Quebec Selects Immigrants Separately From the Rest of Canada

Every federal Express Entry draw excludes Quebec entirely, and it’s a deliberate structural fact rather than an oversight: Quebec selects immigrants separately from the rest of Canada, under its own accord with the federal government. Understanding that split early saves a lot of wasted effort later.

One province, a separate process

Most provinces run a Provincial Nominee Program that sits alongside Express Entry — a province nominates, and the federal government then handles admissibility and grants permanent residence. Quebec has no PNP. Instead, under the Canada–Quebec Accord, Quebec sets and runs its own economic immigration selection criteria from the ground up. A nomination from Ontario or BC means nothing for Quebec, and a Quebec selection certificate means nothing for the rest of Canada.

What a CSQ is, and what it isn’t

Working out what a CSQ is and what it is not matters before anything else: a CSQ — Certificat de sélection du Québec — is Quebec’s equivalent of a provincial nomination. You need one before you can apply to IRCC for permanent residence through the Quebec route. What it isn’t is a grant of PR by itself; IRCC still does its own admissibility, security and medical checks afterward. The CSQ is Quebec saying it selected you. IRCC still has to say yes.

How the pool actually works

Having the Arrima expression of interest explained for newcomers matters because it’s the entry point to that pool: Arrima is Quebec’s online expression-of-interest portal, where you declare your profile and the ministry draws candidates from it, broadly similar in shape to how Express Entry’s own pool works, but entirely separate from it. Being in the Express Entry pool does nothing for your Arrima standing, and vice versa.

The one active permanent programme

PSTQ, the only permanent Quebec skilled worker programme currently running, replaced Quebec’s older system. It’s short for Programme de sélection des travailleurs qualifiés, and 2026 draw activity has targeted candidates with validated job offers or advanced French ability, with recent invitation thresholds running in the 580–620 range on Quebec’s own points scale, a scale that isn’t comparable to the CRS directly.

A validated job offer earns real points — 30 within Montreal, 50 outside it — but isn’t mandatory. Candidates with strong French, a Quebec diploma, or Quebec work experience, and stated intent to settle outside Montreal, can score competitively without one.

What fills the gap Express Entry leaves

The short answer to why Quebec is missing from federal draws is French: the province is built around it, in a way no other province is. Without functional French, Quebec is realistically closed to most applicants regardless of qualifications — this is the single most common misconception among South African enquirers about the province, and it shows up in where SA immigrants actually end up: Quebec holds just 1.9% of the SA-born population in Canada, strikingly low against its roughly 23% share of the national population. Ontario, BC and Alberta together hold around 89%.

That gap isn’t really about opportunity in Quebec. It’s about French, and about the fact that most South Africans arrive without it.

One programme worth knowing is dead

Quebec’s PEQ — the Programme de l’expérience québécoise, both its Graduate and Temporary Foreign Worker streams — ended on 19 November 2025. Any content, agency marketing or forum advice still promoting it as a live route is out of date; if you see it recommended anywhere now, treat that as a signal the source hasn’t been updated recently.

The practical takeaway

If you have genuine, functional French and Quebec appeals to you specifically, PSTQ and Arrima are worth investigating on their own terms — a separate research project from Express Entry, not an add-on to it. If French isn’t part of your plan, the rest of the country’s PNP and Express Entry system is where your actual odds lie.

Our Provincial Nominee Programs guide covers the province-by-province route in general — worth reading alongside this one, since Quebec’s system genuinely doesn’t fit inside it.