Quebec selects its own immigrants. Different programs, a different points grid, and French at the centre of almost every route. We work the Quebec system as it is in 2026, not as it was two years ago.
The PEQ closed on 19 November 2025 and most people assume it is gone. It is not. Quebec reopened it on 2 July 2026 for a two-year period, but applications are only being accepted until 31 October 2026. Eligibility is frozen as it stood on 19 November 2025, so you qualify based on the diploma or work experience you held on that date.
Quebec has said further intake periods may open depending on the volume received by 31 October 2026. That is a possibility, not a commitment, and we would not advise planning around it.
Four questions. We check you against every Quebec route that is open right now, including the PEQ window that closes on 31 October 2026.
Where are you now?
Being in Quebec already changes which doors are open, and is worth a great many points.
What is your spoken French?
Quebec measures French on its own 12-level scale. Level 7 is roughly B2, or 400 out of 699 on the TEF. There are no points for English at all.
What kind of work do you do?
Quebec sorts occupations by skill level, and regulated professions follow their own track.
What is your connection to Quebec?
A Quebec diploma is worth up to 200 points on its own, and Quebec work experience up to 160.
Quebec does not use the Canadian Language Benchmarks. It has its own twelve-level scale, and almost every program threshold is expressed in it. Enter your test score to see where you actually sit and what it opens.
Enter your score out of 699 for a single skill.
Results must be less than two years old when you apply.
Quebec assesses four skills separately: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Most programs set a spoken requirement and a lower written one, so run this for each skill. Only results from France Education international and the CCI Paris Ile-de-France are accepted. Points shown are per skill and are reduced to a maximum of 40 each if you are accompanied by a spouse.
The PSTQ replaced the old skilled worker program in November 2024 and is now the standing route to a Quebec selection certificate. You file a free expression of interest in Arrima, and Quebec invites from the pool in monthly rounds. Each stream is invited separately with its own cut-off score.
Professional and managerial occupations that do not require a licence to practise. This is the largest stream and the one most people mean when they say PSTQ.
Technical, trades and service occupations. The French bar is lower, but the Quebec experience requirement makes this effectively a route for people already working here.
For occupations governed by a Quebec professional order. Nurses, engineers, doctors, teachers and accountants apply here rather than through Stream 1.
The only Quebec economic route with no French requirement at all. Rounds are very small, typically between 2 and 25 invitations.
Quebec publishes every round. The pattern in 2026 is impossible to miss: invitations in Streams 1 and 3 fell roughly tenfold from July onward. If you are building a plan on the volumes seen in the first half of the year, rebuild it.
| Round | Stream 1 | Stream 2 | Stream 3 | Stream 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 January 2026 | 1,094 | 683 | 750 | 20 |
| 26 February 2026 | 907 | 495 | 1,141 | 6 |
| 19 March 2026 | 893 | 509 | 1,118 | 2 |
| 30 April 2026 | 983 | 506 | 1,058 | 8 |
| 4 June 2026 | 1,094 | 756 | 677 | 22 |
| 3 July 2026 | 74 | 289 | 131 | 7 |
| 30 July 2026 | 105 | 296 | 110 | 12 |
| 27 August 2026 | 87 | Not published | 109 | 21 |
Stream 1 cut-off scores. Each round runs several exercises, each with its own occupation list and its own cut-off, so a single round produces several different scores.
One exercise on 4 June 2026 stands out: Quebec invited 239 candidates in health, education and early childhood at a cut-off of just 379 points, against 677 in the same round for the general exercise. Sector priority can matter more than raw score.
Figures taken from the Quebec government invitation pages, read on 28 August 2026. Ties are broken by the date and time your expression of interest was filed, so an early submission is worth something even at an identical score.
The Quebec grid runs to 1,400 points, and it is built differently from Express Entry. There are no points for English at all. More than half the available points reward an existing connection to Quebec, which is why recent invitation rounds have been dominated by people already living there.
French across four skills is worth up to 50 points each, dropping to 40 each if a spouse comes with you. Age peaks at 120 points between 20 and 30 and reaches zero at 45. Education adds up to 130 and total work experience up to 70.
This is the larger half of the grid and the reason Quebec history matters so much. A Quebec diploma is worth up to 200 points on its own and Quebec work experience up to 160. Working in an occupation Quebec has flagged as in deficit adds up to 120.
Counted within the priorities block. Residence outside the Montreal metropolitan community is worth up to 40, working outside it up to 60, and studying outside it up to 20. A validated job offer is worth 50 outside Montreal against 30 inside.
Your spouse contributes here: their French across four skills, their age, their Quebec work experience, their education and any Quebec diploma. A study stay without a diploma adds up to 30, and a relative in Quebec 10.
