Quebec Versus Ontario Sponsorship

[mmhughes]

I’ve been living in the UK for nearly five years and I will be marrying my British lover of over 4 years in a few weeks. Things are now getting really tough in the UK financially and quite frankly I am getting fed up and I am more homesick than ever. Not to mention our company is facing another round of redundancies soon and no other engineering firms are looking for other people. Pretty grim, eh? I want to go back to Montreal where I went to university, which is also a city both my fiancé and myself absolutely love. However, I am not sure how easy it will be to sponsor him from Quebec. Currently his French is quite basic, but is really keen to learn. And I have so much confidence that he’ll grasp the French language fairly quickly. I just recently learned that we will go through Quebec Immigration rather than Canada. So here are a few questions:

1 – Is it easier to sponsor him from Quebec or Ontario?
2 – Will it be more difficult to sponsor him if he is not a fluent French speaker?
3 – Is immigrating to Ontario and then eventually moving to Montreal a good way to get around this issue?

Also, I am a bit confused with the whole sponsorship to PR process. My fiancé is a trained arborist (including in the utilities field) and he will want to work fairly soon after coming to Canada. Let’s say Quebec immigration accept his sponsorship application. Will he be able to work after that? Or will he have a difficult time in obtaining is PR due to the language issue?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

[Leon]

The difference between sponsoring from Quebec vs. from another province is that Quebec makes you get their approval first. Since you are not even living in Canada right now, it makes sense to start sponsorship from the UK before you move. Do not bother with Quebec. Tell them you want to live somewhere else. Once he gets his PR, you can go land in Toronto, then move to Quebec and he could work right away.

 

[BeShoo]

It's not really "Quebec instead of Canada". It's just that Quebec Immigration has to approve of the sponsor and applicant. For a spousal sponsorship, the federal government approves the sponsor, then some papers (with an additional $250 application fee) go to Immigration Quebec. After that, the applicant's portion is processed at a federal CIC office either inside or outside Canada, as usual.

In most cases, the approval of the sponsor and applicant by Quebec in a spousal application seems to me little more than a formality. Quebec has strict income requirements, but spousal/partner applications are exempt from those. One difference is that the applicant has to agree to the common values of Quebec society (such as repecting the equality of men and women, being opposed to racism, etc.) and the applicant must agree to integrate into Quebec society and must agree to learn French. ("I declare that... I want to learn French, if I do not speak it already.") The Quebec government offers French courses in various configurations which are free to new immigrants. They will even pay an allowance and bus money to people who agree to attend full-time French courses (once they are approved).

 

[iarblue]

You want to know which is better go into the feburary thread and ask those boys there are three of them in their from Quebec and they are having a hell of a time.I had my answer from cic 1.5 months before these guys.

 

[BeShoo]

You want to know which is better go into the feburary thread and ask those boys there are three of them in their from Quebec and they are having a hell of a time.I had my answer from cic 1.5 months before these guys.

Well, I read that and it seems that the main issue is with customs holdups, rather than with Quebec MICC itself. Added to that, there is the understandable impatience with the entire process. There is no doubt that approval by Quebec is an extra stage and it does take extra time. You have to be patient, which is much easier said than done.

 

[mmhughes]

Thank you everybody for your responses. They were very helpful.

 

[Carlo]

I am a Quebec resident, born in Canada and my wife is an Ecuadorian citizen. I want to apply as a sponsor from outside Canada but I don't want to be a Quebec sponsor. We want to go to Ontario. Do I have to apply as a Quebec sponsor? or can I avoid that by saying that we are moving to Ontario? I really need to know so I can start the process. I really am in the dark here and it would be greatly appreciated if I could get a clear response.

 

[RobsLuv]

Well, I read that and it seems that the main issue is with customs holdups, rather than with Quebec MICC itself. Added to that, there is the understandable impatience with the entire process. There is no doubt that approval by Quebec is an extra stage and it does take extra time. You have to be patient, which is much easier said than done.

It takes, on average, about 6 more weeks to immigrate to Quebec. The CSQ is processed in between the sponsor's approval and the start of the applicant's overseas ap. If the applicant actually has to agree to learn French, I don't really think they follow up on that as a requirement. I have a friend who successfully immigrated to QC and she hasn't ever mentioned anything about having to learn French.

I don't think it's a good idea to just pretend that you're going to immigrate to another Province if you actually plan to settle in QC. In fact, because you are sponsoring while you are living outside Canada, you are going to have to provide proof that you intend to resettle in Canada with job offers or housing arrangements. That will be nearly impossible to do for some other Province if you're actually going to Quebec. Either tough it out with the QC process and take the little bit of extra time and expense to be able to settle where you want, or plan to settle first somewhere like Ontario, and then move to Quebec later on.

 

[Carlo]

I am a Quebec resident born in Canada and I came back to Ecuador to see her again. I have been here from February until now and just now decided to get her residency done. I want to be with her until the end of the process, so I wanted to apply from outside of Canada. Can I do this? I mean apply as a sponsor with her from outside Canada? I am an Ecuadorian citizen as well.

 

[BeShoo]

If the applicant actually has to agree to learn French, I don't really think they follow up on that as a requirement. I have a friend who successfully immigrated to QC and she hasn't ever mentioned anything about having to learn French.

Well, it's not as if you'll be deported if you didn't learn French. You only have to "intend to learn French." The fact is that French is the everday language of most Quebecois and you're always going to feel like an outsider if you don't know any French. Quebec doesn't want outsiders living within its borders. They want immigrants to actually become part of Quebec society. For example, trying to find which aisle the item you want in a grocery store is located in is easier if you know it in French. Quebec requires that signs be written in French. If there is wording in another language (such as English) it has to be second and smaller. Some stores have only French signs, while others have French/English ones. Any road signs with words on them are in French only (car pool lane, merge left because this lane is ending, no stopping Monday to Friday, bridge closed for the next 11 months, etc.)

Besides that, it's really a negative when searching for a job in Quebec if you don't know French.