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Quebec is the one province of Canada that picks its own economic immigrants. If you want to live and work there, the routes you have read about for the rest of Canada mostly do not apply. Quebec runs its own selection system, with its own names, its own French requirement and its own online platform. This post explains that system in plain words.
You are thinking about Quebec, as a skilled worker, as a business person, or first as a student or temporary worker, and you keep meeting French acronyms nobody explains. If Quebec is not on your list, our Canada hub covers the rest of the country.
Under an agreement with the federal government, Quebec chooses who it selects for economic immigration, and Canada then decides whether to grant that person permanent residence. So immigrating to Quebec is a two-step process: first you apply to Quebec, and only after Quebec has selected you do you apply to the federal government, as IRCC's page on Quebec-selected skilled workers describes. IRCC is Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the federal immigration department.
Two consequences follow. Express Entry, the federal online system that ranks and invites skilled workers, is not the route into Quebec. And the Provincial Nominee Program, through which the other provinces nominate immigrants, does not include Quebec either.
The CSQ is the Certificat de sélection du Québec, the Quebec selection certificate, issued when Quebec has selected you under one of its permanent programs. Holding a CSQ does not make you a permanent resident. As Quebec's page on what happens after the certificate puts it, once you have obtained your CSQ, you must continue your immigration process with the Canadian government.
The PSTQ is the Programme de sélection des travailleurs qualifiés, the Skilled Worker Selection Program: Quebec's main permanent route for people who want to settle in the province and work. According to Quebec's program page, the path is: submit an expression of interest, receive an invitation, submit an application for permanent selection, and, if it is approved, receive the CSQ.
Which stream you fall into depends mostly on your main occupation. Quebec sorts occupations using the NOC, the National Occupational Classification (Canada's catalogue of jobs), and a level called FEER, Quebec's name for a job's training and responsibility level (the federal version is TEER; see our NOC and TEER post). The full conditions are on Quebec's requirements page.
All four streams also require you to be 18 or older, to obtain the values attestation described below, and to sign a financial self-sufficiency contract (a commitment to support yourself and your family after you arrive).
Here are the levels exactly as the requirements page states them. Quebec measures French on its own scale, the Échelle québécoise des niveaux de compétence en français (the Quebec scale of French proficiency levels), not on the NCLC scale the federal programs use. Our post on language tests, CLB and NCLC explains the federal scale; do not assume the numbers line up.
Our post on French-language routes to Canada covers the federal routes that reward French outside Quebec.
Arrima is Quebec's online platform for the expression of interest, the first step of the PSTQ. Quebec's expression of interest page states that filing is free, that you have 90 days to complete and submit a started expression of interest before it is deleted, and that a submitted one stays valid for one year (12 months); it cannot be extended, but you may file a new one.
Submitting an expression of interest is not applying. The Ministry, MIFI (the Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration, Quebec's immigration department), periodically invites people from the pool. Quebec's invitation page describes three steps: keep the profiles that match a stream and meet its requirements; apply extra criteria based on labour market needs in Quebec; then rank the rest by score and invite the highest until the target for that round is reached. The scoring factors named include knowledge of French, age, work experience, education, a validated job offer and a Quebec diploma.
An invitation arrives in your Arrima message centre. You have 30 days from the date of the invitation to accept it; otherwise your expression of interest becomes null and void and is removed.
Quebec requires most permanent applicants to obtain the Attestation d'apprentissage des valeurs démocratiques et des valeurs québécoises, the attestation of learning of democratic values and Quebec values: proof that you have learned about the values in Quebec's Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. According to Quebec's attestation page, you obtain it by completing an online assessment or by attending the Objectif Intégration information session in Quebec. Accompanying family members need one too, with exceptions the page names. It is valid for two years, and you have a maximum of 60 days to obtain it after the Ministry requests it.
Quebec also selects business immigrants through three permanent programs listed on Quebec's business immigration page: the Entrepreneur Program, to start or acquire a business in Quebec; the Self-Employed Worker Program, to work for yourself; and the Investor Program, to settle in Quebec and invest there. Each ends in a CSQ, and each has its own conditions, including French, on the pages linked from that hub.
The CAQ is the Certificat d'acceptation du Québec, the Quebec acceptance certificate: Quebec's approval for you to study or work in the province for a limited time, needed before the federal government issues the study permit or work permit itself.
For students, Quebec's page on the conditions to study lists them: admission to an educational institution in Quebec, proof you can pay tuition fees, transportation costs and basic needs, the processing fee, health and hospital insurance for your whole stay, and study as your main activity. After the CAQ, you apply to the federal government for a study permit.
For temporary workers, Quebec's page on the Temporary Foreign Worker Program states that you must obtain authorization from both the provincial and the federal governments. The employer usually needs an LMIA first (a Labour Market Impact Assessment, the federal check that no Canadian was available for the job; see our LMIA post). The same page announces a French condition for workers who have accumulated three years of work stay in Quebec: level 4 spoken French on the Échelle québécoise, applying to applications for temporary selection sent as of December 17, 2028.
Our report assesses Quebec's routes as their own pathways, separate from Express Entry and from the Provincial Nominee Program: the four PSTQ streams, the entrepreneur, self-employed worker and investor programs, and the CAQ for studies and for temporary work. Its checklist carries the selection certificate and the values attestation as steps to complete, and the questionnaire asks about your French so the Quebec pathways can be assessed against it. The report explains where you stand against each requirement; it never tells you that you qualify, because only Quebec and then IRCC can decide that.
See how your whole profile reads across Canada, Quebec included. Start the free questionnaire: it shows a free summary, and lets you unlock the full report with the Quebec pathways when you are ready.
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