To promote Francophone immigration to communities throughout Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada ("IRCC') launched its Francophone Mobility Program ("FMP") in 2016.
This program provides options to make it easier for employers to hire French-speaking or bilingual workers outside Quebec. Hiring a French-speaking or bilingual candidate could provide a number of advantages, such as the ability to:
- Serve clients in French and English
- Tap into new markets or new international networks
- Benefit from support from the Francophone community
- Increase your Diversity, Equity and Inclusion profile
- Access an exemption from applying for a Labour Market Impact Assessment ("LMIA")
This program is highly beneficial to large and small companies as it allows employers to fill gaps in managerial, professional and skilled positions.
General Criteria for the FMP
The general criteria that IRCC looks for when processing FMP applications are that the foreign worker:
- speaks fluent French or is fluently bilingual (Canadian Language Benchmark ("CLB") 7 or higher)
- is destined to work in a province or territory outside Quebec
- is qualified to work in a managerial, professional, technical or skilled trade position (TEER 0, 1, 2 or 3)
Options to Hire French-Speaking Candidates
There are a variety of options available to employers to find, attract and recruit French-speaking and bilingual candidates. The options include:
- Contacting the Canadian Visa Office in Paris
If you have a job opening and would like to recruit a foreign worker temporarily or permanently from a Francophone country, you can send your job offer to the Canadian visa office in Paris. Include detailed information such as:
- job title;
- duties;
- expected start and end dates;
- salary and benefits.
Many countries have public employment services that specialize in international recruitment to help their citizens find work abroad. The staff at the visa office can refer you to the services that will best meet your needs. These local government services can help you find candidates and support you through the recruitment process, free of charge.
Through these services, you can recruit candidates from a number of countries, including France, Belgium, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mauritius, Mexico and more.
These services are available year-round and free of charge to all Canadian employers with job offers outside Quebec.
- Attending the Destination Canada Mobility Forum
The Destination Canada Mobility Forum is an annual event organized by the Government of Canada. This job fair event connects Canadian employers with skilled French-speaking candidates in a variety of fields, such as:
- information technology
- multimedia
- marketing and communications
- finance
- hospitality
- culinary and food industries
- translation
- aeronautics and avionics
- construction
The Destination Canada Mobility Forum typically takes place in November each year. Canadian employers were not direct participants at the November 2022 forum but could communicate their job offers to representatives of their province or territory, city or region, or to local economic development organizations who were at the forum as exhibitors. Two additional recruitment fairs are planned for 2023, focusing on IT jobs in January and Hotel-Restaurant-Tourism jobs in March.
- Making a Job Offer to an Express Entry Candidate
The Express Entry system is used to manage applications to the Federal Skilled Worker Program, Federal Skilled Trades Program, Canadian Experience Class and a portion of the Provincial Nominee Programs.
You can make a job offer to an Express Entry candidate, supported by an LMIA, if needed. Then, the candidate is awarded additional points for their job offer. A job offer increases their chance of being invited to apply for Permanent Residence when applicants from the Express Entry pool are invited to apply.
Through Express Entry, IRCC processes the majority of complete applications (those that include all supporting documents) in 6 to 12 months.
The general entry requirements for employees under the Federal Skilled Worker Program under Express Entry are that applicants have at least one year of work experience related to the job offer, a minimum of CLB 7 in French or English, a Canadian post-secondary education or a valid Educational Credential Assessment ("ECA"), and proof of funds to settle in Canada.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
