Immigration to Quebec - Difficult?

Question

I'm interested in possibly relocating to Quebec. I am a US citizen currently finishing a Master's degree in France. I'm completely bilingual French/English and am looking to possibly work in Quebec, Canada. My degree is in Media studies. How difficult would is it to be selected for immigration to Quebec?

Answer 1

I sort of disagree with Soda Popinski because s/he is missing one vital information required for immigration to Quebec. Quebec and Canada have an agreement where the former permits the province to have signification immigration decision powers. So Quebec decides and grants CAQ (certificat d'acception du Québec) to students and CSQ (certificat de sélection du Québec) to immigrants. It's important to get a CSQ first before the immigration process can go further with Immigration Canada. The requirements from Quebec as a skilled worker (I assume) is to meet certain points level granted based on your education (a master degree from France is a huge plus), job skills, language skills (knowing French is a huge plus), and few others. If you meet the requirement if points, you could get the CSQ.

In addition to the information provided by Soda Popinski, you must consult the Immigration Quebec website for further information.

http://www.immigration-quebec.gouv.qc.ca...

This website will give you information what to do and when to apply to Immigration Quebec and when to apply to Immigration Canada during your applications to immigrate to Quebec.

Good luck!

Oh yeah, Quebec accepts a lot of immigrants (it has the second most reception rate after Ontario). About 50,000 per year out of a total of 250,000 immigrants to Canada (Ontario takes in over 100,000 and BC takes in about 45,000. The rest of the provinces take the rest). The province wants to increase its quota to 55,000 within the next few years. You'll have a good chance.

And yes, Canadian French is somewhat different, but the language of the media is Standard French and you won't have a problem using your France Standard French in that field. You'll only need to change some words to Canadian French versions (like courriels for e-mails, stationnement for parking, etc.) But in everyday Quebecois, it's quite marked and informal, but generally...you'll be ok understanding them. You'll just need to learn how to modify your accent and vocabulary to some degree!

Answer 2

As far as immigration goes there's no difference between Quebec and the rest of Canada.

Canada has a rather effective skilled worker program so that people with desirable skills can get work and residency permits in Canada; I do not know if media studies qualifies, but if you're younger than 50, speak both the official languages and have good academics, you sound like a good candidate.

I'd suggest you take a look at this for starters: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/s...

And peruse the CIC web site, more generally.

Immigration to Canada isn't ridiculously tedious and time-consuming like immigration to the US is.

And since you're currently in France, you could pay a visit to the Canadian embassy in Paris in order to talk to somebody and get some information. They also have consulates in Lille, Lyon, Nice and Toulouse if any of those are closer to where you are in France. Though it looks like the consulates do not provide any visa services, so you may be stuck with having to go to Paris anyway if you want to talk to Canadian officials in person.

http://www.international.gc.ca/canada-eu...

As a side note, if you're familiar with French, I figure you know that Canadian French is somewhat different from European French, especially in terms of pronunciation, but also in terms of vocabulary and sometimes even grammar. It's kind of like the differences between American and British English. If you've never heard Canadian French you're in for a little surprise! Since I'm a native French speaker, I thought I'd point that out.