Quebec made two moves this fortnight that look like they point in opposite directions. On June 19, 2026, the province launched a National Integration Policy built around lifelong participation in French. Two weeks later, on July 2, the Programme de l'expérience québécoise reopened — having quietly dropped the rule that your diploma had to come from a French-language program. Read together, they tell you where Quebec's French requirements for international students are actually heading: away from what language you studied in, and toward what you can demonstrably say. ## What is Quebec's National Integration Policy? Quebec's **National Integration Policy**, titled **Bâtir ensemble notre culture commune**, is the framework the province launched on June 19, 2026 to define how newcomers and long-time residents build a shared culture in French. Announced by **Jean-François Roberge**, Minister of the French Language, it flows from the Loi sur l'intégration à la nation québécoise and runs on a ten-year horizon. The law behind it was adopted on May 28, 2025. It was the first time Quebec wrote an integration model into statute, naming French as the official and common language of integration and defining Quebec culture as the shared ground newcomers are invited to join. The policy is not an immigration rule. It changes no selection program, no permanent residence pathway and no admission target. What it does is state, in writing, what the province expects of you after you land. ## What does the National Integration Pathway involve? The centrepiece is the **Parcours d'intégration nationale**, a national integration pathway meant to run across a lifetime rather than a first year. The government describes it as continuous support spanning six dimensions of settlement — linguistic, cultural, economic, community, civic and identity — delivered in four progressive stages. It is not delivered through an immigration office. Quebec is routing it through the institutions people already use: - Early childhood centres - Schools, from primary through secondary - Cégeps and universities - Public libraries - Community organisations and other gathering places If you are studying in Quebec, your cégep or university is one of the delivery channels. That is the practical meaning of a policy that otherwise reads as abstract. The policy also breaks explicitly with the Canadian multiculturalism model. Rather than framing integration as the coexistence of separate cultures, Quebec frames it as participation in one shared public culture conducted in French, a position the province ties to its standing as the continent's only francophone state. ## Why the timing matters: the PEQ reopened the same week On July 2, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. Montréal time, the **Programme de l'expérience québécoise (PEQ)** reopened for applications in **Arrima**, after being abolished without notice on November 19, 2025. The current window closes October 31, 2026, and the program is scheduled to remain available until July 2, 2028. There is no cap on the number of applications received during the period. Eligibility is frozen to the day the program closed: you must have held the qualifying Quebec diploma, or accumulated the qualifying Quebec work experience, as of November 19, 2025. The streams, the cutoff and the processing picture are covered in detail in [the PEQ reopening guide](/en/blog/quebec-peq-reopening-2026). What that guide does not cover is the language change, and that is the part that reveals the strategy. ## Does the PEQ still require you to study in French? No. The condition requiring candidates in the Diplômés du Québec stream to have completed a program of study **in French** was removed. Diplomas now qualify regardless of the language of instruction, so a degree earned entirely in English at a Quebec institution counts the same as one earned in French. The French requirement itself did not disappear. It moved. Where Quebec once treated enrolment in a French-language program as sufficient evidence, it now asks you to demonstrate the competency directly — the same logic the National Integration Policy applies after arrival. ## What French level do you actually need? Levels are measured on the **Échelle québécoise des niveaux de compétence en français**, not the CLB/NCLC scale used federally. For the PEQ: - Diplômés du Québec stream: level 7 or higher in oral French, and level 5 or higher in written French - Travailleurs étrangers temporaires stream: level 7 or higher in oral French - An accompanying spouse or common-law partner: level 4 or higher in oral French Quebec accepts results from the TCF, TCF Canada, TCF-Québec, TEF, TEF Canada, TEFAQ, DELF and DALF. Results must be two years old or less on the date you file, which is the detail most people overlook — a test taken early in a degree can expire before the diploma is issued. Three routes replace the test entirely: - A transcript showing at least three full-time years of study conducted entirely in French - A valid permit from a Quebec professional order - A certificate from an Office québécois de la langue française exam passed within the previous two years Read that first exemption carefully. Three full-time years is the length of a bachelor's degree or a technical DEC, so a two-year master's taught in French does not reach the threshold on its own. Many graduate students will still need a test result. Our [guide to French proficiency](/en/blog/how-french-proficiency-fast-tracks-canadian-immigration) explains how the levels translate across systems. ## Where can international students learn French for free? Through **Francisation Québec**, the provincial service that consolidates all government-funded French courses. It is open to people born outside Canada who are 16 or older and living in Québec, and that includes temporary residents, not only permanent ones. If you are here on a study permit, one condition governs your access: your enrolment in a program recognised by the Government of Canada must be your **primary occupation**. French courses complement your studies rather than replacing them, and taking them in a way that displaces your main program puts your status at risk. The formats are built around that constraint: - Full-time courses of 25 to 30 hours per week - Part-time courses of 4 to 24 hours per week - Self-directed online courses - Specialised courses organised by field of employment Financial assistance is available to eligible participants, including temporary residents. Registration runs through the official government portal at quebec.ca/francisation. The part-time and online formats are the ones that fit a full-time student. Starting them in your first term rather than your last is the highest-leverage decision available to you, because level 7 oral is not a semester's work. Students weighing that timing alongside their study permit will find the wider picture in our [services for students](/en/services/students). ## What could change after the October 2026 election? Quebec goes to the polls in October 2026, and the Integration Policy is a ten-year framework tracked against a roadmap the government itself describes as dynamic. A new government could revise, delay or replace parts of it. The direction of travel is more durable than any single policy. Quebec's 2026 immigration plan targets 45,000 permanent admissions while explicitly seeking to reduce overall volumes, and its stated orientation is that people selected through economic streams should arrive with strong spoken French. The selection side and the integration side now point the same way. Treat the specific mechanisms as changeable and the French expectation as fixed. ## Key steps to take now 1. Check whether you already met the PEQ conditions as of November 19, 2025, because the reopening does not create new eligibility. 2. Note both dates: the current window closes October 31, 2026, and the program is scheduled to run until July 2, 2028. 3. Identify your target level before booking anything — oral 7 for both streams, written 5 for graduates, oral 4 for an accompanying spouse. 4. Check the date on any French test result you already hold, since a result older than two years at filing will not be accepted. 5. Confirm whether your transcript shows three full-time years of study entirely in French, which replaces the test requirement. 6. Register with Francisation Québec early in your program rather than late, using a part-time or online format that keeps your studies as your primary occupation. DOCERE guides international students in Quebec through the administrative side of a French-language plan — mapping test dates against the October 31 deadline, keeping transcripts and documents in order, and coordinating with partner lawyers or a regulated consultant for the regulated steps. To build that timeline before the window closes, start with a free [consultation](/en/assessment).