Prospective Quebec immigrants 'very frustrated' by online portal crash

Thousands of Quebec immigration hopefuls were left "very frustrated" Tuesday after the Mon projet Québec online portal crashed.

Mon projet Québec, which officially launched on Jan. 5, is a new online immigration application management system. The tool helps prospective Quebec immigrants complete the application process for the Quebec Skilled Worker Program.

More than 40,000 people have created profiles on the website in anticipation of the March 31 application deadline. On Tuesday morning, thousands tried to log in to submit their applications – only to find the site had crashed.

This is not the first time the site has run into some technical issues. According to Montreal immigration lawyer David Cohen, there have been glitches with the system since it was first launched.

"The site would go down, people were having difficulty registering because they would only allow 150 people on the site at one time. And they have had these, let's call them 'beginners' problems,' right from the outset."

Cohen said the government was likely "overwhelmed" by the amount of people registering to apply for the program. He said his clients, some of whom stayed up in different time zones, are "very frustrated" by the crash.

Applications for the Quebec Skilled Worker Program are processed on a first-come, first-served basis.

This year, Quebec will be accepting 2,800 applicants for immigration.

Server crash under investigation

According to Immigration Ministry spokesman Jonathan Lavallée, the overnight crash was caused by a technical failure in one of the servers following a maintenance session. As a result, the ministry decided not to open the portal to applications this morning as a preventative measure.

A message was posted on Mon projet Québec's home page.

"To be fair to all applicants, the Ministère will announce the opening of the system at least 24 hours in advance," it said.

Lavallée said the precise cause of the server failure is being investigated.