By Associated Press

Pennsylvania State officials have stopped some foreign-language versions of the written portion of the driving test after deciding that cheating posed a safety concern.

But advocates say the decision to stop offering Chinese, Russian and Vietnamese versions of the test is proving an obstacle to immigrants establishing themselves in a new country.

"They can spend hours and hours studying and still flunk because they can? overcome the language," said Sharon Wong Tong, owner of Chinatown? Fidelity Driving School, which draws most of its students from the Chinese and Vietnamese communities.

"These are working people," Tong said. "Having a license is vital to their living."

Kwai Sang Chen, a restaurant worker who emigrated from Hong Kong 17 years ago, has been trying to get a Pennsylvania driver? license for 10 years. He has taken the written portion 10 times but failed due to his poor English.

This summer, after learning that the state had started offering tests in Chinese, he thought he would have a better chance but the Chinese version was not available by the time he went to take the test.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), which began offering Spanish tests in 1994, added the three new foreign-language tests (along with Serbo-Croatian) in August 1999 at the urging of refugee-advocacy agencies.

But only Serbo-Croatian and Spanish versions remain available statewide. The Russian and Chinese versions were pulled during the summer, and the Vietnamese test was thrown out earlier this month in the Philadelphia area.

"It is not a position we have taken lightly," said PennDOT driver? license division manager Joy Gross. "We know that there? a need out there but we also have to find the best way to ensure the safety of the driving public."

The English and Spanish tests are computerized, allowing 18 questions to be randomly selected from a database of 300 and reducing the probability that any two tests will be exactly alike.

But only four versions of each test were produced in Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese and Serbo-Croatian. And soon after they were introduced, FBI agents on an unrelated investigation found out that answer keys to the Russian, Chinese and Vietnamese tests were being sold on the streets.

Local officials said they did not know how many people had cheated, but the pattern was extensive enough to warrant canceling the tests.

"As soon as we found out, we pulled the tests," PennDOT spokesman Anthony Haubert said. "We want to make sure every driver is a safe driver, regardless of his origins."

Gross said the department was looking at ways to create computerized foreign-language exams, but any changes would probably have to wait until 2002, when the state? contract with the testing company expires.

Advocates, however, argue that a driver? license often means the difference between unemployment and a steady paycheck for newcomers, since many work night shifts or odd hours in factories, landscaping businesses, warehouses and restaurants.

Kwai Sang Chen, 48, works six days a week in a Chinatown restaurant and spends his one day off at Fidelity Driving School, trying to learn enough English to pass the test. Since his wife can no longer drive because of poor eyesight, she can no longer give him a ride.

"He feels so upset. He feels no hope," said Yong Lu, Chen? instructor.

More than 80 of her students were waiting to take the Chinese test and dozens had banked on taking the Vietnamese version before both were pulled.