Quebec Update: No More “Shopping Around” for Processing Posts

The Quebec government has recently issued a statement aimed at Canadian permanent resident applicants who intend to settle in the Province of Quebec.

According to the statement, all applications for Quebec Certificates of Selection (these are the Certificates issued by the Quebec immigration authorities to applicants "selected" by Quebec for immigration to Quebec) filed on or after March 1, 1999 by Skilled Worker/Business Class applicants residing outside the territories which are served by the particular Quebec processing post to which the applications were originally submitted, will be transferred to the appropriate Quebec processing post. This new policy also applies for applications submitted in Montreal. In other words, Quebec applicants will no longer be able to "shop around" for a Quebec immigration processing post (which is a practice currently popular among applicants residing in territories served by Quebec processing posts that have slower than average processing times).

Workers and students residing in Quebec on a temporary basis will still, however, be entitled to submit their applications to Quebec processing posts in New York or Mexico.

The Quebec authorities also announced that the government is undertaking new measures in the face of the massive influx of new applications submitted under the Investor program prior to the restructuring of that program on April 1, 1999. Given that the vast majority of these applications were submitted by Asian applicants, these files will all be transferred to the Quebec processing post in Hong Kong, which post has the appropriate expertise to deal with these applications. The Quebec authorities will announce shortly specific measures that will be undertaken to process this huge number of applications out of the Hong Kong post within reasonable delays.