Two shortcuts are worth knowing. Holders of a valid Quebec professional order permit are deemed to have spoken level 7 and written level 5 without sitting a test. And a French baccalaureat, a Belgian CESS or a Swiss certificat de maturite is credited as level 9 across all four skills.
Based on the ministerial order of 20 June 2025 and its erratum, as updated on 26 June 2026. Quebec reserves the right to add or tighten criteria in any round.
Quebec sponsorship is a two-step process found nowhere else in Canada. You apply to IRCC as usual, and separately sign an undertaking with the province, which assesses your finances under Quebec law. Since July 2026 there is also a cap and a queue.
Quebec runs a queue. Your place in it depends on the date of your IRCC sponsor eligibility letter, or your acknowledgement of receipt if you are sponsoring a spouse already in Canada.
The Quebec undertaking is a contract with the province, separate from your federal sponsorship. It cannot be cancelled once the sponsored person holds permanent residence.
Separation, divorce, the sponsored person becoming a citizen, moving to another province or your own finances collapsing do not end it.
This surprises people. A straightforward spousal sponsorship carries no income requirement in Quebec.
For 2026, a single sponsor with no dependants needs $29,642 gross, rising to $40,015 for a household of two and $56,819 for four, plus a further amount for the people being sponsored.
Under the Canada and Quebec Accord, Quebec chooses its own economic immigrants and Ottawa grants the status. Understanding which government owns which decision saves a great deal of confusion.
Before anything else
Sit a TEF or TCF and find out where you really stand. Almost every Quebec route turns on this, and a candidate at level 5 has a materially different set of options from one at level 7. We score you on the 1,400 point grid before you spend money on anything else.
Free, same week
Filing costs nothing and needs no representative. You have 90 days to complete it once started, and it stays valid for 12 months without renewal. Ties in a draw are broken by the date and time you filed, so there is no reason to wait.
Monthly rounds
Quebec invites separately by stream, and each round runs several exercises with their own occupation lists and cut-offs. Rounds in the second half of 2026 have been much smaller than the first. This is the step nobody can guarantee.
30 days to accept, 60 to file
You accept within 30 days, then file within 60. The fee is $940 for the principal applicant plus $201 each for a spouse and every dependent child. You also sign a financial self-sufficiency contract and complete the Quebec values attestation.
Currently processing late 2025 files
The selection certificate is Quebec saying yes. As at July 2026 the ministry was working through applications received in October and November 2025. A CSQ less than two years old also opens an open work permit from abroad, so you can arrive and start working while the federal step runs.
The federal step
Quebec selects, Canada admits. You file a separate permanent residence application with IRCC, which handles medical, security and criminality admissibility. Quebec cannot grant permanent residence and IRCC cannot second-guess Quebec on selection.
The PEQ closed in November 2025 and quietly reopened in July 2026 for a limited window. Plenty of websites still describe it as closed, and plenty of others never noticed it closed at all. We read the government notices, and we date every figure on this page.
Most Quebec refusals and dead ends trace back to a language level that was assumed rather than tested. We would rather tell you in week one that you need another six months of French than take a fee for an application that cannot succeed.
We are regulated by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants, which means a public register, mandatory insurance and a complaints process. Quebec also has its own rules on who may represent you, and we work within them.
Quebec suits people who want to build a life in French. If your French is limited and your timeline is short, another province is often the better answer, and we will say so even though it means less work for us.
Open, but only briefly. The Quebec Experience Program closed on 19 November 2025 and reopened on 2 July 2026 for a two-year period running to 2 July 2028. Applications are only being accepted from 2 July to 31 October 2026.
The important detail is that eligibility is frozen as it stood on 19 November 2025. For the graduates stream you must have held a qualifying Quebec diploma on that date. For the temporary worker stream you must have had two years of Quebec work experience in a skilled occupation by then. Anyone who graduated after 19 November 2025 cannot use this window.
One requirement has been dropped: graduates no longer need to have studied in French. The French test requirement itself remains, at spoken level 7 and written level 5.
Quebec has said further intake periods may open depending on volumes. That is a possibility, not a promise.
For almost everything, yes. Quebec awards no points at all for English, and there is no route that treats English as a substitute.
The thresholds are spoken level 7 for the PEQ, PSTQ Stream 1, and all four business programs. Stream 2 and the technical side of Stream 3 accept spoken level 5. An accompanying spouse needs level 4.
The single exception is PSTQ Stream 4, for exceptional talent, which has no French requirement. It is also tiny, with rounds of between 2 and 25 invitations, and requires a recognised achievement or a positive opinion from a government partner in research, the arts, sport or a strategic sector. It is not a realistic plan for most people.
