Moving to Canada from France: checklist before and after you land

Whether you’re moving to Canada with a job offer or on a Working Holiday visa, five things come before everything else: your permit, your papers, health cover for the first weeks, money you can reach on arrival and somewhere to stay at first. Cancelling, transferring and telling people can wait until your last two months. Once you’re in Canada, your first week is for getting your Social Insurance Number (SINSocial Insurance NumberA nine-digit identifier for employment and taxes. If authorized to work, you can start by applying for a SIN within three days, then give the number to your employer within three days of receiving it.). You can start authorized work while your SIN application is processed: apply within three days of starting work and give your employer the number within three days of receiving it.

This checklist is for French citizens moving to Canada with a job offer or on a Working Holiday visa (the PVTPermis vacances-travail (Working Holiday permit)The French name for the Working Holiday permit: an open work permit for French citizens aged 18 to 35, issued under International Experience Canada.), alone or with family, and each step says what’s different on a Working Holiday. If you haven’t chosen your permit yet, start with the guide to your visa and permit options; if you’re only going on a three-week holiday, an eTA is all you need and none of this applies to you.

With a job offer or a Working Holiday visa: the 5 things to do first

These five steps depend on timelines you don’t control: a decision from IRCCImmigration, Refugees and Citizenship CanadaThe federal department that handles visas, work and study permits, permanent residence and citizenship. (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the federal immigration department), a form from your CPAM (your French health insurance office), an international transfer. Start them in this order as soon as the offer is signed or your Working Holiday invitation arrives.

The permit itself doesn’t exist yet when you leave: you travel with IRCC’s letter of introduction, and the CBSACanada Border Services AgencyCanadian customs: it checks travellers and goods on arrival. officer (Canada Border Services Agency, the border and customs service) prints your permit at your arrival airport. Check the employer’s name, expiry date and conditions on the spot: a mistake is far easier to fix at the counter than months later.

Which documents should you gather before you leave?

IRCCImmigration, Refugees and Citizenship CanadaThe federal department that handles visas, work and study permits, permanent residence and citizenship. accepts documents in French or English, so your French certificates don’t need translating. Canada has applied the Apostille Convention since January 11, 2024, but IRCC won’t ask for an apostille on a permit application; only get one if a specific body requires it, such as a professional regulator.

On a Working Holiday visa, your insurance is checked when you land: a policy that’s too short can get you a permit limited to its length. The guide to travel insurance and the Working Holiday visa lists the cover to insist on.

What should you cancel or transfer in France?

When you leave, you stop being a French resident for social security and, usually, for tax. Nothing happens automatically: you have to tell every organization yourself, and some contracts have notice periods that cost you if you forget them.

Keep your French bank account, but tell your bank you’re changing residence: some change their terms for non-residents. The year you leave is also the year people most often file the wrong return; the guide to taxes in the year you move explains what to declare in France and in Canada.

Your pension isn’t lost: a social security agreement between France and Canada (and a separate one with Quebec) lets you add up your contribution periods in both countries when you claim your pension.

How much money do you need for the first months?

The official minimum depends on the permit. For a Working Holiday visa, it’s C$2,500 in an accountSource: IRCC, to show when you land. For permanent residence through Express Entry, a single applicant must show C$15,263Source: IRCC (the amount set in July 2025), unless they already have a job in Canada. A job-offer permit sets no fixed amount, but the officer may ask how you’ll live until your first pay.

In practice, those minimums won’t last long, and housing is the biggest cost. According to the October 2025 survey by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), a two-bedroom costs an average of C$2,034 a month in the Toronto areaSource: CMHC and C$1,346 in Montreal. That average includes tenants who’ve been in place for years: a vacant unit, the kind you’ll rent when you arrive, goes for considerably more. The guide to renting a home in Canada sets out what you’ll be asked for, city by city.

Then there’s the lag before your first pay: many employers pay every two weeks, in arrears, so a month can go by before the first deposit, and on a Working Holiday you have to find the job first. Before you sign anything, run your salary through the France–Canada salary calculator to see your real take-home pay and set it against rents.

What to do in your first week in Canada

Your first week comes down to five steps, and the first one decides whether you get paid.

Your SINSocial Insurance NumberA nine-digit identifier for employment and taxes. If authorized to work, you can start by applying for a SIN within three days, then give the number to your employer within three days of receiving it. is confidential: give it to your employer, your bank and government offices, not to a landlord who asks for it to run a credit check. For your phone, the guide to phones, SIMs and eSIMs in Canada compares the options for your first month.

Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta: what changes when you arrive

Canada is a federation: immigration and the SINSocial Insurance NumberA nine-digit identifier for employment and taxes. If authorized to work, you can start by applying for a SIN within three days, then give the number to your employer within three days of receiving it. are federal, but health insurance, driver’s licences and housing are run by each province, a bit as if every French region had its own social security system and its own rules of the road.

• Quebec: the RAMQRégie de l’assurance maladie du QuébecThe agency that runs public health insurance in Quebec. Its French equivalent is the Assurance maladie, the “Sécu”. applies a waiting period of up to three months, waived for French employees, students and interns who bring the right SE 401-Q formSource: RAMQ, but not for Working Holiday participants. The CAQ comes on top of the federal permit for an LMIA job or for studies.
• Ontario: no more waiting period for OHIPOntario Health Insurance PlanOntario’s public health insurance, the equivalent of RAMQ for that province.; you register in person at a ServiceOntario centre. The landlord can ask for last month’s rent as a deposit.
• British Columbia: MSP covers you after the rest of your arrival month plus two months; plan for private insurance in the meantime.
• Alberta: no waiting period for AHCIP if your permit makes you eligible; register as soon as you have an address.

Each province’s waiting periods and forms are covered in the guide to health insurance and the waiting period, and the rest of settling in, from your driver’s licence to your first lease, in the “Arriving” stage. Start with health insurance: it’s the step that costs the most if you miss it.