quebec immigration processing

Silverdragon102, BSN · Feb 18, 2015

Have you sorted out registration to be a nurse? You are going to find it easier to find local classes that offer French

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Feb 18, 2015

Welcome back!

A few things have changed with immigration to Canada over the last few months. There has been a very tight quota placed on temporary foreign workers and all permanent resident applicants must be screened by the federal government. This process too has changed significantly. I expect that you would be applying under the Express Entry program, based on your professional qualifications. Applicants will have their documentation examined, points will be warded based on a large number of factors and those with the highest number of points will be offered eligibility. One requirement that isn't optional is that applicant must either already have a bona fide (in writing) job offer from a Canadian employer or be registered with the Job Bank. Your application then goes into a selection pool for a maximum of one year. During that year as permanent resident spots open up there will be a draw from among all eligible applicants in the pool. If your name is selected you'll receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA) which will move you along to the final steps. A couple of things to keep in mind... Getting into the express pool is no guarantee that you'll be issued an Invitation to Apply. If you're in the express pool for a year without receiving an ITA you have to start the process again. If you DO receive an ITA, you have 60 days to complete and submit your final application for PR. If you miss the deadline, you'll be rejected. AND even if you are issued an ITA, you still have to meet all the eligibility and admissibility requirements for immigration into Canada. You can read more about how the ITA decisions are made here: Ministerial Instructions

IELTS Academic is required everywhere in Canada. Quebec is more concerned with proficiency in French, but I expect the OIIQ knows that many nurses are using Quebec as their portal of entry to Canada and that many of them have no interest in staying in Quebec any longer than they have to. So they do award points to applicants who meet IELTS academic criteria required in other provinces. The thing is, there are very few areas of Quebec where you can expect to be able to function without a solid ability to speak, read, write and understand French.

The only way to get a nursing job anywhere is to find out who is hiring and apply. You can look at hospital websites to find this information. A quick search of hospitals in the Montreal area showed me only one full time position and a number of casual positions. Rural nursing jobs will require extensive French language skills. The provincial government offers classes for newcomers to learn French (as long as you're not a Canadian from another province) and there's Rosetta Stone software for self-teaching.

One last thing... PLEASE compose your posts to allnurses.com in professional English. Text-speak and unapproved abbreviations are not permitted.