program, along with a number of other immigration streams, owing to mounting application backlogs. The EMPP stopped accepting applications at the end of 2025.
Mr. Albuhaisi is a UNRWA-registered refugee with a master’s degree in computing systems from Al-Azhar University in Gaza. He applied for Canadian permanent residency through the EMPP program in June, 2025, when it was still accepting applications. But he was ultimately rejected because he was unable to submit an accepted English language test, according to submissions made by his lawyer in federal court last year. He launched a judicial review of IRCC’s decision late last year, and also filed an appeal directly to IRCC on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
Mr. Albuhaisi, who is fluent in English and has worked for the United Nations for more than a decade, took the online Duolingo English Test and submitted its results to IRCC, court documents state, because no IRCC-approved English tests were available in Gaza. His DET score, when measured against the Canadian Language Benchmark, or CLB – a yardstick IRCC uses to determine language competency – far surpassed IRCC’s minimum standards for qualification.
Before the Israel-Hamas war broke out in October, 2023, there were two IELTS testing centres in Gaza, administered by the British Council. Those centres, a British Council spokesperson wrote in an e-mail, closed in October, 2023, and the only option for residents of Gaza is an online IELTS test – one that is not accepted by IRCC.
Kelly O’Connor, a Montreal-based immigration lawyer representing Mr. Albuhaisi, called IRCC’s decision “unreasonable” because it neglected to consider the conditions Mr. Albuhaisi was in, and the danger he and his family faced, living in Gaza. In March, 2024, 11 of his family members, including his eight-year-old daughter, were killed in an Israeli air strike, Ms. O’Connor said.
She also said the Canadian government should strongly consider accepting the Duolingo English Test under humanitarian and compassionate grounds, specifically in situations where an applicant meets all the other criteria for permanent residency, but simply has no ability to attend an in-person language test.
In an e-mail to The Globe, an IRCC spokesperson said they understand that accessing language tests may be challenging for certain applicants, but that proof of language abilities is an “important requirement for applicants to economic programs.”