Montrealculture & etiquette

For most economic immigration to Quebec you need a Certificat de sélection du Québec issued by the province before Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will process permanent residence. Express Entry as most of Canada knows it does not apply the same way — Quebec runs its own streams, its own points grid and its own French-language requirements through the Arrima portal. Planning a move to Montreal using advice written about Toronto or Vancouver is the most common and most costly mistake newcomers make.

Quebec's public health cover normally begins about three months after you register, and that gap is genuinely uninsured. But Quebec holds social security agreements with a number of countries — France and Belgium among them — that waive the waiting period entirely for their nationals. Whether you need to buy private cover for those months therefore depends on your passport, and it is worth checking rather than assuming.

Quebec is the only province that administers its own income tax. You file a federal return with the Canada Revenue Agency and a separate provincial return with Revenu Québec, every year, with different forms and different credits. Most tax software handles both, but budget for the extra complexity and know that advice written for the rest of Canada quietly assumes one return.

Under the Charter of the French Language, as strengthened in 2022, businesses must serve customers in French, most workplaces above a size threshold must operate in French, and public services deal with newcomers in French after an initial period. Montreal is genuinely bilingual in daily life and you can get by in English socially — but employment contracts, government correspondence and your children's schooling operate in French by default. Start learning before you arrive rather than after.

Quebec leases conventionally run from 1 July to 30 June, so the rental market clears on a single day. Removal companies are booked out months ahead and charge accordingly, and the best units are gone by April. If you are arriving off-cycle you will have fewer choices; if you are arriving on-cycle, book the truck in March.

A tenant has the right to assign the lease (cession de bail) or sublet, and the landlord may only refuse for a serious reason. Assignment transfers the lease entirely and releases you from it. This is why Quebec has no culture of lease-breaking fees and why 'cession de bail' groups are how a lot of good apartments actually change hands. It is one of the strongest tenant rights in North America and most newcomers never hear about it.