Ministry of Immigration, Francisation and Integration

The ministry was founded on November 5, 1968, a decision made by then Premier Jean-Jacques Bertrand. The reasons for the creation of the ministry were: to prevent French from losing its dominant position in Quebec society as the birth rate of French Canadians fell, and to attract immigrants from the French-speaking world to Quebec.[2]

At its beginnings, the ministry opened immigration offices only in France and Italy. It also established a network of seven language orientation and training centers, whose goal was to teach French to newcomers.[2]

On February 20, 1978, Canada and Quebec sign an immigration agreement giving Quebec decision-making power to choose its independent immigrants, who would then still have to be approved by Ottawa.[2]

On February 5, 1991, the Canada–Québec Accord relating to Immigration and Temporary Admission of Aliens was concluded, giving Quebec more power in the selection of immigrants by offering federal transfers of funds for integration of these, and guaranteeing Quebec an immigration rate proportional to its demographic weight in Canada.[2]

It provides a variety of programs for immigrants and immigrant communities in the province, and is a successor to previous agencies such as the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.

The Minister of Immigration and Cultural Communities oversees the department as a member of the Executive Council of Quebec. The current minister is Simon Joli Barrette.

Immigration to Quebec is a two stage process which has uncertainties and long waiting times at both stages. The time delay to obtain a CSQ for regular skilled worker was around 2 years. Once a candidate obtain a CSQ, the federal stage process will take 2 years or more as the Quebec government has reduced the immigration levels by 20%[7] in 2019.

So a total waiting time of 4 years is to be expected if you are immigrating to Quebec as a regular skilled worker. This is in comparison to Express Entry system which is followed by the rest of Canada where the applicant need to wait only 4-6 months to get a permanent residency in Canada. Because of these delays and uncertainty for their future in Quebec, skilled foreign temporary workers who are already in Quebec are quitting their jobs and leaving the province to elsewhere in Canada and skilled immigrants immigrate to other provinces in Canada rather than choosing Quebec as their destination of choice.[6]

The Quebec Selection Certificate, also known as CSQ, is the Certificate of Selection provided to the applicants who want to immigrate to the Quebec Province of Canada. The CSQ certificate is then issued on the basis of the applicant's qualifications, work experience, language ability (French and English) and a few other factors.[8] The candidates must then submit a permanent residence paper based application to the Federal government and wait approximately 2 years to obtain a permanent residence.

Putting an end to the old fully paper based immigration application process, Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion of Quebec introduced[9] an online system called Mon projet Québec (now decommissioned[10]) where applicants can register and provide details such as education, work experience and language proficiency (both English and French) by which the immigration officer's can calculate the points to select candidates based on the selection grid.[11]

The Mon projet online web application system has been suspended by the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion of Quebec and a new online system based on the expression of interest rather than first come first serve has been introduced. All the applications in Mon Projet system which are pending to be approved will be cancelled and the application fees will be refunded. This action of the ministry is widely criticized and an injunction has been filed and approved by the Quebec Superior Court.

The new online system is called Arrima[12] . The CAQ government wants to reform the immigration system of Quebec with a possibility of selecting immigrants based on values test and other factors like knowledge of French[13]. The immigration bill (Bill 9[14]) is passed as law as of June 16 2019. The bill is "An Act to increase Québec’s socio-economic prosperity and adequately meet labour market needs through successful immigrant integration" is headed by Simon Jolin-Barrette[15] .

After the passing of Bill 9, the foreign skilled workers who were already present in Quebec with a validated job offer was invited to apply for a CSQ through the Arrima Portal. The immigration minister claims that the new applications will be processed within 6 months.

The immigration department of Quebec has suspended the PEQ category of immigration system. The PEQ category is a fast track system where the candidates are issued a CSQ within a month if they pass a French test at B2 level and either obtained a graduate degree in Quebec or a minimum of 2 years of work experience.[16]

The Ministère announced that this suspension is temporary till November 1st 2019 and the basis of this decision is to give priority to skilled workers who occupy a job in Québec during this period.

As of January 14, 2019 , the below tables show the number of Quebec Selection Certificates issued by the Minister as per the document obtained by Access to Information[17].

The current processing time for applications at Sydney CIO is 21 months for the Quebec Skilled Worker program. This is in addition to the processing time for a Quebec Selection Certificate from the Quebec provincial government. The below table summarizes the processing time for two stream of Quebec Skilled Workers, PEQ[18] and Regular Skilled Worker streams.

Waiting time to obtain a Canadian permanent residency if you are a temporary foreign worker in Quebec or if you are planning to immigrate to Canada by following Quebec immigration system (PRTQ category) is currently averaging 4.6 years. For PEQ category, the average delays are 1 month for a CSQ and 21 months at the Federal level, averaging 2 years. If you are immigrating to Canada elsewhere using Express Entry, the waiting time is 6 months only.

*A temporary foreign worker in Quebec or anyone outside Canada planning to immigrate to Quebec is not eligible to apply for Express Entry because Quebec do not follow Express Entry system.

• Immigration to Canada
• Canada-Quebec Accord
• CIC Check Processing Times
• Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion

• Official website