Quebec opens family reunification intake July 2 with 15,700-undertaking cap and staggered submission dates

Quebec published the rules for its next family reunification intake period on June 23, 2026, opening submissions from July 2 and setting a two-year cap at 15,700 undertakings — higher than the 13,000 limit in the previous cycle that ran from June 2024 to June 2026. The announcement introduces a staggered submission calendar that assigns each sponsor a specific earliest date based on when their relative received their immigration decision letter from the federal government. An application sent before that date is not held and processed later — it is returned to the sponsor as inadmissible.

How Quebec family sponsorship works

Quebec operates its immigration system under the Canada-Quebec Accord of 1991, which gives the province significant independent control over who it accepts as permanent residents. When a Quebec resident wants to sponsor a family member to join them, the process has two stages. First, the provincial government reviews the sponsorship and, if approved, issues a Certificat de sélection du Québec. Second, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada processes the federal permanent residence application. The cap and the intake rules apply to the provincial stage — once the undertaking is approved by Quebec, the federal process runs on separate federal timelines. The staggered submission schedule governs when a sponsor can submit their application to Quebec, not when IRCC processes the permanent residence.

The new intake rules

The intake window runs from July 2, 2026 to June 30, 2028. Within the 15,700 total, the rules allocate 13,300 undertakings for sponsors of spouses, common-law partners, and conjugal partners, and 2,400 for sponsors of parents and grandparents. The previous intake period set a combined cap of 13,000, so the new cycle increases capacity by about 20 percent. That said, the cap is binding — once it fills, no further applications are accepted until the next intake period. Sponsors of minor dependent children, orphaned minor relatives, and minors being adopted in Quebec are exempt from the cap entirely and are not counted against either sub-cap.

Staggered submission dates

The most operationally important element of the new rules is the staggered calendar. Quebec assigns each sponsor a minimum submission date based on the date of the most recent IRCC decision letter in the principal applicant's file. The table below lists the cut-off letter dates and the corresponding earliest Quebec submission dates. If your relative's IRCC letter is dated after a given cut-off, your earliest date is the next row down.

How to submit — and what happens if you submit early

All applications must be submitted by mail. Quebec does not accept family sponsorship applications in person at any office, and there is no online submission portal for this intake. The physical postmark determines the submission date. An application that arrives before the sponsor's designated date is deemed inadmissible — Quebec will return it to the sender without processing. The sponsor then has to reassemble and resubmit after the correct date has passed. This rule is firm: there is no grace period and no discretionary early-acceptance mechanism. Sponsors should prepare their complete application package before their designated date and send it on or after that date — not before.

Who is exempt from the cap and the staggered dates

Three categories of family members are not subject to the intake cap or the staggered submission schedule and can be sponsored at any point during the two-year intake period. These are: minor dependent children of the sponsor, minors being adopted in Quebec, and orphaned minor relatives (including siblings, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren who are minors). For these relationships, sponsors do not need to wait for a designated submission date and can send applications from July 2, 2026 onward without reference to the IRCC letter date table.

What sponsors should do now

If you are a Quebec resident with a pending family reunification case — or approaching the point where you could begin sponsorship — the staggered calendar is the critical document to check. Identify the most recent IRCC decision letter date in your relative's file, find the corresponding row in the table above, and mark the submission date in your calendar as the earliest possible date to mail your Quebec application. Use the lead time before your designated date to gather every required document and have your application package ready to go. Consulting an immigration lawyer or licensed immigration consultant for a full file review before your submission date reduces the risk of a procedural return for an incomplete application. The cap structure means that if a particular undertaking category fills up before you submit, you may not have another opportunity until the next intake cycle, which Quebec has not yet announced.