Arrima Portal: How Quebec's Immigration Platform Works

Arrima is not an immigration program, and most of the confusion around it starts there. It is the online platform that Quebec's immigration ministry uses to receive files, and the program you are applying under is a separate question entirely. If you are aiming at permanent selection as a skilled worker, the program is the Skilled Worker Selection Program, known by its French acronym PSTQ. If you already have Quebec study or work experience, it may instead be the Quebec Experience Program. Both are filed through Arrima.

This page covers the platform itself: what you can do inside it, how to open an account, which deadlines run against you once you are in, and what the system does not do. For the wider picture of how the province selects its own immigrants, start with our overview of Quebec immigration programs.

What Is Arrima?

Arrima is operated by the Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration, referred to throughout Quebec's own material as the Ministère or MIFI. It launched in 2018 alongside Quebec's expression of interest system and has since absorbed most of the ministry's online transactions.

The closest federal comparison is the IRCC secure account rather than Express Entry. Express Entry is both a pool and a set of programs. Arrima is only the pipe. Quebec runs its selection under the Canada-Quebec Accord, which is why a federal Comprehensive Ranking System score has no bearing on anything that happens inside Arrima.

It is also worth understanding early that Arrima only carries you through the provincial half of the process. A successful application produces a Certificat de sélection du Québec, after which you apply separately to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for permanent residence. Ottawa still decides admissibility, and it does so outside this platform entirely.

What You Can Do in the Arrima Portal

Three types of user hold accounts: individuals, employers, and authorised representatives. Quebec currently accepts submissions through the platform for the Skilled Worker Selection Program, electronic document submission for students and foreign students, the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, collective sponsorship of a refugee abroad, Accompagnement Québec integration services, the Employer Portal, the comparative tool for diplomas obtained abroad, French learning services for workers during paid hours, and powers of attorney.

Employers use it for a different purpose. If you consent in the "Consent" section of your declaration, your profile becomes visible to Quebec companies searching the Employer Portal, and they may approach you directly about temporary or permanent roles.

Arrima Login and Account Creation

Opening an Arrima account costs nothing, and neither does filing a declaration of interest. Quebec is explicit that you do not need to pay anyone to do it.

Access runs through the Ministère's own service portal, where you create an account with an email address and password, accept the terms of use, and complete your identity and contact details. One detail matters more than it looks: enter your name exactly as it appears in your passport, because a mismatch between your account and your later application causes problems that are tedious to unwind.

Use a computer or tablet. The platform is built for desktop and is not a reliable way to complete forms or upload documents from a phone.

Why Arrima Is in French Only

This catches people out more than any other feature. Quebec publishes program pages on Quebec.ca in English, but Arrima itself operates in French, as do its tutorial capsules and its technical FAQ. Several documents the system relies on, including the List of Regulated Professions and the scoring grid, are published in French only.

Given that French proficiency is a selection requirement rather than a bonus in most Quebec pathways, this is less arbitrary than it first appears. It is still worth knowing before you sit down to complete a form on a deadline.

How to Submit an Arrima Declaration of Interest

To file a declaration of interest, you must be 18 or over, intend to live and work in Quebec in a job you are capable of doing, intend to work for a company you do not control, and intend to work in a sector that is not excluded. The excluded sectors are payday loans, cheque cashing and pawnbroking, and the production, distribution or sale of pornographic material and related services.

Arrima Declaration of Interest Deadlines

Two clocks begin the moment you touch the system, and they are not the same clock.

• Ninety days to submit. From the date you create a declaration of interest, you have 90 days to complete and submit it. After that it is deleted.
• Twelve months of validity. Once submitted, a declaration stays in the database for one year. It cannot be extended or renewed. If no invitation arrives, it lapses and you must create a new one, which is free. Your earlier information carries over, but you are responsible for reviewing it.
• Updates do not buy time. Improving your profile mid-year is worth doing, but it does not reset the 12 months.

Documents to Prepare Before You Start

You will be asked about your status, education, work history and intentions, and you must list every paid job and internship from the last five years, including compulsory internships completed as part of a degree, paid or not. You also provide details for an accompanying spouse and for your children, whether they are coming with you or not.

The documents worth assembling first are your passport, your French test results, your diplomas, employment certificates covering the last five years, a validated job offer if you hold one, and any assessment from the regulatory authority governing your profession. French test results must have been taken within the previous two years, which is the detail most likely to catch someone who tested early and waited.

A spouse can file a separate declaration of interest. If they do, each declaration must carry the other's number so the two are linked. Children under 18 cannot file their own and are included in yours.

How Arrima Invitation Rounds Work

Nothing about the invitation process is random, and Quebec says so directly. Invitations are issued stream by stream in a three-step sequence: the Ministère first identifies which of the four PSTQ streams a candidate belongs to based on their declared main occupation, then applies further criteria to target a specific profile, then invites the highest-scoring candidates within that group until it reaches its target number.

The published minimum score for a round is simply the score of the last person invited. It is a result, not a threshold set in advance, which is why comparing cut-offs across streams tells you very little.

Arrima Draws in 2026

Quebec published invitation rounds on January 29, February 26, March 19, April 30, June 4 and July 3 in 2026. Reading the published criteria rather than the headline numbers is more instructive, and one condition appears in every single exercise across every stream this year: the person invited was staying in Québec.

