How to register for TCF Canada, steps, documents and dates

You register for TCF Canada directly with an approved centre, not through a central FEI booking page. Find a centre on the France Éducation international (FEI) map, ask it for dates, format and price, and give it your personal data, including your passport number. There is no diploma or earlier test to show, and you can use any centre you like.

Steps

1. Find a centre. Use FEI’s map of approved TCF centres. Sessions run all year, but each centre sets its own dates.
2. Ask the centre for the session dates, the format (paper or computer) and the price. FEI says these come from the centre. For prices, see how much TCF Canada costs.
3. Choose a date (see below), then register and pay the way the centre asks.
4. Check your data. What you give at registration is what ends up on the results.
5. Prepare for the day. You need your convocation, valid photo ID and a blue or black pen. The exam format guide covers what is allowed in the room.

When you write to the centre, name the exact test. TCF Canada is for anyone who must certify French for economic immigration to Canada or Canadian citizenship with a file at IRCC, whatever their nationality or mother tongue. TCF Québec is a different test, with a different format, for permanent immigration to Québec. See TCF Canada or TCF Québec.

What you need to register

• No diploma and no prior test.
• A minimum age of 16.
• Your surname, first name, sex, date and country of birth, nationality, mother tongue, email address and passport number (asked for TCF Canada).
• On the day, a valid photo ID such as a passport, residence permit or ID card.

Choosing your date

Three things set the limits.

• Results take time. They come within 15 working days from FEI’s receipt of the session material.
• Retakes need a gap. If you want a second attempt in reserve, 20 days must separate two sittings.
• Results age. Your attestation is valid for 2 years from the date results are issued. IRCC wants results less than 2 years old when you complete your Express Entry profile and again when you submit your application.

If your application is far off, a very early sitting may leave your attestation out of date by then. A very late one leaves no time to repeat a bad result. Start from the date by which you need a valid attestation, subtract the results delay, then leave room for a second sitting. Results, validity and retakes has the detail.

Registering for a retake

A retake is a new registration with the centre, for a session at least 20 days after your previous sitting. The centre’s calendar decides what is available, so look at dates as soon as you think you may need another try. FEI gives no annotated copy and no list of right answers, so you will not get a breakdown of the first attempt.

Paper or computer

The centre tells you which format your session uses. Speaking is always face to face with an examiner, and the other tests can be on computer. FEI notes that for some computer-based writing tests the first correction may be done by FIDELIA, with the second always human. If you do not want this, you can ask to sit on paper. Ask the centre what is offered before you book. The marking process is explained on results and re-marking.

Disability adjustments

If you need adjustments, give the centre a recent medical certificate at least two months before the session. An extra third of time is available only for paper sessions. Ask the centre early, since the notice period is long.

If you cannot attend

Illness, a transit problem, a strike, the death of a relative or a work obligation count as force majeure. With proof given to the centre within 5 weeks of the session start date, you can get a refund or postponement.

After you register

• The centre validates your session. You then get an email from noreply@france-education-international.fr asking you to create your TCF-Candidat account, using your birth date, birth country and the first letters of your surname. Make sure the email address you gave the centre is one you read.
• Results are published in that space and sent to the centre, within 15 working days from FEI’s receipt of the session material.
• The attestation is a secure PDF with a QR code, and it carries the date from which the 2 years run.

On the day

You are photographed on the day of the exam, and without that photo there are no results. Arrive early enough to go through this step with your ID in hand. A late candidate is not admitted once the listening test starts, and nobody may leave during it.

No dictionaries, notes or phones. Only your ID, your convocation and a blue or black pen on the table. If something goes wrong with the test itself, tell the centre right after the test, not weeks later.