TCF Canada or TCF Québec, which test to take for your application

Use TCF Canada for applications filed with IRCC (Express Entry, Canadian citizenship). TCF Québec is made for permanent immigration to Québec, where the file goes to Québec’s ministry (MIFI). Québec’s ministry also lists TCF Canada among the tests it accepts, so if your files go to both, TCF Canada can serve for both.

Your application	Test to take
Express Entry (IRCC)	TCF Canada (or TEF Canada)
Canadian citizenship (IRCC)	TCF Canada (or TEF Canada)
Permanent immigration to Québec (MIFI)	TCF Québec, or TCF Canada (see below)

TCF Canada suits anyone who must certify French for economic immigration to Canada or for citizenship, whatever their nationality or mother tongue. For the choice between it and the other IRCC-listed test, see TCF Canada or TEF Canada.

Can TCF Québec be used for IRCC?

No. IRCC’s Express Entry list names TEF Canada and TCF Canada for French, and TCF Québec is not on it. FEI itself presents TCF Canada as the version for IRCC and TCF Québec as the one for Québec’s ministry. Check IRCC’s list before you register.

Can TCF Canada be used for Québec?

Yes. For the Skilled Worker Selection Program (PSTQ), Québec’s ministry accepts TCF Canada, TCF Québec, TCF, DALF, DELF, TEFAQ, TEF Canada and TEF. Results must be two years old or less at the date you apply, you must give a full scan of the certificate, and the test must be taken in an approved centre. The PEQ uses the same list for oral French, with results 2 years old or less. Québec’s own pages cover the PSTQ and the PEQ. Required levels and program status change, so check them there.

Québec reads your results on its own scale, the échelle québécoise, with its own correspondence table. Do not apply IRCC’s NCLC table to a Québec application.

How the two tests differ

TCF Québec is modular, so you choose 1 to 4 tests. TCF Canada has 4 mandatory tests.

	TCF Canada	TCF Québec
Tests	4 mandatory	4 modular, choose 1 to 4
Listening	39 multiple-choice questions, 35 min	29 questions, 25 min
Reading	39 multiple-choice questions, 60 min	29 questions, 45 min
Writing	3 tasks, 60 min	3 tasks, 60 min
Speaking	12 min	12 min
For	IRCC files	Permanent immigration to Québec

Citizenship

Applicants aged 18 to 54 must prove speaking and listening at CLB/NCLC 4 or higher, in English or French. If you used TCF Canada for permanent residence, IRCC says your results need to be “B1 or higher (B2, C1 or C2)”, and you may include a copy even if they are expired. IRCC’s page does not say whether this applies per skill, so read IRCC’s language proof page before you decide.

In IRCC’s TCF Canada table, NCLC 4 is 331–368 in listening and 4–5 out of 20 in speaking. See the full chart.

Validity depends on the authority

For IRCC, TCF Canada results must be less than 2 years old when you complete your profile and when you submit your application. Québec asks for results 2 years old or less at the date you apply. A TCF Canada attestation is valid 2 years from the date results are issued, so a result can fit one file and be too old for another a few months later. Compare the validity date on your attestation with the date of each application, and keep a margin.

If you are unsure

1. Write down which authority will receive the file, IRCC, Québec’s ministry, or both.
2. For IRCC, check that the test is on IRCC’s list. For Québec, check the ministry’s list for your program on the date you apply.
3. If it is both, take TCF Canada and read each authority’s scale separately. Use the NCLC table for IRCC and Québec’s correspondence table for Québec.
4. Ask the centre which format (paper or computer) and which dates it offers before you pay.