The Government of the Province of Quebec — which has the power to select immigrants destined for Montreal or another city within the Province of Quebec — has recently published draft legislation to amend its existing immigration rules. The impact of these changes on the current Quebec Selection Criteria is difficult to assess at this early stage, because the legislation does not stipulate the number of “points” that will be allocated to the various factors by which applicants will be assessed.

Nonetheless, the Quebec government stated, in the preliminary comments which accompany the draft legislation, that one of the overall goals of the changes is to favour francophone immigration to Québec. Thus, more weight will be accorded to French language ability, as well as to post-secondary studies undertaken primarily in the French language.

The preliminary commentary further states that the new guidelines will give “students, temporary workers, investors, entrepreneurs and self employed persons more possibilities to have their applications processed in Québec. It raises the scores required to pass the preliminary selection examination.
It limits the cases where a selection interview is compulsory. It amends the order of priority in which applications for a selection certificate are to be processed and it no longer requires that foreign nationals intending to practise a profession whose practise is exclusive obtain an attestation from the professional order stipulating that they would be eligible to become members of the order or obtain a permit to practise.”

While the full impact of the proposed changes remains to be seen, all Quebec-destined applicants who qualify under the current selection criteria would be wise to submit their applications sooner rather than later.