Over the past few months, the Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration put in place several measures to strengthen French-speaking immigration, including the addition of a criterion on knowledge of French to obtain an invitation to submit an application for permanent selection under the Regular Skilled Worker Program (RSWP).
Since June 2023, all persons must have declared a level of knowledge of spoken French of level 7 or higher according to the Échelle québécoise des niveaux de compétence en français (PDF 4.94 Mb) (Québec scale of French proficiency) to obtain an invitation under the RSWP. Persons holding a validated job offer outside the territory of the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) could still, temporarily, be invited to submit an application for permanent selection without having to declare their level of French.
As of the announcement of these new measures, the Ministère invited those holding a validated job offer outside the territory of the CMM to take the required steps to declare their level of knowledge of French.
Invitation exercises in 2024
During the first invitation exercise in 2024, all persons with a validated job offer outside the CMM indicated in their declaration of interest dated January 3, 2024 will be invited to submit an application for permanent selection. Persons submitting a validated job offer outside the CMM in their declaration of interest after this date will also be invited, but only if they have a knowledge of spoken French of level 7 or higher according to the Québec scale.
Before undertaking a validated job offer process, employers are invited to verify with the person they wish to recruit that they have an adequate level of French to be invited to submit an application for permanent selection.
