I have been interviewed at one of the AI startups from Montreal. It’s a senior technical position. One of the recruiter’s concerns is getting a work permit in Quebec. I have done research online but could not found a good reference which explains the process of getting a work permit for a tech position in Quebec. Is it challenging to file LMO or getting a work permit in Quebec? Is it different than global talent stream? Thank you!
Hi Swamiom,
First congrats on the job offer!
I have not immigrated to Quebec yet so unfortunately I cannot share out of personal experiences, but I have been considering the possibility so I did some research which I can share with you here.
It sounds like you would need your employer to sponsor your work visa, which is technically a Quebec equivalent of LMIA, meaning the employer has to go through a series of steps to prove that there is no Canadian can qualify for this position & the government considers hiring a foreigner for this position will have if not positive at least neutral impact on the local job market.
In general, a company might be reluctant to go through this procedure as it is quite a lot of work, especially in your case the company is a start-up, who most possibly do not have the capacity or experience when it comes to this.
However, there is something called ‘a simplified/accelerated stream’ in Quebec, where they take in people whose skills are at high demand, and of course Quebec will make up their own list, which you can find here http://www.immigration-quebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/employeurs/embaucher-temporaire/recrutement-haut-salaire/liste-professions/index.html (French only).
What you can do is maybe point your recruiter to this website, and stress that your job profile might qualify for this accelarated process, which would save them a lot of pain. In this case, you might have a better chance that they are willing to sponsor your work permit.
I am not a professional immigrant agent, and all above is based purely on my own research, so there might be inaccuracies here and there, but all in all, I’d like to discuss more as there is not really so much focus on Quebec in this community!
Best,
Thank you mie - no offer yet, still in recruitment process, looks like 1 more round is left. But thank you for the information
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Good luck! Let me know if it goes through, would be interesting to see how willing employer in general handles this 
Thanks in advance!
After lots of back n forth and successful rounds of interviews. This is what I get from the recruiter: looks like hiring in Quebec is burdensome and time-consuming and they didn’t proceed as they needed the person immediately. so bad luck! The recruiter said there is lots of paperwork involved and the company needed the person immediately.
Immigration expert here - is hiring in Quebec really troublesome and involves lots of paperwork? Thanks
@swamiom LMIA or Quebec equivalent is complex and most employers don’t want to go through it. The reason is that it is a labor market test, similar to PERM process in the US.
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Hi Swamiom, thanks for sharing. What a bummer 
Maybe you want to consider getting the PR first through EE and then find a job? At least taking this part of complexity outside the equation.
@mie I feel its kind of catch 22 if your crs is around 450 - You need a Job offer to increase your score and then for Job offer you need to have eligibility to work for which you need PR. I have applied the PNP of Saskatchewan - let’s see how it goes. Thanks.
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Indeed. Anyways, fingers crossed for all of us!
How come they did not ask your work status before they started interview process?
The company has headquarter in US - started with a US recruiter, She liked my profile and said we will figure out the immigration later and I suspect later in the process she was not able to convience HR folks in Montreal.
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