--- title: "TCF Canada exam booking 2026: how to book the TCF or TEF" description: "Where TCF and TEF Canada exam booking actually happens, how exam dates get published, what registration asks for, and what to do when nothing is open." canonical: https://francaisprep.com/how-to-book-tcf-tef-canada last-updated: 2026-10-25 --- TCF Canada and TEF Canada # TCF and TEF Canada exam booking, step by step Booking, registration and inscription are three words for the same process, and it happens on the exam operator's own portal rather than here. This page covers how that works, where exam dates come from, what to do when no session is open near you, and how far ahead to book once you have a target date. [Book a placement call](/book)[Compare TCF and TEF Canada](/tef-vs-tcf) - Links straight to the operators' own portals - No fees or dates, because those change; centres from the official lists - Built for candidates who already have a target date in mind ![Adèle, the native French teacher who runs Français Prep](/_next/image?url=%2Fadele.png&w=3840&q=75) Adèle SasonNative French teacher - every class, every correction By [Adèle Sason](/about), Français Prep · Updated 25 October 2026 In short You do not book the TCF Canada or the TEF Canada through Français Prep, or through any third party. You register directly on the exam operator's own portal: France Éducation International for the TCF Canada, and CCI Paris Île-de-France for the TEF Canada. Create an account, search that portal for a centre and a session near you, choose a date, pay the fee the centre sets, and keep the confirmation it sends you. Everything below covers that process in more detail, including what to do when the search comes back empty. ## Booking the TCF or TEF Canada at a glance Who runs registration The exam operator, not Français Prep: France Éducation International for the TCF Canada, CCI Paris Île-de-France for the TEF Canada. What you register for A seat at a specific centre, on a specific date, for the full exam or, on some routes, an oral-only sitting. Cost and dates Set locally by the centre and the operator. We do not publish figures, because they change and a stale number costs you money. If nothing is open near you Check on a cadence, widen the city, and check the other exam, before assuming there is nothing available. How far ahead to book As soon as you know the date you are working toward. There is no single safe lead time, only checking early. Our role We prepare you for whichever exam and date you book. We do not run, resell or guarantee any exam registration. The process ## The five steps, for either exam The TCF Canada and TEF Canada are run by two different organisations with two different portals, but the mechanics of booking either one are the same five steps. 1. 1 ### Create an account on the operator's own portal Both exams are booked on a portal run by the organisation that owns the exam, not by a school or a preparation provider. For the TCF Canada that is France Éducation International. For the TEF Canada it is CCI Paris Île-de-France, through Le français des affaires. You will need a working email address and, on most portals, the identity document you plan to sit the exam under, because the name on your registration has to match it exactly. 2. 2 ### Search the portal for a centre and a date Once you are in, the portal lets you search approved centres by city and by exam version. That search is the operator's to run, not ours, which is why we link to it rather than keep our own copy. Only the Canada version of each exam counts toward NCLC for federal Express Entry, so confirm that label before you go further, not after you have paid. 3. 3 ### Choose a session and read what it includes Centres publish their own calendar, and it rarely matches a neighbouring centre's. A session usually covers the full exam. Some centres also run an oral-only sitting for candidates who only need those sections, most often on the Quebec route, so check what a given session actually covers before you commit to it. 4. 4 ### Pay the registration fee, directly to the centre or operator The fee is set locally and paid straight to the centre or the operator through their own portal, never to Français Prep or to any other preparation provider. Treat any offer to sell a seat, guarantee a date or take payment outside the operator's own site as a warning sign. There is no legitimate way to skip the queue. 5. 