Quebec Experience Program (PEQ): Reopened for 2026

The Quebec Experience Program is open again, but not in the form most people remember and not for everyone. Quebec abolished the PEQ on November 19, 2025, then reversed course and reopened it on July 2, 2026 as a temporary, time-limited program that is scheduled to close permanently on July 2, 2028.

The immediate point: the first intake period closes on October 31, 2026, and it is open only to people who were already eligible on the day the program was abolished. If that describes you, this is a narrow window to secure a Certificat de sélection du Québec and move toward permanent residence. SEP Immigration reviews whether your dates and documents actually meet the November 2025 cutoff, prepares the Arrima submission, and handles the federal stage once a CSQ is issued. If you fall outside this intake, the rest of this page sets out your realistic alternatives.

Where the PEQ Stands Right Now

Quebec has been direct that this is a transitional measure rather than a change of policy. The Skilled Worker Selection Program, known as the PSTQ, remains the province's long-term economic immigration pathway. The PEQ reopening exists largely to address the position of people who had organized their studies or careers around the program before it disappeared with no transitional measures.

Who Can Apply in the First Intake

This is the part that decides whether the rest of the page is relevant to you.

The first intake accepts applications only from candidates who already met the PEQ eligibility requirements as of November 19, 2025. Your diploma had to be obtained, or your qualifying work experience completed, by that date. Applications are assessed against the criteria that were in force when the program was suspended, not against any newer standard.

If you became eligible after November 19, 2025, you cannot apply now. A second intake period is expected between November 1, 2026 and June 30, 2028, but Quebec has not published its criteria or its opening date, and has said it will decide based on the volume received in the first period.

Quebec has not capped the first intake, so every eligible application filed before October 31 will be processed. The province has estimated it may receive 8,000 to 12,000 applications in these four months.

The Two PEQ Streams

Quebec Graduates

The Diplômé du Québec stream is for people who completed a qualifying credential at a Quebec institution. Broadly, the qualifying credentials are a Quebec bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree, a technical Diploma of College Studies, or a Diploma of Vocational Studies of at least 1,800 hours.

• Study location. You must have completed more than half of the program in Quebec.
• Recency. The credential must have been obtained within the three years before you apply.
• French. Level 7 oral and level 5 written on Quebec's scale.
• Status. You must hold valid temporary status in Quebec.

Reporting on whether this stream also requires a period of skilled work in Quebec after graduation has been inconsistent, and the requirement has changed more than once since 2019. Confirm your own position against Québec's current published criteria before you file, because this single point decides eligibility for many recent graduates.

Temporary Foreign Workers

The Travailleur étranger temporaire stream is for people already working in Quebec. The core requirements as they stood when the program closed were:

• Work experience. At least 24 months of full-time skilled work in Quebec in a TEER 0, 1, 2, or 3 occupation, completed by November 19, 2025.
• Current employment. You must be working full time for a Quebec employer in a TEER 0 to 3 occupation when you apply, with valid work authorization.
• French. Level 7 in oral comprehension and oral production. There is no separate written requirement for this stream.
• Employer relationship. You cannot hold direct or indirect authority over the business employing you.

Part-time hours worked during your studies do not count toward the 24 months. That catches out a lot of former students who assume their campus and part-time work adds up.

The French Requirement

French is a hard gate, not a scored factor. Without the required level, no amount of work experience or education will make an application succeed.

The benchmark is level 7 on the Échelle québécoise in oral comprehension and oral production, roughly equivalent to B2. Graduates additionally need level 5 in writing. An accompanying spouse or common-law partner generally needs level 4 oral. Accepted tests include TEF Canada, TCF Canada, TEFAQ, TCFQ, and the DELF and DALF diplomas.

Test dates fill up, and results take time to arrive. With an October 31 deadline, booking a test in September is leaving it very late.

How to Apply

1. Confirm you were eligible on November 19, 2025. Check your diploma date or the end date of your qualifying work experience against that cutoff.
2. Sit your French test if you do not already hold a valid result at the required level.
3. Create an Arrima account with the Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration. Applications are online only.
4. Complete the correct form for your stream, either the graduate or the temporary foreign worker application for permanent selection.
5. Gather your evidence. Diploma and transcripts, or employment letters setting out duties, dates, hours, and salary for every position counted, plus pay records, work permits, French results, passport, and proof of Quebec residence.
6. Submit and pay the fees before October 31, 2026. Processing starts only once Quebec confirms a complete application with fees and supporting documents.

