What is the Francophone Mobility work permit?

Francophone Mobility, or Mobilite francophone, is LMIA exemption code C16. It lets an employer outside Quebec hire a French-speaking foreign worker without a Labour Market Impact Assessment.

What French level is required for Francophone Mobility?

NCLC 5 or higher in speaking and listening only. Reading and writing are not assessed.

Does the Francophone Mobility job have to be in Quebec?

No. The opposite. You must live and work in one of the nine provinces or three territories outside Quebec.

Which occupations qualify for C16?

Job offers in any TEER category from 0 to 5 qualify, except primary agriculture occupations at TEER 4 and TEER 5.

How much does the Francophone Mobility work permit cost?

The work permit application fee is $155 and the employer pays a $230 employer compliance fee when submitting the offer of employment.

Can my spouse work on a Francophone Mobility permit?

Your spouse or common-law partner may qualify for an open work permit and dependent children may study in Canada.

Francophone Mobility

Francophone Mobility: an LMIA-exempt work permit for French speakers.

If you speak French and an employer outside Quebec wants to hire you, exemption code C16 removes the Labour Market Impact Assessment entirely. No recruitment test, no advertising, no wait for a decision that may never come.

Check the four conditions How to prove my French Book an assessment

No LMIA required
NCLC 5 speaking & listening
RCIC-led, Brampton & London

C16LMIA exemption code

NCLC 5Speaking and listening only

$155Work permit fee

Any TEEROne narrow exception

Program status: open. Reviewed August 2026. Fees and instructions come from IRCC's international mobility program special instructions and can change without notice.

The idea

Why this exemption exists.

French-speaking communities outside Quebec have been shrinking as a share of the population for decades. Rather than subsidise them, Canada decided to make it structurally easier to hire into them. Francophone Mobility — Mobilite francophone — is the work permit half of that policy, and it is one of the few genuinely broad LMIA exemptions left.

What you get

An employer-specific work permit with no LMIA
No advertising or recruitment requirement for the employer
No minimum wage test against a prevailing wage table
Open to almost every occupation, at any skill level
Time in Canada that builds Canadian experience for permanent residence later

What it is not

Not an open work permit — it ties you to the named employer
Not available for jobs in Quebec
Not permanent residence, and not a guarantee of it
Not available if the only French you have is on paper — you have to prove it
Not usable for primary agriculture at TEER 4 or 5

Eligibility

Four conditions. That is the whole test.

Condition	What it means in practice
Destination	You must live and work in one of the nine provinces or three territories outside Quebec. A job in Montreal or Quebec City does not qualify, no matter how francophone the workplace is.
French ability	NCLC 5 or higher in speaking and listening. Reading and writing are not assessed. This is a meaningfully lower bar than most French-language immigration programs.
The job offer	Any TEER category, 0 through 5, with one exception: primary agriculture occupations at TEER 4 and TEER 5 are excluded.
The employer	Must submit the offer of employment through the Employer Portal, select exemption code C16, pay the compliance fee and give you the 7-digit offer of employment number.

Proving your French

IRCC accepts more than one kind of evidence, which is where people miss the opportunity:

1. TEF Canada or TCF Canada results showing NCLC 5 in speaking and listening. 2. Written confirmation from a college or university that you completed a programme delivered in French. 3. Other documents that establish you were educated in French — transcripts, diplomas and school records from a French-medium education.

If you were schooled in French anywhere in the world, you may not need to sit a test at all.

The flow

How the application runs.

Job offer

You and an employer outside Quebec agree terms for a genuine, full position.

Employer Portal

The employer submits the offer under C16 and pays the $230 employer compliance fee.

Offer number

The portal issues a 7-digit offer of employment number. You cannot apply without it.

Your application

You apply for the work permit with the offer number, French evidence and the $155 fee.

Start work

From outside Canada, the permit is issued at the port of entry on your letter of introduction. From inside Canada, you may start on the approval notification.

Applying from outside Canada

Approval gives you a port of entry letter of introduction, not the permit itself. A border services officer issues the actual work permit when you arrive. Carry the letter, the offer of employment number and your French evidence in hand luggage — not in a checked bag.

Applying from inside Canada

If you already hold valid status, you can apply online and begin working on the approval notification once it arrives, without leaving the country. Whether you are eligible to apply from inside Canada depends on your current status, which is worth checking before you file.

Your household

Bringing your family.

