Quebec unveils its new immigration reforms

Details of the measures announced, which should make immigration a way to improve the standing of French in Quebec and ease the labour shortage.

The plan is to propose significant changes to the immigration system so as to move toward a fully French-speaking permanent economic migration. The key element of this reform on French is that oral, and sometimes written, knowledge of French will now be required of people applying for immigration under the skilled worker program and under the business immigration programs as well.  

For Quebec, the point is to make sure these people are able to work and to live in French so as to support their full integration. This proposed reform also aims to make the economic immigration programs more agile in order to respond better to the range of labour needs. Quebec hopes in this way to cast a wider net in terms of the kinds of occupations that can qualify for permanent immigration.  

The approach to selecting skilled workers is changing outright. Until now there was a selection grid where immigrants had to accumulate points in the hope of gathering enough to be selected. It was possible, however, to be selected without knowing French. With this reform, Quebec is scrapping the points grid and replacing it with criteria that absolutely must be met in order to be selected (age, work experience, type of diploma, and so on).  

Note the creation of 4 separate streams to reflect the complexity and diversity of the labour market. One of the streams will offer a bridge so that workers who are often temporary, less qualified and less educated, but just as essential, can qualify as permanent immigrants.  

For the investor program, conditions are being put in place to ensure that the people who qualify really do settle in Quebec in French, which was very rarely the case. There are changes to the entrepreneur program as well. A new stream is being created for them to allow businesses to be taken over by people from an immigrant background, in order to address the question of entrepreneurial succession and also to secure the future of Quebec businesses.  

As for the PEQ, the criteria for access to the PEQ-graduate stream will be reviewed. First, the requirement to have completed a year of work after graduating is being dropped. The requirement to be employed at the time the application is filed is also being dropped.