I want to move to Montreal, Canada in a few years. What sort of documentation would I need to move there?

Forget about the French requirement.
Many US citizens live in Montreal and some of them hardly knew more than 'oui' and 'non' at the time they moved in.

Immigration is a serious matter and your first step should be to go to a Canadian consulate near you or the Canadian embassy if your live close to Washington D.C. -see 1st link below.

For all the paper work, you need a visa, visit the second link to see what you need to do and how much is it going to cost you.

You cannot ask for a visa from Canada you have to do it from outside the country and if your case is straightforward it should take between 6 and 12 months.

You need a valid certificate that shows you speak French.French is very important now if you move to Canada,even in English area of the country.

Most of Canada does not speak french as a first language. Quebec, yes. I do not know if you really need a "certificate" saying you speak french but when we visited Montreal most everyone could converse relatively well in english. You will probably need to apply for a visa to work and stay for a certain length of time. You will need ID, birth certificate/naturalization records, you may need to show plans of where you are working in Canada, residency, etc. If you plan to change citizenship that is a whole other situation.

A certificate that proves you can speak French?!?

What the hell is he talking about???

Must be on crack or something, damn...

By the way, which part of the world will you be coming from?



Good luck to you because it will be a long and tedious immigration process, whichever way you look at it!





P.S. I have included a few helpful links for more info!

If you're going to Quebec, you don't NEED a certificate saying you speak french, but you won't be able to get a job if you don't. If you don't speak french, you will not be able to get a job since most jobs require that you do. My friend applied for a job at McDonald's and they had to test her french skills.

It depends on what you mean by "move". If you mean "immigrate", there are two different options: one is to follow the Quebec immigration path and the other is to go through a Federal immigration program.

Generally, to be selected by the province (the first option) you need to show that you'll integrate well in the Quebec society. To simplify things, it means you need to show a good level of French skills or at least, willingness to invest time and effort in acquiring them (although, may I add, the first answer to your question is still nonsense) and some qualifications that will help you find a job.

You don't need to move here to start the process - if you live in the States, for example, you can apply from there. Depending on your home country, immigrating can take anywhere from 8-9 months to a few years. It *really* depends.

If you only want to come for a few years (to study or to work), there may be simpler ways to obtain your status, without going through getting permanent residence. For studying, you'll need a certificate of acceptance (issued by schools) and for work you'll need an offer letter.