Photo by Cecile Hournau on UnsplashSelecting candidates to immigrate to Canada originates from a set of immigration instructions from the minister and the established immigration levels set by the federal government. With the Express Entry system, an online database of eligible candidates, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has been able to invite top-ranking individuals, including French-speaking candidates, to apply for permanent residence.
In recent years, there has been an increase in invited French-speaking applicants wanting to immigrate to provinces outside of Quebec. Despite this, Canada still needs to reach its target of 4.4% French-speaking immigration admissions by the year 2023.
On October 27, 2020, the Canadian minister of IRCC, the honourable Marco E. L. Mendicino, P.C., M.P., announced changes in the points awarded to French-speaking Express Entry candidates. That is, French speakers and bilingual candidates will gain more points for their language ability. In short, the change will see an increase from 15 to 25 points for candidates that speak French and from 30 to 50 points for those that are bilingual (English-French). For the complete news release go to the IRCC website.
This is great news for candidates that have strong French speaking skills who are interested in immigrating to Canada. With this announcement, it is likely that admissions of French speakers outside of Quebec will continue to increase, helping Canada achieve that goal.
It is important to note that Quebec establishes its own immigration levels as per the Canada-Quebec Accord. For this reason, the target mentioned refers to admissions outside of Quebec.
Go to News for more immigration updates.
Markus Winkler 
Anastase Maragos 
