On October 27, Quebec announced new rules and maximum number of applications to be received under three permanent immigration pilot programs, Refugees Abroad Program (Collective Sponsorship), and the Entrepreneur and the Self-employed Worker program. Following are the new changes from official website of Quebec Immigration:
Refugees Abroad Program (Collective Sponsorship):
The maximum number of applications to receive will be 825 for all sponsors. A new period for submitting undertaking applications for refugees to the Quebec immigration department has been set for January 18 to February 16, 2022, for organizations (legal persons) and groups of 2 to 5 natural persons.
As was the case in spring 2021, if the number of admissible applications submitted exceeds the maximum number of applications to receive, a random draw will be held under the supervision of an external auditor and in the presence of witnesses.
Legal persons can submit an undertaking application again since the MIFI has put in place measures to reinforce the application review process.
Quebec Entrepreneurs and Self-Employed Workers Program:
For these two programs, candidates who declare having knowledge of oral French at level 7 or higher can submit an application without taking into account the maximum number of applications to receive. The maximum number of applications under Entrepreneur and Self-employed Worker programs is the same as last year:
- Entrepreneur Program: 25 applications for non-Francophone candidates in Stream 1 (Innovation) and the application intake for Stream 2 (Start-up/acquisition of a business) is suspended until December 31, 2022
- Self-Employed Worker Program: 50 applications for non-Francophone candidates.
Quebec Permanent Immigration Pilot Programs
The application intake period is set for November 3, 2021 to December 31, 2022, or until the maximum number of applications to receive has been reached for:
- the pilot program for food processing workers: 600 applications
- the pilot program for orderlies: 600 applications
- the pilot program for workers in artificial intelligence (AI), information technologies and visual effects (IT-VE):
- 300 applications in the AI Stream, including a maximum of 150 non-Francophone candidates
- 300 applications in the IT-VE Stream, including a maximum of 150 non-Francophone candidates
Quebec Immigration Targets For 2022:
Today, Quebec announced the targets for immigration in 2022. It plans for the admission of 49,500 to 52,500 immigrants in 2022, all categories combined. Province will also attempt to a catch-up of 18,000 admissions to reach the admission levels that were not attained by the federal government in 2020 due to the health crisis. During the elaboration of the Québec Immigration Plan for 2021, an additional 7,000 admissions were included to attain a portion of the 18,000 admissions that were not realized in 2020. It is presently estimated that the federal government will not manage to catch up on all of the admissions planned for 2021.
