Hello All,
I've been the silent observer of this forum for some time and now it's the time to provide you all with some useful information on my Quebec interview that was conducted in Istanbul recently. I appeared for the interview with not much of optimism as I have almost zero French knowledge although I have taken one month French beginner course before I applied for quebec immigration in Nov 2010. After this course I could not concentrate much on French due to busy work schedule even though I knew its one of the most important factor in obtaining Quebec immigration.
I had 61 points without counting french language point before the interview, requiring 2 additional points in order to qualify so instead of focusing on french language i spent last few days concentrating on potential questions that i could be asked during the interview. Thanks to some wonderful participants of this forum who shared their interview experiences.
My interview last for bit more than an hour, all in English
with few embarrassing moments
when I was asked few questions in French where I was not able to understand a word. Officer informed me that I will not get any points for French which was very obvious although I claimed 2 points when i submitted the application and was hoping to improve french skills as you get enough time from submitting the application till you receive interview call.
Interview time was 11:00am and I reached Hilton ParkSA around 9:30am. At the lobby I see many people waiting for their interview mostly from Iran having nursing as their profession. Everyone was busy reviewing their notes and reading stuff about their interview, it was tensed environment which made me bit nervous specially when one of the couple was called for the interview and they had to leave their young kid outside and this poor kid kept crying until his parents came back while I was there with one 3.5 year old and one 4months old. Things get even worst When one applicant Waiting in lobby has taken a picture of immigration officer from her mobile and immigration officer(old lady) started shouting at her and made her delete the picture and asked her to leave immediately. While waiting for almost 2 hours I saw not a single rejection and everyone coming out from their interview with selection certificate in their hands which was encouraging.
Finally around 11:30am my name was called by young male immigration officer, I replied in English and latter realized that I should have replied in French anyway I informed him about my two kids and he seems ok to have them with me and my wife during the interview. He started the interview by introducing himself, explaining why we were called for the interview and he will be accessing my language skills both english/french, quebec knowledge and by the of this interview he will inform us of his decision of accepting or not accepting us for Quebec. He asked us if i was able to understand him as this was in French, my reply was in negative so he started explaining again in English. Interview was very simple, below are the details in the same sequence as it was asked
1) Passport for all
2) marriage certificate
3) Original educational certificates
4) Original experience letter from previous employers
5) My initial four years of experience was from US so tax returns from all these years have been reviewed thoroughly.
6) introduction Letter from my current employer with salary and joining date.
7) Recent Salary slips
8) Spouse educational certificate
9) Few basic questions were asked in French which I could not understand and he informed us for not getting any French language point.
10) Why do you want to immigrate to Quebec
11) What do you know about Quebec
12) you have good professional experience so what if you get a job in Ontario after you land in Quebec.
13) why you have chosen Montreal
14) Name some cities of Quebec
15) suburbs of Montreal, name few
16) housing situation in Montreal both rent or if I choose to buy a house
17) recent happening in Quebec, to check how informed I'm about the place I'm migrating.
18) previous quebec visits if any, I visited Montreal couple of times but only for few days so no points were awarded which again was obvious
19) any research I have done on job market related to my area of expertise in quebec and how confident I am for these jobs
20) any family or friends I currently have in Quebec
He emphasized lot on French and concerned about me not knowing french. He did mention that you may be able to survive and become successful in terms of income without french but socially its not possible. After this he took some time working on his computer and gave me his final words "Congratulation, you have passed the interview although you are very near to the threshold of passing points." My total points were 64
.
We spend around 20 minutes after this where he explained me the next steps and what should I do in improving the language and how important it is to have good knowledge before going to Quebec.
In a nutshell my advice for applicants who are on interview waiting list is
1) Prepare to face French questions even if you claimed to be low beginner and don't expect to have more than 3 interview points if you have little or no French language skills.
2) Read a lot about Quebec and its cities, it gives immigration officer lot of confidence in you.
3) I was able to answer every single question in good detail except French but still manage to get only three points in the interview whereas my target was for two
in the end what matter is the golden number of 63.
4) I can tell you for sure from my experience that French is important in Quebec immigration but NOT mandatory. So anyone who is able to obtain a minimum of 60 as a couple without French should apply but make sure you need to be very well prepared for the interview.
Again thanks to all of you for providing all the useful information on this forum though it is my first ever post on any forum, I hope it provides some useful information.
Good luck to all.
Regards
Ali Khan.