Spouse or common-law partner

May qualify for an open work permit — any employer, anywhere outside Quebec, for the duration of your permit. Given how sharply spousal open work permit eligibility has been narrowed for other categories, this is one of the strongest remaining family provisions attached to a temporary work permit.

Dependent children

Can study in Canada. Minor children accompanying a work permit holder do not generally need their own study permit for primary or secondary school, though provinces and school boards have their own registration requirements and a study permit is sometimes still the cleaner route.

Other francophone routes worth knowing.

Francophone Mobility is temporary. Canada has committed to French-speaking admissions outside Quebec of 9% in 2026, 9.5% in 2027, 10.5% in 2028 and 12% by 2029 — and it has built a permanent-residence route to match. If you speak French, you are being actively recruited.

Permanent residence

French-language category.

Express Entry runs category-based draws for French-language proficiency. Cut-off scores in this category are consistently far below general draws.

Explore ›

Permanent residence

Francophone Community Pilot.

Six designated communities can recommend French-speaking candidates for permanent residence with a local job offer. NCLC 5 in all four abilities.

Explore ›

Youth mobility

International Experience Canada.

Open work permits for young people aged 18 to 35 from more than 35 partner countries, including France and Belgium.

Explore ›

Study

Francophone student pilot.

The Francophone Minority Communities Student Pilot supports French-speaking students from Africa, the Middle East and the Americas heading to francophone institutions outside Quebec.

Explore ›

Compare

All work permit routes.

How C16 sits next to LMIA-based permits, intra-company transfers, CUSMA, post-graduation permits and open work permits.

Explore ›

The alternative

The LMIA route.

What your employer avoids by using C16: advertising, a recruitment file, a prevailing wage test, a processing fee and months of waiting.

Explore ›

Side by side

C16 against a standard LMIA permit.

	Francophone Mobility (C16)	LMIA-based work permit
Labour market test	None	Required — advertising and recruitment file
Employer government fee	$230 compliance fee	$1,000 LMIA processing fee per position, plus the compliance fee where applicable
Language requirement	French, NCLC 5 speaking and listening	None imposed by IRCC
Where you can work	Anywhere outside Quebec	Anywhere including Quebec, with a Quebec Acceptance Certificate
Occupations	All TEER levels except primary agriculture at TEER 4 and 5	All, subject to stream rules and refusal-to-process regions
Spousal open work permit	Generally available	Restricted — depends on the occupation's TEER level and sector

Questions

What people ask us.

Do I need to be a citizen of a French-speaking country?

No. Nationality is irrelevant. What matters is that you can demonstrate NCLC 5 in spoken and listening French. Candidates from across Africa, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Europe and South Asia use this route.

Does my job have to be in French?

No. The requirement attaches to you, not to the workplace. The job can be conducted entirely in English, as long as it is outside Quebec and you meet the French standard.

Is reading and writing French really not tested?

Correct. Only speaking and listening are assessed for this exemption. That is unusual and it is the single most under-used feature of the program — plenty of people who speak French fluently but write it poorly assume they are excluded.

Can I switch employers later?

Not on the same permit. C16 produces an employer-specific permit. Changing employers means a new offer of employment in the portal and a new work permit application, though you may be able to start with the new employer sooner using an authorisation to work while the application is pending.

Does this lead to permanent residence?

Not on its own, but it positions you well. Canadian work experience feeds Express Entry, and French-language category draws have had substantially lower cut-offs than general draws. A year on a C16 permit can change a profile completely.

My employer has never heard of it.

That is common and it is usually the real obstacle. Most employers know only the LMIA route and assume any foreign hire costs a thousand dollars and six months. Part of what we do is prepare the portal submission and the explanation the employer needs.

Do you qualify for C16?

If you speak French and have a Canadian employer outside Quebec interested in you, this is very likely the fastest legal route into the country. We assess the offer, the occupation and your French evidence, and prepare both sides of the filing.

Book a consultation Compare work permits See the francophone PR pilot

This page summarises IRCC's published program delivery instructions and is not legal advice. Reviewed August 2026.

Francophone mobility review

Is your French good enough for C16?

Send a few details. A licensed RCIC reads your profile personally, then replies with the routes that genuinely fit, the ones that do not, and the consultation fee and next available times.

Read personally by a CICC-licensed consultant — never a bot, never a salesperson
A written shortlist of the programs you realistically qualify for
Consultations are fee-based; you get the fee and available times by reply

CHK Immigration Services — Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (CICC). Offices in Brampton and London, Ontario. Submitting this form does not create a client–consultant relationship; IRCC makes all final decisions.