This lesson covers the vocabulary you need to talk about your own immigration file: the different residency and work statuses newcomers move through, the government programs that grant them, and the verbs that describe the process itself — starting a démarche, applying, waiting, being approved or refused, and eventually becoming a citizen.
Most of these terms are Canada's own program names, not generic French vocabulary: le permis de travail, le permis d'études, la carte de résident permanent and le certificat de sélection du Québec are IRCC's and Quebec's actual document and program titles, and IRCC itself — Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada — is the federal department that runs the whole system. You will see these exact terms on government forms, on the IRCC and Quebec immigration websites, and in TEF/TCF reading and listening material about immigration policy, so they are worth learning as fixed, correctly-spelled units rather than assembling them word by word.
| to start an administrative process | entamer une démarche |
A démarche is any formal administrative step: you entamez (start) one, you attendez (wait) while it is en attente, and IRCC eventually délivre (issues) a document or refuses your demande. The lesson also covers the family-based route (le parrainage, un répondant), the asylum route (le statut de réfugié, un demandeur d'asile), and the last step of the whole journey — obtenir la citoyenneté and prêter serment at the citizenship ceremony.
Register note: this is descriptive, informational vocabulary — the words a newcomer uses to describe their own file, in conversation or in exam reading passages — not the fixed politeness formulas of a formal letter. Those are in Lesson 02.