Candidates applying from outside the province can and do file declarations of interest. But on the 2026 record, presence in Quebec has been an applied invitation criterion rather than merely a scoring advantage. Anyone abroad building a strategy around Arrima should plan on that basis.

Volumes have also moved. The July 3 round was far smaller than earlier ones, consistent with Quebec's stated intention to reduce PSTQ invitations while the reopened Quebec Experience Program intake is running.

Responding to an Arrima Invitation

An invitation arrives as a message in your Arrima message centre, with an email telling you a message is waiting. Checking the message centre is your responsibility, and the email can land in a junk folder.

From the date of the invitation you have 30 days to do one of three things: accept it, decline it and ask the Ministère to keep your declaration in the database, or decline it and ask for the declaration to be removed. Silence is the worst outcome. If you do not respond within 30 days, your declaration becomes null and void and is deleted.

Submitting a Permanent Selection Application Through Arrima

Accepting the invitation opens the application for permanent selection, and a second message explains what to do. The deadline depends on your stream.

The longer window for regulated professions exists so you can complete the process with the professional body governing your occupation. Quebec advises against starting that process before you are invited, but it also warns that the year passes quickly and the timelines are outside its control.

Your declaration of interest data is copied automatically into the application, which is convenient and slightly dangerous. You are responsible for everything in the final submission, and providing false or misleading information can result in rejection and a five-year bar on subsequent applications.

Documents must be scanned in colour, compiled into a single PDF, and written in French or English or accompanied by a recognised translation. If your documents are rejected for format or completeness you get 60 days to fix them, after which the application is rejected outright.

Arrima Application Fees in 2026

Fees apply at the application stage, not before, and Quebec adjusts them every January 1. As of January 1, 2026, the examination fees for a permanent selection application are $940 for the main applicant, $201 for a spouse or common-law partner, and $201 for each dependent child. Payment is by credit card, in full, in Canadian dollars, and is non-refundable even if the application is refused. Confirm the current figures on Quebec.ca before you pay.

Using Arrima for the Quebec Experience Program

The PEQ was abolished on November 19, 2025 and reopened on July 2, 2026 for a temporary period ending in July 2028. Applications are submitted through Arrima, which is where the platform-versus-program distinction becomes practical.

A PEQ application is a direct application. You are not sitting in a pool waiting to be drawn, and there is no declaration of interest, no score and no invitation. You meet the criteria for an open intake period and you file. The first intake closes on October 31, 2026 and is restricted to people who already met the PEQ requirements on the day it was abolished. Using the same portal does not make it the same process, and a strong Arrima score does nothing for a PEQ file.

Arrima and the CAQ for Studies

Searches for "Arrima CAQ" usually come from students who have been told to use Arrima and cannot find the application form there. The form is not in Arrima.

An application for temporary selection for studies is completed on a separate Ministère application service. Arrima is where you pay the fee, which must be done within one hour of submitting the form, and where you afterwards upload your supporting documents within the deadline shown in your file. One point that surprises people: Quebec does not permit a representative to submit those study documents through Arrima on your behalf. Only you can do that.

What the Arrima Portal Does Not Do

• It does not score you before you file. Quebec has said a self-evaluation tool will be available, but at the time of writing it has not launched. Third-party calculators are estimates, not the Ministère's arithmetic.
• It does not give you status. A declaration of interest confers no right to enter, live or work in Quebec, and no protection if your temporary status expires while you wait.
• It does not grant permanent residence. The provincial certificate is one half of a two-stage process, and the federal application that follows is decided by IRCC.
• It does not reward paid representation. Quebec states that using an immigration professional brings no priority or special treatment. If you appoint one, you each need an account to create the mandate, and you can cancel it at any time.
• It does not promise a decision date. The six-month service commitment that once applied to some Quebec files is not currently in force as a general standard.

Common Arrima Mistakes to Avoid

The recurring problems we see are rarely about the platform's mechanics. They are about the decisions made inside it. Declaring a main occupation whose NOC code routes you into a stream you cannot realistically win. Letting a declaration expire at 11 months because nobody was watching the date. French test results that were valid when taken and stale by the time they mattered. A profile built for a candidate abroad in a year when every published round has required presence in Quebec. Temporary status that lapses during a long wait.

We assess which Quebec pathway you actually qualify for, check how your occupation and profile score against recent rounds, and say so plainly when the honest answer is that Quebec is not currently drawing candidates in your position. Where that is the case, we look at federal and other provincial options instead. Sepehr Falahati is a licensed immigration consultant with the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC/IRB, R533959).

To review your Arrima profile or work out which Quebec pathway fits your situation, book a consultation and bring your NOC code, work history, education details, French test results, and any Quebec study, work or family connection.

Quebec publishes the platform's scope on its Arrima online services page, sets out the declaration of interest rules on its expression of interest page, and publishes the criteria used in every round on its 2026 invitations page.

This page is general information, not legal advice. Quebec's immigration programs, fees, intake windows and invitation criteria change frequently, and figures cited here reflect the position as of July 2026. Confirm current requirements on Quebec.ca or with a licensed representative before you act.