Reaching the Waiting Room: An Analysis of Migrants’ Compliance Process with Quebec’s Two-Step Permanent Residency Program

Two-step migration has dramatically increased in Canada and worldwide. However, few studies have explored how the process of meeting the requirements of two-step permanent residency (PR) programs affects aspiring candidates. This article examines life course effects of the processual interaction between migrants’ decision making and regulatory settings, based on the case of applicants aspiring to obtain PR in Quebec (Canada), a province with distinct inland PR pathways. Based on a qualitative longitudinal study, our analysis draws from repeated interviews in 2019, 2020, and 2022 with 19 migrants in Quebec at different stages of transition to PR. Results show that these programs might affect their life course even before the beginning of the administrative PR application process, depending on the degree of their life trajectories’ conformity to the selection criteria. To match their actual trajectories with the frequently shifting eligible ones, they might need to alter them through what we describe as a “compliance process.” With no guarantee of success in transitioning to PR, in addition to risks of status loss and unintended changes in life trajectories, compliance with shifting pathways to PR might increase temporary migrants’ precariousness.