5 ### Keep your confirmation, and work backward from the date Save whatever confirmation the portal sends. It usually lists what the centre will check on the day, including the identity document required. Results are valid for two years from the date the attestation is issued, so it is worth planning backward from your application deadline rather than forward from today, especially if a retake might end up on the table. Timing ## How far ahead to book There is no single lead time that holds everywhere, because every centre sets and closes its own registration window, and that window has nothing to do with how ready you feel. The rule that does hold: check the portal for your target date as soon as you have one, rather than waiting until your preparation feels finished. You can study in parallel with a booked date. You cannot study your way into a seat that already filled. If your result has to reach an application by a certain deadline, count backward from that deadline rather than forward from today. The two-year validity window, the time a centre takes to release results after the session, and any retake you might need all eat into that gap before you have sat anything. Once you have a date, that is the point to build a study plan around, rather than around a guess. Our [study planner](/tools/study-planner) turns the gap between today and your date into a weekly study allowance. When the search comes back empty ## If no session is open near you [A centre showing nothing available today](/blog/tcf-canada-rendez-vous) is not necessarily out for the year. We do not track which centres currently have open seats, because that changes week to week and publishing it would go stale before anyone read it. Here is what to actually do instead. - ### Check back on a cadence, not once Centres add sessions through the year on their own schedule. A search from three weeks ago tells you nothing about what is open today, so treat a first empty result as a reason to check again, not as a final answer. - ### Widen the city before you widen the wait Search a wider radius before assuming there is nothing available. Demand for both exams is uneven across the country, and [which exam candidates actually sit by city](/exam-centres) varies more than most people expect. - ### Check whether the other exam has room IRCC accepts the TCF Canada and the TEF Canada equally for federal Express Entry, and both convert to the same NCLC scale, so if one operator's portal is booked solid nearby, searching the other costs you nothing. Compare the two properly on [TEF vs TCF Canada](/tef-vs-tcf) before you switch on availability alone. - ### Confirm which immigration system you are actually on If you are applying through Quebec's own selection rather than federal Express Entry, a wider set of tests is accepted, including oral-only sittings. That is worth confirming before you assume your only two options are the ones federal candidates use. Start with [TCF Québec](/tcf-quebec) or [the TEFAQ](/tefaq). ## Booking the TCF or TEF Canada in your city How booking, demand and timing look in each Canadian city, and what to do when your city is full. - [Montréal](/exam-centres/montreal) - [Vancouver](/exam-centres/vancouver) - [Toronto](/exam-centres/toronto) - [Calgary](/exam-centres/calgary) - [Ottawa](/exam-centres/ottawa) - [Edmonton](/exam-centres/edmonton) - [Winnipeg](/exam-centres/winnipeg) - [Halifax](/exam-centres/halifax) - [Mississauga](/exam-centres/mississauga) - [Moncton](/exam-centres/moncton) - [Laval](/exam-centres/laval) - [Longueuil](/exam-centres/longueuil) - [Drummondville](/exam-centres/drummondville) - [Sherbrooke](/exam-centres/sherbrooke) - [Gatineau](/exam-centres/gatineau) - [Saguenay](/exam-centres/saguenay) - [Victoria](/exam-centres/victoria) - [Kelowna](/exam-centres/kelowna) - [Bathurst](/exam-centres/bathurst) - [Québec](/exam-centres/quebec) - [Trois-Rivières](/exam-centres/trois-rivieres) Vocabulary ## Booking, registration, inscription: one process, three words Candidates search for all three and mean the same thing. There is no separate registration step that happens before or after booking, and no application to approve. You create an account on the operator portal, you find a centre running the version of the exam you need, you choose one of its published sessions, you pay, and the portal sends a confirmation. That single sequence is what every one of those words refers to. The French-language portals call it inscription, which is why candidates who have read a French centre page and an English forum post in the same afternoon often believe they have missed a stage. The one distinction worth holding on to is between the exam and the preparation for it. Paying us, or any other provider, buys preparation. It does not reserve a seat and it is not registration. If a provider offers to register you, you are being asked to pay a middleman for something the portal does directly. Sessions ## Where TCF and TEF Canada exam dates come from Neither exam publishes a national calendar. There is no single page anywhere, ours included, that lists every TCF Canada or TEF Canada sitting in the country. Each approved centre