Quebec Caps Economic Immigration

On March 21, 2012, the Government of Quebec announced that it is capping the maximum number of applications that it will receive in its economic programs.  The programs that will be subject to a cap are the Quebec Investor Program, the Quebec Entrepreneur Program, the Quebec Self-Employed Worker Program, and the Quebec Skilled Worker Program .  The introduction of the caps follows a dramatic increase in applications to these programs following the implementation of caps to corresponding federal programs.

The caps will last from March 21, 2012 to March 31, 2013.

During this time, the maximum number of applicants that can apply to immigrate to Quebec in the business stream are:

• Investors – 2700
• Entrepreneurs and Self-Employed Workers – 215

Meanwhile, for the purpose of determining the cap, the Quebec Skilled Worker Program has been divided into three groups.

There will be no limit on the number of people who can apply to the Quebec Skilled Worker Program – Group 1.  To be eligible for Group 1, an applicant must be (please note that most of the following requirements contain specific additional provisions that are beyond the scope of this bulletin):

• A temporary foreign worker in Quebec who meets the requirements of the Quebec Experience Class (“PEQ”);
• A foreign graduate in Quebec who meets the eligibility requirements of the PEQ;
• A foreign student in Quebec who is eligible to apply for a selection certificate under the regular skilled workers program;
• A participant in Quebec under an International Experience Canada program who is eligible to apply under the regular skilled worker program;
• A recent graduate in an area of training that is eligible for 12 or 16 points under the Quebec Skilled Worker Program selection grid;
• In possession of an employment offer made by a Quebec employer which has been validated by the Ministère de l’Immigration et des Communautés culturelles;
• Be someone who has an application for permanent residence in Canada in processing that Citizenship and Immigration Canada has determined is admissible for processing; or
• Be a former Canadian citizen residing in Quebec who is submitting an application in Quebec.

Only 14,300 people will be eligible to apply to the Quebec Skilled Worker Program – Group 2.  To be eligible for Group 2, an applicant must be:

• A recent graduate in a field of training that is eligible for 6 points under the Quebec Skilled Worker Program selection grid; or
• A recent graduate from a Quebec institution.

Group 3 will consist of individuals who used to be eligible for the Quebec Skilled Worker Program but do not fall under Group 1 or Group 2.  The Government of Quebec will not accept applications from these individuals this year.

More information about the cap can be found on the Government of Quebec website here: http://www.immigration-quebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/informations/applications-receipt.html

Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about this change.

The Quebec government has data regarding the amount of people applying to immigrate to Canada under the Quebec Immigrant Investor Program.  The data contains interesting trends about who is using the program.

The first thing to note is the dramatic rise in the number of people applying to the program from June 2010 to January 2011, followed by the collapse in the number of applicants.  Those familiar with Canadian immigration knew that the Quebec from benefited greatly from the close of the Federal Investor Program in 2010.  This chart confirms that.  It will be interesting to see whether there will be a similar increase in the number of applicants now that there is a moratorium on Federal Investor applications.

The second thing, which was obvious to everyone familiar with immigration, is how dominant Asia and the Middle East are in terms of source countries for investor immigrants.

What would be especially interesting to know would be the distribution of investor immigrants among the facilitator banks.  However, to my knowledge, such data has never been made publicly available.

Recently, I wrote about how Citizenship and Immigration Canada was becoming increasingly stringent with Provincial Nominee Program applicants who could not convince Port of Entry Officers that they intended to reside in their nominating province.  On December 23, 2010, CIC released Operational Bulletin 256. OB 256 makes it clear that CIC will also be getting tough on Quebec Entrepreneurs who do not reside in Quebec for at least one of three years after immigrating, as is required under the program. 

The Quebec Entrepreneur program is the Quebec alternative to the Federal Entrepreneur program.  To be eligible for the program, applicants must have net assets of at least $300,000 that were legally obtained.  As well, they must have two years experience in running a business that was acquired during the five years preceding the date of application.  They must have owned 25% of the business.  

Upon arriving in Quebec, applicants are required, for at least one year during the three years after obtaining permanent resident status to create or acquire, in whole or in part, an agricultural, commercial, or industrial business established in Quebec where the applicant will hold at least 25% of the capital equity with a value of at least $100,000.  During this year, the Applicant is required to participate in the daily operations of the business. 

Some people who immigrated under the program never intended to reside in Quebec.  They may have established a business there, and even employed Quebec permanent residents or citizens.  However, when it came to managing the business, their involvement was either passive, or was done from another province.  Indeed, Immigration Officers in provinces other than Quebec have noted that Quebec-selected entrepreneurs admitted to Canada under thes Quebec-specific conditions have reporting for monitoring with the Quebec-specific conditions at Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) inland offices outside of Quebec.

According to OB 256, where an entrepreneur selected by Quebec is reporting to a CIC inland office outside of Quebec and has not complied with Quebec’s conditions, an inadmissibility report should be prepared detailing the allegation of non-compliance.  A determination will then be made as to whether the report should be referred to the Immigration Division for an admissibility hearing, which can lead to deportation.

For those that think that the obvious solution to this problem is to simply mail the  compliance-application to a Quebec office, OB 256 also instructs officers in CIC-Quebec to forward the file to the province where the applicant is living. 

Those who immigrated under the Quebec Entrepreneur should not think that all is lost.  There are ways to address this situation.  However, such people should be aware that they cannot simply assume that there will be no consequences for ignoring the conditions that were imposed as a requirement of immigrating.