On This Page, You Will Find:

• How Quebec Family Sponsorship Works: Two Governments, Two Steps
• Who Can Be Sponsored To Quebec
• Quebec Undertaking Lengths By Relationship
• Quebec’s Income Requirement And Who Is Exempt
• Quebec’s Own Fees And Filing Rules
• Quebec’s Capped Intake For 2026 To 2028
• Processing Times: Quebec Versus The Rest Of Canada
• What Changed In 2025 And 2026
• Frequently asked questions

Quebec family sponsorship is the one part of Canada’s family class that is run by two governments at once. Ottawa decides who belongs to the family class and who is admissible to Canada. Quebec decides whether it will accept the sponsor’s undertaking, applies its own income scale, charges its own fees, and issues the Certificat de sélection du Québec (CSQ).

That split matters more in 2026 than it has in years. Quebec has capped the number of undertaking applications it will accept, introduced a staged schedule that tells sponsors when they are allowed to file, and Quebec-destined family cases continue to wait far longer at the federal end than cases destined anywhere else in the country. This page sets out the current rules as published by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and by Quebec’s Ministère de l’Immigration, de la Francisation et de l’Intégration (MIFI).

How Quebec Family Sponsorship Works: Two Governments, Two Steps

If the sponsor lives in Quebec, the process runs in a fixed order and the order cannot be reversed.

• Step one – IRCC. The sponsor and the sponsored person submit the sponsorship and permanent residence applications to IRCC together. IRCC assesses whether the sponsor meets the federal eligibility requirements.
• Step two – MIFI. IRCC then issues a sponsorship eligibility letter (or, for the Spouse or Common-Law Partner in Canada class, an acknowledgment of receipt) telling the sponsor to continue with Quebec. Only at that point does the sponsor file an undertaking application with MIFI.
• Step three – the CSQ. If MIFI accepts the undertaking, it mails the sponsor a confirmation letter and an envelope containing the sponsored person’s CSQ. MIFI transmits its decision to IRCC directly.
• Step four – back to IRCC. IRCC finalises the permanent residence application, including medical, security and criminality checks.

Two warnings follow from this. Sponsors must not send an undertaking to MIFI before IRCC tells them to, because Quebec will not process it. And an accepted Quebec undertaking does not guarantee permanent residence: IRCC can still refuse the sponsored person on admissibility grounds. For the federal side of the process common to all provinces, see our family sponsorship immigration overview.

Who Can Be Sponsored To Quebec

The categories are federal, so they mirror the rest of Canada. A sponsor in Quebec may sponsor:

• A spouse, common-law partner or conjugal partner;
• A dependent child;
• A father, mother, grandfather or grandmother;
• An orphaned minor who is the sponsor’s brother, sister, nephew, niece, grandson or granddaughter, and who is not married or in a common-law relationship;
• A child the sponsor intends to adopt;
• Another relative, in the limited circumstances Quebec defines.

Sponsors must be at least 18, must be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, and must not be receiving last-resort financial assistance except where the benefit is due to age or disability. Quebec can also find a sponsor ineligible for reasons of its own, including an unpaid debt from a previous undertaking or unpaid court-ordered support in the five years before the application.

Quebec Undertaking Lengths By Relationship

The undertaking is a contract. Once the sponsored person holds a permanent residence visa or confirmation of permanent residence, it cannot be cancelled – not on separation or divorce, not if the sponsor’s finances collapse, not if the sponsored person becomes a Canadian citizen, and not if either party moves to another province.

Quebec’s terms, as published by MIFI, are:

• Spouse, common-law partner or conjugal partner: 3 years.
• Dependent child under 16: 10 years, or until the child turns 18 – whichever period is longer.
• Dependent child aged 16 or over: 3 years, or until the child turns 25 – whichever period is longer.
• Father, mother, grandfather or grandmother: 10 years.
• Another relative: 10 years.

The 10-year figure for parents and grandparents is one of the clearest Quebec advantages. IRCC’s own briefing material puts federal undertaking lengths at between three years for spouses and partners and 20 years for parents and grandparents. A Quebec sponsor of a parent carries half that exposure. Sponsors also take on non-financial duties: helping the newcomer learn French, enrol children in school, access public services and look for work. Since 23 November 2023, where the sponsored person and accompanying family members are aged 18 to 55, the sponsor must complete a welcome and integration plan in the undertaking form.

Quebec’s Income Requirement And Who Is Exempt

Quebec does not apply the federal Minimum Necessary Income. It uses its own regulated scale, adjusted every 1 January. Crucially, the financial test only applies to some cases. Quebec requires proof of financial capacity where the sponsor is sponsoring a parent, grandparent, orphaned minor or other relative, a dependent child who has a dependent child of their own, or a spouse or partner whose dependent child has a dependent child.

In practice that means a straightforward spouse, common-law partner or dependent child sponsorship is exempt from the Quebec income test. This is the single most common misunderstanding among Quebec sponsors.