schedules its own sessions and publishes them through the operator portal, which is why two centres in the same city can have completely different dates and why a date that exists in Montréal tells you nothing about Calgary. That is also why we do not publish a date list. It is a deliberate refusal rather than an oversight: we have no way to source a live session calendar across every centre, and a stale list is worse than no list, because it sends you to a sitting that is already gone. Search the operator portal for your city, and check it again, since centres add sessions as they confirm staff and rooms. How centres release seats, and how to plan around them, is covered in our guide to [TCF exam dates](/blog/tcf-canada-test-dates). Test centres ## Where to find a centre, and why we do not list dates or fees We do not vouch for any test centre. The exam operators keep the authoritative lists, those lists change, and a wrong address for a paid exam costs a candidate real money. Our test centre finder shows a dated copy of France Éducation International's official TCF centre list, and TEF Canada centres come from the operator's own locator. Confirm the date, fee and address with the centre before you pay, then come back and work out the preparation. [Open the test centre finder](/tools/test-centre-finder). For the TCF Canada, the approved list is maintained by [France Éducation International](https://www.france-education-international.fr/). For the TEF Canada, the operator runs its own finder at [Le français des affaires](https://www.lefrancaisdesaffaires.fr/). Search there first, book the seat, then build the study plan around the date you actually hold. Our city guides list the centres on the official TCF list for the busiest searches: [TCF Canada Montréal](/exam-centres/montreal), [TCF Canada Laval](/exam-centres/laval) and [TCF Manitoba (Winnipeg)](/exam-centres/winnipeg), with every other city on the [exam centres page](/exam-centres). Questions ## Booking questions candidates actually ask ### How do I book the TCF Canada exam? In five steps, all on the operator's side: create an account on the portal France Éducation International runs for the TCF Canada, search it for an approved centre and a date, choose a session and check what it covers, pay the registration fee directly to the centre or operator, then keep the confirmation and plan backward from the date. Make sure you pick the Canada version, because only the TCF Canada or the TEF Canada converts to NCLC for federal Express Entry. ### Where do I actually book the TCF Canada or the TEF Canada? On the exam operator's own portal, not on this site and not through any preparation provider. France Éducation International runs registration for the TCF Canada. CCI Paris Île-de-France runs it for the TEF Canada, through [Le français des affaires](https://www.lefrancaisdesaffaires.fr/). The [TCF Canada portal](https://www.france-education-international.fr/) is linked here too. ### How far ahead should I book? There is no single lead time that holds everywhere, because every centre sets and closes its own registration window on its own schedule. The rule that does hold is to check the portal for your target date as soon as you have one, rather than waiting until your preparation feels finished. You can study in parallel with a booked date. You cannot study your way into a seat that already filled. ### What if there is no session available near me? Check back on a cadence rather than once, widen the city you search, and check whether the other exam has room nearby, since IRCC accepts both equally for federal Express Entry. We do not track or publish which centres currently have open seats, because that changes week to week and a stale list would cost someone a wasted trip. ### Can Français Prep book the exam for me? No. We prepare you for it. The registration, the fee and the seat are always between you and the exam operator, and we would rather say that plainly than let a page imply otherwise. ### Is it safe to pay someone who says they can get me a guaranteed seat? Treat it as a warning sign rather than a shortcut. Both operators register candidates directly through their own portal, and neither runs an official reseller or agent network for individual seats. Money paid outside the operator's own site is money the operator cannot refund or trace back to a booking. ### Does booking earlier get you a better result? No, but it buys you time to prepare against a real date instead of a guess. Once your date is fixed, [a section-by-section study plan](/how-to-pass-tcf-canada) is worth more than any amount of general review. Booking the exam is the easy part; the weeks before it decide the result. The [TCF Canada preparation course](/tcf-canada-course) and the [TEF Canada preparation