Working in Canada from France: jobs, salaries and work permits

To work in Canada, a French citizen needs a work permit (a Working Holiday visa or an employer-specific permit) or permanent residence; a holiday eTAElectronic Travel AuthorizationAn online authorization that visa-exempt travellers, including French citizens, must get before boarding a flight to Canada. It costs C$7 on the official site. is never enough. Salaries are quoted as gross annual pay, and less of it reaches your account than you’d expect: in 2026, C$70,000 gross leaves about C$53,800 after tax in Toronto and C$51,000 in Montreal. If your profession is regulated (nurse, engineer, lawyer and so on), you’ll also need a licence from the provincial regulatory body, called an ordre professionnel in Quebec.

This applies to French citizens looking for a salaried job in Canada, whether from France or after they arrive. If your French employer is sending you to Canada, you’re a posted worker, a different case covered in the guide to posting a French employee to Canada; if you want to start your own business, see the Business section instead.

Which permit lets you work?

If you’re 18 to 35 and don’t have an offer yet, the Working Holiday visa lets you work for any employer for up to 24 months. With an offer outside Quebec, Francophone Mobility spares your employer the Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA)Source: IRCC; in Quebec, you usually need that LMIA and then a CAQ. The guide to your visa and permit options covers the conditions, fees and the path to permanent residence for each route.

An employer-specific permit works much like a French titre de séjour salarié: it carries the company’s name, and changing jobs means getting a new permit. Before you accept an offer, check which permit it relies on.

How to read a Canadian salary

A Canadian job offer shows either a gross annual salary (“$70,000 per year”) or, below management level, very often an hourly rate (“$24 an hour”). You’re usually paid every two weeks rather than at the end of the month, so an annual salary is split into 26 paycheques.

When you compare it with your French gross salary, look at what the figure leaves out. A thirteenth month and meal vouchers are rare, but many employers pay for group insurance, which does the job of your French mutuelle (dental care, prescription drugs, sometimes eye care), and contribute to a pension plan.

The real shock is time off and working hours. The law guarantees the minimum below; many management contracts offer more, but if you want three weeks in your first year, negotiate it before you sign. For the other provinces, see the paid vacation and working hours comparisons.

How much of your gross salary do you keep? Two worked examples

Between gross and net, Canada takes three things: pension contributions (CPPCanada Pension PlanThe federal pension plan funded by contributions from workers and employers across Canada outside Quebec., or QPP in Quebec), Employment Insurance (roughly France’s unemployment insurance) and income tax, both federal and provincial, withheld from every paycheque. In France, most of the gap between gross and net comes from social contributions. In Canada, it’s mostly income tax: contributions take only 7 to 8% of gross pay.

Shared assumptions: single employee, no children, C$70,000 gross in 2026, resident in the province all year, basic tax credits only, 2026 rates and thresholds from the CRACanada Revenue AgencyThe federal tax authority, the equivalent of France’s Direction générale des Finances publiques. (Canada Revenue Agency) and Revenu Québec. Figures rounded, excluding group insurance and union dues.

In Quebec, the same salary leaves you with less. Provincial income tax starts at 14%Source: Revenu Québec on the first dollar above the basic amount, compared with 5.05% in Ontario, and Quebec adds the QPIP, its own parental insurance plan. Quebecers get a 16.5% cut in federal tax, but it isn’t enough to close the gap.

Another Quebec surprise: you’ll file two tax returns every spring, one with the CRA and one with Revenu Québec. To compare a specific offer with your French salary, after tax and cost of living, run it through the France–Canada salary calculator.

Is your profession regulated in the province?

In Canada, professions aren’t licensed by the federal government but by a body in each province. For most jobs, your diploma doesn’t need to be “recognized”: it’s up to the employer. In a regulated profession, though (health, law, engineering, accounting, teaching, and trades such as electrician), it’s illegal to practise or use the title without a licence from the regulatory body.

• Quebec: more than forty professional orders oversee these occupations. Under the France–Quebec agreement of October 17, 2008Source: Québec.ca, mutual recognition arrangements (ARMs) cover several dozen professions, trades and functions with a simplified procedure, sometimes with a supervised internship or a bridging course.
• Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta: no mutual recognition arrangement with France. Each regulatory body (the provincial nursing college, the engineering regulator and so on) assesses your file, often with exams.
• Unregulated occupation: in Quebec, the immigration ministry’s comparative evaluation of studies translates your diploma into its Quebec equivalent, handy for a recruiter who has never heard of a “Bac+5”.

Start the process while you’re still in France: a licensing application often takes months, and some regulators ask for documents only your school or former employer can provide.

How to adapt your CV to the Canadian format

A Canadian CV is read in thirty seconds and must contain nothing that could be used to discriminate: human rights laws forbid turning down a candidate because of age, family status or origin. Including it will make a Canadian recruiter uneasy.

Where to look, and how to get past the “Canadian experience” trap

The main public job site is the Government of Canada’s Job Bank (Guichet-Emplois in French). An employer applying for an LMIA has to advertise the job there, so that’s where you’ll find many positions open to foreign candidates. Each province also runs its own public employment service.

Plenty of jobs are filled through networking, though, which is where “informational interviews” come in: a twenty-minute coffee with someone in your field. In Canada, asking for one is normal, not pushy.

Then there’s the well-known catch-22: no job without Canadian experience, no experience without a job. Ontario tackled it head on: since January 1, 2026, a job posting from an employer with 25 or more staff can no longer require Canadian experience, and must show a salary range. Elsewhere, employers still ask for it, and the way around it is a first job on a Working Holiday visa (even below your level), volunteering in your field, or a bridging program for internationally trained professionals.

Once you’ve accepted an offer, the moving checklist takes over, from the permit to your first week in Canada. And keep that first job in mind from day one: a year of skilled work in Canada opens the door to permanent residence through the Canadian Experience Class.