Québec’s Ministry of Immigration today dashed hopes that the province’s popular Immigrant Investor Program (QIIP) might reopen next month, as originally planned. Instead, Minister Nadine Girault today announced in a statement that the program would not reopen until April 1st 2023.
Today’s extension of the program moratorium is the third such in 16 months. Originally suspended in November 2019 – reportedly to “allow time for the program to be reviewed” – the government prolonged the suspension a second time in May last year, citing “low retention rates in Québec” as a chief cause of concern.
The two-year suspension announced today would allow the ministry to “finalize the current revision work, in order to implement a renewed program that better corresponds to the government’s objectives in terms of integration and francization of immigrants,” said the statement, according to Canada Immigration News.
Preceding the suspension in November 2019 was an accumulated backlog of some 18,800 unprocessed cases. The Ministry today assured that already-submitted applications would not be affected by the suspension.
Mandeville and Associates, a seasoned provider of QIIP-related legal advice, pointed out that the ministerial order covering the suspension had also left the door open for a modification of the policy at any time between now and April 2023, which the firm said gave it “hope that the Québec government may come with a revamped program” before that date.
Sam Bayat, founder of Bayat Legal Services, another global investment migration advisory that can trace its roots back to the Québécois program, commented on Linkedin that the “QIIP is dead in the water and, as we close avenues for business applicants, our Western allies are attracting them with open arms.”