One common misunderstanding is worth clearing up. PEQ applications are submitted through Arrima, but the PEQ is a direct application program, not a draw. You are not waiting to be invited from a pool the way PSTQ candidates are. Submitting through the same platform does not make it the same process.

Keeping Your Status While You Wait

Quebec has confirmed that the six-month processing commitment that applied before the program closed will not be reinstated, and it has not published a replacement service standard. Applications filed in 2026 may well be decided in 2027.

You are required to hold valid temporary status in Quebec throughout, and to renew it if it expires while you wait. If your post-graduation work permit or work permit is approaching its end date, deal with that before it lapses rather than after. Depending on where your file sits, a bridging open work permit or an employer-specific permit may be available once your federal permanent residence application is in progress.

After You Receive a CSQ

A Certificat de sélection du Québec is not permanent residence. It is Quebec's confirmation that it has selected you. You then apply separately to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for permanent residence as a Quebec-selected skilled worker, and IRCC makes the final decision after medical, criminal, and security checks.

This two-stage structure exists because of the Canada-Quebec Accord, which gives Quebec authority over selecting its own economic immigrants. It is also why Quebec sits outside Express Entry entirely. A CSQ has no bearing on a federal Express Entry profile, and a strong CRS score does nothing for a PEQ application.

PEQ or PSTQ

Both programs lead to a CSQ, and for now they run alongside each other.

• The PEQ is a direct application. If you meet the criteria and apply during an open intake, your file is assessed. There is no ranking and no invitation.
• The PSTQ is invitation-based. You submit a declaration of interest to Arrima, sit in a pool, and wait to be drawn. Meeting the requirements guarantees nothing.

Quebec is reducing PSTQ invitations until October 31, 2026 to make processing room for PEQ volume, with remaining invitations focused mainly on the TEER 4 and 5 stream and the exceptional talent stream. Candidates who have not been invited under the higher-skilled PSTQ streams are being directed to the PEQ where they qualify. If you are eligible for the PEQ now, applying is generally the stronger move, because it does not depend on being selected.

If You Missed the Cutoff

If you became eligible after November 19, 2025, the realistic options are to prepare for a later PEQ intake, to build a competitive PSTQ profile in the meantime, or to look outside Quebec. Quebec's 2026 to 2029 plan targets roughly 45,000 permanent residents a year, about 29,000 of them economic, so competition is real in both programs.

Moving to another province changes the picture entirely, since you would then be looking at Express Entry or a provincial nominee program rather than the Quebec system. That is a significant decision and it should not be made on the assumption that a later PEQ intake will match the current one, because Quebec has not committed to the criteria.

How SEP Immigration Helps With Your PEQ Application

Most PEQ files are won or lost on two questions: whether you genuinely met the criteria on November 19, 2025, and whether your evidence proves it. We check your diploma date, programme length, and study location, or we audit each position you are counting toward the 24 months to confirm the hours, the TEER classification, and the continuity actually hold up. Where the answer is that you fall outside this intake, we say so rather than taking a fee for an application that will be refused.

From there we assemble the Arrima submission, including the employment letters and pay records that carry the work experience claim, confirm your French results meet the required level, and file before the deadline. After a CSQ is issued we prepare the federal permanent residence application and deal with the status and work permit questions that arise while it is in progress. Sepehr Falahati is a licensed immigration consultant with the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC/IRB, R533959).

If you think you were eligible on November 19, 2025, book a consultation soon rather than close to the deadline. Bring your diploma or employment letters, your work permits, and your French test results.

Official information on applying to the federal government after selection is published by Québec on its permanent residency page for skilled workers, and IRCC sets out the federal stage on its Quebec-selected skilled workers eligibility page and its guidance on work permits for CSQ holders.

This page is general information, not legal advice. The PEQ is operating under temporary arrangements and Quebec has not yet published criteria for intake periods after October 31, 2026. Confirm current requirements on Québec.ca and canada.ca, or with a licensed representative, before you act.