Québec Investor Program, Canada

The programme requires a minimum net worth and two sums of a different nature. The two sums are paid through a financial intermediary that has signed a participation agreement with Québec's Ministère de l'Immigration, de la Francisation et de l'Intégration (MIFI) and with IQ Immigrants Investisseurs Inc. (IQII), a subsidiary of Investissement Québec, in Canadian dollars:

The investment and the contribution must be made within 120 days of MIFI's request, that is, after the application has passed the eligibility review; otherwise the application is refused. According to MIFI's Guide des procédures d'immigration, the interest earned on the investment is shared among the three parties that run the programme and then paid to the Business Assistance – Immigrant Investor Program (BAIIP; PIIAE in French) and the Fonds de développement du marché du travail (FDMT); the contribution goes entirely to those two funds.

The investment cannot be withdrawn before maturity and the contribution is not refunded, except in the cases set out in sections 44 and 44.1 of the Regulation respecting immigration to Québec; if the principal applicant or a family member included in the application abandons the immigration plan midway, neither sum is refunded.

Net worth excludes gifts received in the six months before the application is submitted, cryptocurrency, and assets held in the children's names.

The end result is Canadian permanent residence, in two tiers: Québec selects, then the federal immigration authority (IRCC) assesses the permanent residence application. Québec holds its own selection power under the Canada–Québec Accord on immigration, in force since 1 April 1991. The programme runs under a reform in force since 1 January 2024.

At the Québec level the application goes through two steps. First, MIFI assesses eligibility; if the applicant qualifies, it sends a letter requesting the investment, and once IQII confirms receipt, MIFI issues a notice of intention to select (avis d'intention de sélection). Second, the applicant uses that notice to apply for a federal work permit, completes a 12-month stay in Québec, and only then does MIFI issue the Québec Selection Certificate (CSQ) to the applicant and the family members included in the application.

The second-step work permit is an open permit, exempt from a labour market impact assessment, valid for work in Québec only, for 3 years or until the passport expires if sooner. It can be extended once, for up to 2 years, and only once the CSQ has been issued.

The CSQ is valid for 24 months; within that period the applicant must apply to IRCC for permanent residence, otherwise the CSQ lapses and cannot be renewed.

Beyond the money, the principal applicant must be at least 18; have at least 2 years of management experience within the 5 years before applying, excluding experience in payday loans, cheque cashing, pawnbroking or the sex industry; hold a diploma equivalent to a Québec secondary school diploma; speak French at level 7 or higher on the Québec scale, shown by test results less than 2 years old or a secondary diploma accepted by MIFI, even where French is the mother tongue; and obtain an attestation of learning about democratic and Québec values within 60 days of being asked.

The longest stage is federal. According to IRCC's processing-time tool, updated on 3 September 2026, a Quebec Business Class permanent residence application submitted at the time of the check takes about 75 months, with about 3,700 people waiting for a decision. This IRCC category also covers people selected by Québec through its entrepreneur and self-employed programmes, not investors alone. IRCC lists the bridging open work permit as an option for Québec investors awaiting permanent residence, alongside the open work permit for Québec investors, which is valid for up to 3 years or until the passport expires and can be extended only once, for up to 2 years, after the CSQ is issued; the pages read do not say what status the applicant holds if both permits expire before a permanent residence decision.

At the Québec level, the deadlines are set by regulation: 120 days to make the investment after MIFI's request; 6 months from the date of the notice of intention to select to apply for the work permit, after which IRCC will not accept the application and the selection application is refused; the first 24 months of the work permit to complete the 12-month stay in Québec; and the 24-month validity of the CSQ to apply for permanent residence. The MIFI programme pages read do not state a processing time for the first step.

MIFI accepts applications at any time and sets no cap on their number. Québec's 2026 immigration plan provides for 100 to 200 CSQs for the whole business category (gens d'affaires), covering investors, entrepreneurs and self-employed workers, and for 450 to 550 permanent residents admitted in that category.

The residence obligation has two tiers.

Before the CSQ, within the first 24 months after the work permit is issued, the family must stay in Québec for 12 months in total: at least 6 months by the principal applicant, and the other 6 months by the principal applicant or by the spouse or common-law partner included in the application. The periods need not be consecutive, but when both spouses are in Québec at the same time that period counts only once. MIFI may call an interview to check presence, and the applicant mails the supporting documents once the 12 months are complete.

Once a permanent resident, the obligation returns to the general one for Canadian permanent residents: physical presence in Canada for at least 730 days in the last five years, and those 730 days need not be continuous.

