French citizens considering Canada – question about Québec vs federal immigration

[pxmme]

Hi everyone,


My girlfriend and I are French citizens from France, and we’re considering moving to Canada. Our plan would be to start with IEC or a closed work permit, and ideally settle permanently later on.


We noticed that at the federal level, Express Entry seems quite accessible for French speakers, especially with the French-language draws.


Naturally, we looked into Québec, since we’re French and very attached to the language and culture. We’d genuinely love to live there and contribute to its francization efforts.
But from what we’ve read, immigrating long-term to Québec as French nationals seems surprisingly difficult, and we’ve seen many recent cases of French citizens having to leave the province.


We’re a bit confused: we expected Québec to be the easiest place in Canada for French people, but it seems to be the opposite. Are we missing something?


Because of this, we’re also considering Vancouver, Calgary, or possibly Toronto, especially places where my girlfriend’s background (Master’s in French literature) could be valued.


Thanks a lot for your insights !

 

[steaky]

Hi everyone,


My girlfriend and I are French citizens from France, and we’re considering moving to Canada. Our plan would be to start with IEC or a closed work permit, and ideally settle permanently later on.


We noticed that at the federal level, Express Entry seems quite accessible for French speakers, especially with the French-language draws.


Naturally, we looked into Québec, since we’re French and very attached to the language and culture. We’d genuinely love to live there and contribute to its francization efforts.
But from what we’ve read, immigrating long-term to Québec as French nationals seems surprisingly difficult, and we’ve seen many recent cases of French citizens having to leave the province.


We’re a bit confused: we expected Québec to be the easiest place in Canada for French people, but it seems to be the opposite. Are we missing something?


Because of this, we’re also considering Vancouver, Calgary, or possibly Toronto, especially places where my girlfriend’s background (Master’s in French literature) could be valued.


Thanks a lot for your insights !

Canada is primarily in recession. That's one reason why you seen people leaving.

 

[pxmme]

Canada is primarily in recession. That's one reason why you seen people leaving.

Thanks for your reply.

Sorry if my original post wasn’t clear enough. What I was specifically referring to are French citizens who wanted to stay in Québec but couldn’t, because their work permits weren’t renewed or because they were unable to obtain Québec permanent residency, despite having worked there legally.

I remember reading on Reddit about a French couple in a situation very similar to ours. They obtained federal permanent residency through Express Entry (French-language draw), which allowed them to stay in Canada, but after two years working in Québec under IEC, they had to leave the province. Québec’s own permanent residency program (I believe it’s the PSTQ, though I might be mistaken) didn’t give them enough points to realistically ever be selected.

That’s the kind of situation we’re trying to understand and avoid.

 

[CanGoldDigger]

You can get a PR via Express Entry (French draw) and live anywhere you want, including Quebec.

 

[armoured]

You can get a PR via Express Entry (French draw) and live anywhere you want, including Quebec.

I'm not an expert on this but I think there are some potential issues which need to be looked at carefully, i.e. can cause some problems - albeit temporary usually - with Quebec. That said, you're right in the main that at minimum, settling/trying in some other province for some relatively minimal period of time (eg six months) before returning to Quebec should resolve even those.

I'd be happy to just be wrong on this - overall agree it is not a problem.

 

[armoured]

I remember reading on Reddit about a French couple in a situation very similar to ours. They obtained federal permanent residency through Express Entry (French-language draw), which allowed them to stay in Canada, but after two years working in Québec under IEC, they had to leave the province. Québec’s own permanent residency program (I believe it’s the PSTQ, though I might be mistaken) didn’t give them enough points to realistically ever be selected.

It can be highly specific to circumstances and specific programs, so don't want to generalize too much.

But in case you describe above, once you get the federal PR, you will have the right to live anywhere in Canada, i.e. do not need to be selected by Quebec to remain in Canada.

As I alluded to in other post: there are /potentially/ some issues with simply remaining in Quebec. Mostly to the point that you may need to specify you are /not/ going to settle in Quebec (immediately anyway). While enforcement is limited and there are few mechanisms to even attempt to enforce it, obviously need to avoid blatantly ignoring that. (I've heard comments that some things like registering for health insurance in Quebec can be a problem, for example, in some specific cases).

But there are lots of perfectly legitimate ways: for example, residing in another province while working in Quebec is fine (eg Ottawa/Gatineau) - it's 'residence' not place of employment. Or move somewhere else for six months or (better) a year and back to Quebec. Obviously for some families esp with kids this is not realistic and far from perfect.

Hopefully this nonsense (on the part of Quebec) will be changed sooner or later, but I don't hold out great hopes that eg the pending election will do so.

 

[canuck78]

Hi everyone,


My girlfriend and I are French citizens from France, and we’re considering moving to Canada. Our plan would be to start with IEC or a closed work permit, and ideally settle permanently later on.


We noticed that at the federal level, Express Entry seems quite accessible for French speakers, especially with the French-language draws.


Naturally, we looked into Québec, since we’re French and very attached to the language and culture. We’d genuinely love to live there and contribute to its francization efforts.
But from what we’ve read, immigrating long-term to Québec as French nationals seems surprisingly difficult, and we’ve seen many recent cases of French citizens having to leave the province.


We’re a bit confused: we expected Québec to be the easiest place in Canada for French people, but it seems to be the opposite. Are we missing something?


Because of this, we’re also considering Vancouver, Calgary, or possibly Toronto, especially places where my girlfriend’s background (Master’s in French literature) could be valued.


Thanks a lot for your insights !

Not sure a masters degree in French literature will help secure a job anywhere in Canada unless you can get a job/work as a teacher. Certainly a need in most of Canada for French elementary and secondary school teachers.