Where the test does apply, the sponsor must show Table A income to support their own household plus a Table B amount for the sponsored people. From 1 January to 31 December 2026, Table A gross annual income requirements are:

• 1 person: $29,642
• 2 people: $40,015
• 3 people: $49,401
• 4 people: $56,819
• 5 people: $63,237
• Add $6,418 for each additional dependant

Table B adds the amount required for the sponsored family unit – for example $10,261 for one sponsored person under 18, $21,682 for one sponsored adult, and $31,796 for two sponsored adults, with further increments for each additional person. Table A must be met from Canadian-source income; Table B may be met from Canadian-source income or assets held in Canada. The sponsor must have held that income for the 12 months before the application and must show it will continue for the term of the undertaking. A spouse’s income can count if the spouse co-signs.

Quebec’s Own Fees And Filing Rules

Quebec’s fees are separate from, and additional to, the federal sponsorship, permanent residence and right of permanent residence fees. Effective 1 January 2026, MIFI charges $335 to review an undertaking for the main sponsored person and $135 for each additional person sponsored. Sponsoring three people therefore costs $605. Dependent children sponsored as the main person each require their own form and their own $335 fee.

Filing rules are strict, and MIFI returns non-compliant files without notice:

• Applications must be sent by mail only, one application per envelope, to the Direction du regroupement familial et de l’enregistrement in Montréal. They cannot be filed in person.
• Payment must be in full and in Canadian funds. Personal cheques, cash and traveller’s cheques are refused.
• The IRCC eligibility letter or acknowledgment of receipt must be attached.
• An incorrect fee amount means the whole file comes back unprocessed.

Quebec’s Capped Intake For 2026 To 2028

This is the most consequential change on this page. From 2 July 2026 to 30 June 2028, MIFI will receive a maximum of 15,700 undertaking applications, split into a maximum of 13,300 for spouses, common-law partners and conjugal partners, and a maximum of 2,400 for parents, grandparents and other relatives. When a category’s ceiling is reached, MIFI stops receiving applications in that category for the remainder of the period and returns them unprocessed without charging the fee. That is not theoretical – Quebec hit its previous spousal ceiling in July 2025 and kept intake closed until the prior period ended.

Quebec has also imposed a staged intake schedule that prioritises the longest-waiting sponsors. A sponsor may only file once the calendar reaches the date matching the issue date of their IRCC eligibility letter or acknowledgment of receipt. Applications sent early are inadmissible and returned. The published schedule opens on 2 July 2026 for documents dated no later than 31 July 2024, moves to 31 January 2025 on 1 September 2026, to 30 June 2025 on 1 November 2026, and continues in steps through to 1 May 2028.

Some applications escape both the cap and the schedule and may be filed at any time: the sponsor’s dependent child, a minor child to be adopted, an orphaned minor brother, sister, nephew, niece, grandson or granddaughter, an adult dependent child who depends on a parent because of a physical or mental condition, and applications adding a dependant to a case already in the queue.

Processing Times: Quebec Versus The Rest Of Canada

Quebec’s own step is fast. MIFI states that most undertaking applications are processed within three months of a complete file arriving, and it publishes the date of the applications it is currently reviewing for each category.

The federal step is where Quebec cases stall. Under the Canada-Quebec Accord, Quebec advises on how many family class immigrants it will admit each year, and IRCC receives more Quebec-destined family class applications than those spaces allow. A structural backlog has formed. IRCC’s own reporting shows the gap starkly: in 2024, only 7 per cent of Quebec spouse, partner and child applications were finalised within the 12-month service standard, against 84 per cent in the rest of Canada. IRCC has reported to Parliament that, as of 30 September 2025, Quebec-destined spousal cases were running at roughly 34 months from overseas and 23 months in Canada, against roughly 13 months for comparable non-Quebec cases.

Because these figures move, sponsors should check the current published times before making plans. See our guide to family sponsorship processing times in Canada, and our pages on spousal and partner sponsorship.

What Changed In 2025 And 2026

Three developments shape the current picture.

• Quebec cut its overall levels. Quebec’s Immigration Plan for 2026, tabled alongside its 2026-2029 orientations, lowers permanent admissions to roughly 45,000. Lower levels are the reason the family class ceiling exists. Our report on Quebec’s cut to 45,000 and the closure of the Quebec Experience Program sets out the wider picture, and the Quebec Experience Program page covers the affected economic stream.
• Quebec replaced an open door with a queue. The 2 July 2026 intake period is capped and scheduled rather than first-come, first-served.
• Ottawa paused parent and grandparent intake nationally. On 15 July 2026, IRCC paused the intake of new Parents and Grandparents Program applications across Canada until further notice, while continuing to process applications already received. Because the federal step comes first, Quebec sponsors of parents and grandparents cannot start a new file during the pause. See our parent and grandparent sponsorship page.

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Frequently Asked Questions