course](/tef-canada-course) plan those weeks backward from your date, and a [placement call with Adèle](/book) tells you whether the date you booked is realistic. Preparation ## Once your date is booked, this is what fills the gap Every tier runs online and starts from wherever your practice scores currently sit. - ### Weekly plan The whole practice platform: every TCF and TEF Canada series, unlimited AI corrections, timed mock tests and the course lessons. CA$9.99per week Canadian dollars (CAD) Billed weekly, cancel any time. Access runs to the end of the week you paid for. [Start the weekly plan](/dashboard/premium) - Every practice series in all four exam sections - Unlimited AI writing and speaking corrections - Timed mock tests in the real exam format - Course lessons and a weekly study plan - ### Small-group live Weekly live classes with Adèle, in groups small enough that everyone speaks, plus marked writing and speaking. CA$449per 8-week block Canadian dollars (CAD) Eight weekly classes of 60 minutes: 8 hours of live teaching, CA$56 an hour, with your writing and speaking marked every week. [Join a small group](https://buy.stripe.com/fZu4gyfXZ9uK5Aj1P46Vq01) Full refund within 14 days of purchase if you have not taken a session. - Everything in the weekly plan - One 60-minute live class with Adèle every week - Marked writing submissions every week - Marked speaking recordings every week - Most popular ### One-to-one tutoring Private sessions scheduled around your test date, with a study plan built from your diagnostic results. CA$800per 10 sessions Canadian dollars (CAD) CA$80 an hour, booked around your test date: ten 60-minute sessions. [Book one-to-one](https://buy.stripe.com/dRm8wOfXZdL07IralA6Vq0a) Full refund within 14 days of purchase if you have not taken a session. - Everything in small-group live - Private 60-minute sessions scheduled around your test date - Study plan built from your diagnostic test - Unlimited marked writing and speaking during your block Not ready to commit to a block? Try a trial class. One 40-minute class with Adèle, one to one. The CA$30 comes off any block you book within 30 days. [Try one class for CA$30](https://buy.stripe.com/6oU4gy3bd9uK4wf0L06Vq0c) Not sure which tier fits? [Book a free 15-minute video call.](/book) Prices are in Canadian dollars and include any tax that applies. Exam registration fees are paid directly to your test centre and are not included in any tier. WHY PREPARE HERE ## Preparation built around the exam you are actually sitting Four things every tier includes, whether you study on your own or work with Adèle every week. - ### Marked against the real criteria Every writing and speaking task comes with a model answer and the marking grid, so you can see exactly what an examiner rewards. On the live tiers, Adèle marks your own work by hand and tells you which mistakes are costing you the most points. - ### Timed practice in the real exam format You practise each section under the clock, in the order and the length you will meet on test day, so the paper itself is never the surprise. - ### The NCLC threshold always in view Every section is worked against the NCLC thresholds IRCC publishes. A practice result is not an NCLC level; only your attestation gives one. Practice shows you where you lose marks. - ### Study from anywhere, in your timezone Everything is online, for candidates in Morocco, Algeria, Cameroon, India, France and Canada. The free plan and the weekly plan run entirely on your own clock. On the live tiers, if you miss a class the recording and the correction still reach you. ## Keep reading - [TCF CanadaFormat, scoring and the NCLC levels the four sections convert to.](/tcf-canada) - [TEF CanadaThe same, for the TEF Canada's sections and scoring.](/tef-canada) - [TEF vs TCF CanadaWhich exam to sit when both are open to you.](/tef-vs-tcf) - [How to pass the TCF CanadaA study plan built around the date you just booked.](/how-to-pass-tcf-canada) - [TCF and TEF Canada by cityWhich exam candidates in each city actually sit.](/exam-centres) - [Study plannerTurn your test date into a weekly study allowance.](/tools/study-planner) NEXT STEP ## Find out where your French actually stands Book a short assessment with Adèle: one writing task, one speaking task, and an honest plan for the weeks you have left before the exam. [Book an assessment](/book)[See the course tiers](#tiers) A placement call is one honest read on your target date and what it takes to get there. --- For agents: site index https://francaisprep.com/llms.txt, developer access https://francaisprep.com/developers, and TCF or TEF to NCLC conversion over a plain GET at https://api.francaisprep.com/v1/score/convert?exam=tcf_canada&listening=512&reading=470&writing=12&speaking=11 (exam is tcf_canada or tef_canada).