From 17 December 2028, temporary foreign workers applying for a Quebec acceptance certificate after three years in the province will also need spoken level 4.
Level 7 on the Quebec scale is roughly B2 on the European framework. In test terms that is 400 out of 699 on the TEF, TEFAQ or TEF Canada; 400 out of 699 for TCF listening and reading, or 10 out of 20 for TCF speaking and writing; or a pass at DELF B2.
Levels 7 and 8 share the same score band, so reaching the bottom of the B2 range is enough to satisfy a level 7 requirement. Level 9, which is C1 or 500 and above, earns extra points rather than unlocking new programs.
Quebec assesses listening, speaking, reading and writing separately, and most programs set a spoken requirement with a lower written one. Use the converter above for each skill. Results must be less than two years old when you apply.
You can, but be realistic about the odds in the skilled worker streams. The Quebec points grid puts more than half its 1,400 points into rewarding an existing connection to Quebec. A Quebec diploma alone is worth up to 200 points and Quebec work experience up to 160.
In practice, nearly every Stream 1 and Stream 2 exercise in 2026 has invited people who were already living in Quebec, held a Quebec diploma of at least one year, and worked in a priority occupation such as health, education, early childhood, engineering or the construction trades.
The routes that genuinely work from abroad are the four business programs, which accept applications at any time with no cap, and Stream 3 for regulated professions where your training has been recognised by a Quebec professional order.
No, and this catches people out. The Certificat de selection du Quebec is Quebec saying it has selected you. Permanent residence is granted by IRCC in a separate application, which handles medical, security and criminality checks.
Quebec cannot grant you status, and Ottawa cannot overrule Quebec on selection. You need both.
A useful side effect: a CSQ less than two years old makes you eligible for an open work permit from abroad, so you can move to Quebec and start working while the federal application is processed. As at July 2026, Quebec was working through selection applications received in October and November 2025.
You still need a Quebec acceptance certificate for studies, applied for online through Arrima, costing $135 from 1 January 2026 and taking about 29 business days at present.
What has changed is that Quebec now caps how many study applications each institution may generate. The current order sets a maximum per institution for each one-year period from 17 December 2025 to 16 December 2027, applying to vocational, college and university studies. Once an institution reaches its limit, further applications are rejected and the fee refunded.
Some applicants are exempt, including those continuing the same program at the same institution, asylum seekers, and dependent children of a temporary worker or student. Primary and secondary studies are exempt automatically.
Graduating no longer leads straight to the PEQ unless you already held your diploma on 19 November 2025. For everyone else the route is the PSTQ, where a Quebec diploma is still worth up to 200 points.
It is harder than it was. Quebec suspended intake of certain labour market impact assessment applications for jobs in the Montreal and Laval regions, and that measure now runs to 31 December 2026. It catches any application where the offered wage is below the federal threshold, currently $36 an hour, including renewals for workers already employed.
There is a second layer. Since 10 April 2026 the federal refusal to process measure also applies in Montreal and Laval because the metropolitan unemployment rate is at or above 6%, and Quebec states the federal measure currently prevails there.
Several sectors are exempt, including agriculture, construction, food processing, primary and secondary education, and health and social services. Jobs outside Montreal and Laval are unaffected, as are wages at or above the threshold.
Work permits that do not need a labour market assessment are not caught at all. That includes intra-company transfers, spousal open work permits, post-graduation work permits and CUSMA professionals.
You sign an undertaking with the Quebec government in addition to your federal sponsorship application, and Quebec, not IRCC, assesses your financial capacity.
Since 2 July 2026 there is also a cap of 15,700 undertaking applications to 30 June 2028, split between 13,300 for spouses and partners and 2,400 for parents, grandparents and other relatives. A queue schedule determines when you may file, based on the date of your IRCC eligibility letter. Applications must be mailed, one per envelope.
Two things surprise people. A straightforward spousal sponsorship carries no income test in Quebec. And the undertaking cannot be cancelled once the sponsored person has permanent residence, regardless of separation, divorce, their becoming a citizen, either of you moving to another province, or your finances deteriorating.
Dependent children and orphaned minor relatives are exempt from both the cap and the queue.
Quebec suits people who intend to build a life in French. If you are already at level 7, or willing to get there, Quebec offers real advantages: business programs with no intake cap at a time when several provinces have closed theirs, a family reunification route that does not income-test spousal sponsorships, and a distinct selection system that rewards people who commit to the province.
If your French is limited and your timeline is short, another province is usually the better answer. Express Entry and most provincial nominee programs operate in English, and no amount of professional experience compensates for a missing French test result in Quebec.
We are happy to say Quebec is not right for you when that is the honest answer. Recommending a route that cannot work helps nobody.
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