An expired permanent resident card does not end permanent resident status. Status is lost only through an official determination of the person's status, voluntary renunciation, a removal order taking effect, or the person becoming a Canadian citizen.

A spouse, common-law partner and dependent children may be included; the principal applicant must declare every family member and state for each whether they are included in the application. The Regulation respecting immigration to Québec defines a dependent child as a child under 22 who is not married or in a common-law relationship, or a child aged 22 or over who has not ceased to depend substantially on a parent's financial support since turning 22 and cannot support themselves because of a physical or mental condition. The child's age is locked on the date MIFI receives the application, and that date holds through IRCC's assessment of the permanent residence application. A common-law partner must be at least 16 and have lived with the applicant for at least one year.

Family members included in the application pay no Québec fee, and adding or removing a family member, while the application is under review or after a selection decision, costs nothing extra. An accompanying spouse or partner aged 16 or over and accompanying dependent children aged 18 or over must also obtain the attestation on democratic and Québec values. At the work-permit stage, the spouse or partner and children included in the application may apply for an open work permit or a study permit, depending on their situation.

The assets of a spouse or partner included in the application count towards the net worth threshold, but that person must also prove the lawful origin of the assets in their name, even where they are not needed to reach the threshold.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Canada passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Canada passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Canada passport reaches 199 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

MIFI's programme pages and the federal immigration authority's pages set no tax regime of their own for this programme.

In exchange, the revenue agency states in terms what elsewhere must be inferred, and the sentence deserves quoting whole:

Your immigration status tells you if you can live, work, or study in Canada; it reflects your reasons for being in Canada and the length of your stay; unlike your residency status, it does not tell you your tax obligations.

And immediately after: under the Canadian income tax system, your income tax obligations to Canada are based on your residency status. The governing test is residential ties rather than immigration paperwork.

Significant residential ties are: a home in Canada; a spouse or common-law partner in Canada; dependants in Canada.

In this programme the mandatory stay in Québec at the work-permit stage, at least 6 months for the principal applicant, may lead to setting up a home in Québec, so these ties may form during temporary residence, before permanent residence.

Secondary ties include personal property such as a car or furniture, social ties, economic ties such as a Canadian bank account or credit card, a Canadian driver licence, a Canadian passport, and health insurance with a province or territory.

A person may be considered an immigrant where they left another country to settle in Canada, established significant residential ties and became a resident of Canada in the tax year.

A day-count door also exists: a person may be a deemed resident where they have not established significant residential ties sufficient to be a factual resident but stayed in Canada for 183 days or more in the year.

Running the other way: a person is a non-resident where they have no significant residential ties and either lived outside Canada throughout the year or stayed in Canada for fewer than 183 days.

For certainty, an official opinion may be requested on Form NR74 on entering or NR73 on leaving, with the full guidance in Income Tax Folio S5-F1-C1.

First-year obligations: the agency treats a person as a newcomer to Canada for the first year they are a resident for income tax purposes, and for most newcomers that starts the first day they live in Canada.

The tax year runs 1 January to 31 December, the filing deadline is generally 30 April of the following year, extended to 15 June for the self-employed and their spouses; a person living in Québec must file separately with the provincial revenue authority; and supporting records must be kept for at least six years.

One obligation is little known and looks backwards: income earned outside Canada for up to two years before becoming a resident must be reported, on a Statement of Income, converted at the central bank rate on the day the income was received.

And the foreign asset reporting duty: Form T1135 is required of Canadian resident individuals, corporations and certain trusts that at any time in the year own specified foreign property costing more than CAD 100,000.

Specified foreign property is defined in subsection 233.3(1) of the Income Tax Act and includes shares of non-resident corporations, debts owed by non-residents, interests in foreign insurance policies, and precious metals held outside Canada.

Read this cell within its scope: the immigration authority covers immigration requirements; the revenue agency covers how tax residence is determined, first-year filing duties and foreign asset reporting, but says nothing about any particular provincial tax, gives no rates, and says nothing specific to the Québec Investor Program.

Government costs come in two layers, Québec's fee and the federal immigration authority's fees, in Canadian dollars:

Québec's fee is adjusted every 1 January, is accepted only by Canada Post money order or a bank draft drawn on a Canadian bank made out to the Minister of Finance of Québec, and is not refunded even if the application is rejected.

The programme's heaviest cost lies outside the fee table: the 200,000 non-refundable contribution, plus 1,000,000 held for 5 years at IQII without interest to the applicant.

Beyond these, the applicant also pays for the French test, an amount the pages read do not set.