The Francophone Mobility Program lets a Canadian employer outside Quebec hire a French-speaking foreign worker without an LMIA. It runs under LMIA exemption code C16. The employer pays a $230 compliance fee instead of the $1,000 LMIA fee, and there is no unemployment-rate test and no cap on how much of your workforce it covers.
Last reviewed: October 2026. Sourced from IRCC program instructions.
On this page
Francophone Mobility — Mobilité francophone in French — is a stream of Canada's International Mobility Program. It exists to grow French-speaking communities outside Quebec.
Normally, hiring a foreign worker means applying for a Labour Market Impact Assessment: you advertise the role, prove no Canadian or permanent resident was available, pay $1,000, and wait. Francophone Mobility removes that step entirely. If the worker's French is strong enough and the job is outside Quebec, the employer skips the LMIA and submits an offer of employment directly to IRCC.
That is the whole mechanism. It is not a separate visa, not a pilot, and not an immigration program in its own right — it is an exemption code attached to an ordinary employer-specific work permit.
The point employers miss most often: the job itself does not have to be in French. The requirement sits on the worker's French ability, not on the language of work. A French-speaking worker can be hired into an English-language role in Calgary or Halifax under C16. This single fact is what makes the program usable far outside the places employers assume it applies to.
For applications made on or after 15 June 2023, there are three conditions. All three must hold.
The worker also has to meet the general eligibility requirements that apply to any Canadian work permit.
The June 2023 change matters more than it sounds. Before that date the program only covered TEER 0, 1, 2 and 3 — managerial, professional and skilled trades — and it required a much higher NCLC 7. Opening it to TEER 4 and 5 brought in service, hospitality, retail, food service, warehousing, cleaning and care roles. Those are the occupations most Canadian employers are actually short of, and they were locked out of this program until June 2023.
| Before 15 June 2023 | On or after 15 June 2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| Eligible TEER | 0, 1, 2, 3 only | 0 through 5 (primary agriculture TEER 4–5 excluded) |
| French level | NCLC 7 | NCLC 5 |
| Abilities tested | Officer's assessment | Speaking and listening |
NCLC — Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens — is the French equivalent of the CLB scale. Level 5 is intermediate: the worker can hold a conversation on familiar topics, follow instructions, and handle routine workplace exchanges. It is not fluency and it is not academic French.
Only speaking and listening are assessed. A worker whose written French is weak is not disqualified.
Workers normally prove this with a TEF Canada or TCF Canada result. An officer can also be satisfied by other evidence — schooling in French, or employment in a French-speaking environment — but a test result is the cleanest route and the one least likely to produce a refusal.
Three steps, all before the worker applies. The worker cannot start their application until step three is done.
There is no advertising requirement, no recruitment report, and no proof that you tried to hire a Canadian first. That is the entire difference between this and an LMIA, and it is why the process takes days on the employer's side rather than months.
Employers who hire under C16 remain subject to the same compliance obligations as any employer of a foreign worker: pay the wage you offered, provide the job you described, and keep records for six years. Inspections do happen.
| Low-wage LMIA | Francophone Mobility (C16) | |
|---|---|---|
| Employer fee | $1,000 per position | $230 compliance fee |
| Advertising required | Yes — minimum periods, multiple channels | No |
| Labour market test | Yes | No |
| Regional unemployment test | Yes — applications refused outright in designated regions | No |
| Cap on share of workforce | Yes | No |
| Employer-side timeline | Weeks to months | Days |
| Language condition | None | Worker must have NCLC 5 French |
The regional unemployment line is the one that decides things for many employers. Since September 2024, low-wage LMIA applications have been refused without processing in census metropolitan areas above a set unemployment threshold. That list is recalculated periodically — restrictions were lifted for eight regions in July 2026, and others remain affected. Francophone Mobility is not subject to that test at all, anywhere in the country.
The employer's part — the offer of employment — is typically cleared within a few business days of submission.
