Quebec hosts the year's largest Arrima draw

The first batch of invitations released by Quebec’s Arrima platform

On August 12, Quebec held its largest draw for the year 2021, inviting 515 immigration applicants to apply for permanent residence. The newest set of invites has been made public today. The MIFI (Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation, et de l'Intégration) has invited candidates who has submitted an Expression of Interest (EOI) via Arrima (Quebec's online registration portal). It is in line to apply for the Quebec Regular Skilled Worker Program, which is also known as the Quebec Skilled Worker Program or QSWP.

An Expression of Interest allows candidates to tell Quebec's Ministry of Immigration, that they want to be considered for a Quebec Selection Certificate, also known as CSQ. Candidates with CSQ can apply for permanent residency with the federal government.

This is the first batch of invitations for QRSWP immigration applicants after the implementation of a new categorization system. Invited candidates were further divided into these categories:

§  Candidate’s  occupation lies under one of the targeted occupations, with at least 591 points on the Arrima (the new expression of interest scoring methodology that it implemented in July) expression of interest bank

§  Candidates with legitimate employment offer outside the Montreal Metropolitan Area

§  Candidate lives in Quebec as a diplomat, consular officer, United Nations representative, or representative of any international body

§  Candidate is self-employed

This fresh draw is Quebec's sixth of the year. Since the beginning of the year, the province has held invitation rounds on a monthly basis. The province has now invited a total of 1,060 applicants to apply for permanent selection. The province of Quebec manages the province's immigration programs, which use different selection criteria and methods than Canada's immigration programs. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) makes the final judgement on immigration applications. 

Know more about the Arrima Expression of Interest Pool

Arrima was launched in 2018 to manage the pool of QRSWP candidates and to streamline an application intake procedure that was previously based on a "first-come, first-served" approach. Candidates of 18 years and older who want to immigrate to Quebec through the QRSWP must first construct an EOI profile on Arrima, following which they are placed in a pool of candidates and assigned a score based on a set of criteria.

Get a Free Express Entry Assessment

A new system of points was introduced by Quebec, in the month of July. It was done so to evaluate the profiles of immigration candidates under the Arrima expression of interest pool. There are up to 1,320 points available, 580 for human capital variables and 740 for criteria linked to Quebec's labour market demands. French language proficiency, bilingual ability, age, job experience, and education are all human capital requirements.

Work experience in a profession where there is a scarcity, schooling in Quebec, work experience in the rest of Canada, and employment possibilities inside and beyond the Greater Montreal area are all labour market factors. This final criterion is important since employment offers outside of the Montreal metropolitan region might be valued up to 380 points, whilst offers in Montreal are only 180 points. The most qualified individuals are then invited to apply for permanent residence by MIFI, and candidates typically have 60 days to submit a comprehensive immigration application, pay the appropriate costs, and provide all other required papers. Quebec intends to award CSQs within six months to invited applicants who have supplied all needed paperwork.

Immigration Levels Expected

Both the Quebec administration and the federal government have committed to boosting immigration objectives in the future years. Quebec expects to invite nearly 47,500 new immigrants by the end of the year 2021. Meanwhile, Canada expects to welcome nearly 400,000 immigrants through its different immigration schemes in the next year.