The worker's work permit application is the variable. Processing depends almost entirely on which visa office handles it, and times differ widely between countries. IRCC publishes current estimates and updates them weekly; check the figure for the applicant's country of residence rather than relying on a general number, because the spread between offices is large.
Plan the start date from the worker's application date, not the offer date.
As of October 2026, no. IRCC lists the program status as open, and no end date or closure has been announced.
The question comes up constantly, and it is worth being precise about why. Francophone Mobility is administrative policy, not legislation. It exists because IRCC has set Francophone immigration targets for communities outside Quebec, and it can be narrowed, tightened or withdrawn by a policy decision rather than an act of Parliament. Several other work-permit streams have been changed with limited notice over the past two years, which is what fuels the rumours.
So: there is no announced end date, and no reason to think one is imminent. But this is not a guarantee, and an employer planning a hire twelve months out should confirm the program's status on IRCC's own page before committing. Anyone telling you the program is definitely closing, or definitely permanent, is guessing.
A C16 work permit is temporary. It is not permanent residence and it does not grant it.
It can, however, put a worker in a strong position. Canadian work experience counts toward Express Entry. French ability earns substantial additional points in the Comprehensive Ranking System, and Express Entry has run category-based rounds for French-language proficiency with cut-offs well below the general draws. A French-speaking worker with Canadian experience is one of the better-positioned profiles in the system. Provincial nominee programs outside Quebec also run Francophone streams, and the Francophone Community Immigration Pilot offers a separate employer-driven route in designated communities.
None of that is automatic, and the pathway is the worker's to pursue, not the employer's to promise. Be careful not to represent a C16 job offer as a route to permanent residence — it is a work permit, and overstating it causes real problems for both sides.
Refusals on Francophone Mobility files have risen, and the pattern is fairly consistent:
A valid job offer does not guarantee a work permit. The employer controls the offer; the officer decides the permit.
This is the part the program does not help with. IRCC tells you how to hire a French-speaking worker; it does not tell you where one is.
Most Canadian employers have no channel into French-speaking labour markets. Posting in English on a Canadian job board reaches almost none of them. The realistic options are a recruitment agency, an immigration consultant with a candidate network, or advertising directly into the countries where French-speaking jobseekers are looking for Canadian work.
FrancoBridge does the last one. You post the job once; it is published across country-specific portals in Morocco, Tunisia, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Mauritius, where candidates are actively searching for Canadian employment. Applications come to you directly. There is no agency in the middle and no fee charged to candidates.
FrancoBridge is a job advertising platform. It is not a recruitment agency and does not provide immigration services.
Post once. Your job appears on five country portals where French-speaking jobseekers look for Canadian work.
See posting packagesNo. The French requirement applies to the worker, not the role. A French-speaking worker can be hired into an English-language job anywhere outside Quebec under C16.
$230 — the employer compliance fee paid when submitting the offer of employment. There is no $1,000 LMIA fee because no LMIA is required. The worker pays their own work permit application fee.
Yes, for applications on or after 15 June 2023, with one exception: primary agriculture occupations at TEER 4 and 5 are excluded. Service, hospitality, retail, warehousing and care roles are eligible.
No. The worker must be destined to live and work in one of the nine provinces or three territories outside Quebec.
NCLC 5 or higher in speaking and listening. TEF Canada and TCF Canada are the usual tests. Reading and writing are not assessed.
Yes. IRCC lists the program status as open and has not announced an end date. Because it is set by policy rather than legislation, employers planning further ahead should confirm current status on IRCC's page before committing.
Not directly. It is a temporary work permit. Canadian work experience and French ability both count favourably in Express Entry and in several provincial Francophone streams, but permanent residence requires a separate application and is not guaranteed.
This page explains a published federal program for information only. It is not immigration advice, and FrancoBridge is not a licensed immigration representative. Program rules, fees and processing times change — confirm current requirements on the IRCC Francophone Mobility page. For advice on a specific case, consult a lawyer or a consultant licensed by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC).
