The French Door Pack

What the French door is really worth, what it really costs in Lagos, and who should walk away.

Which of these is you?

• You are stuck in the Express Entry pool and your score will not move. Start at "The threshold, and why it is all four".
• You have heard French is worth points but nobody agrees how many. Go to "The number nobody quotes honestly". There is a reason for the confusion and it is not your fault.
• You are ready to start and want the test booked. Go to "The tests, and what they cost in Lagos", then "Tonight".
• You are wondering whether this is worth a year of your life. Go to "Who should not learn French for this". Read that one before you pay for anything.

The threshold, and why it is all four

The French threshold in Canada's system is NCLC 7. NCLC is simply the French twin of the CLB scale you already know from English tests, running one to twelve.

The part people get wrong is not the number. It is the word "all". The ministerial instruction that created French points in Express Entry sets the test at proficiency "assessed at level 7 or higher in all language skill areas", and it builds a second, higher tier on top of that for people who also hold English at level 5 or higher across their abilities.

So three out of four is worth exactly the same as none. Reading, writing, listening, speaking, every one of them at 7 or better, or the door does not open. That single sentence is the difference between people who spend a year on French and get nothing, and people who spend the same year and get everything.

Source: Canada Gazette, Ministerial Instructions Amending the Ministerial Instructions Respecting the Express Entry System, 2017-1.

The number nobody quotes honestly

Ask five agents what French is worth in points and you will get five numbers, all said with total confidence. Here is why.

Those points are not set in a law that sits still. They are set by ministerial instruction, and ministerial instructions are amended from time to time. Every amendment leaves a trail of blog posts and agent scripts carrying the old figure, still being repeated years later by people who never went back to check.

Here is what the grid itself said when we read it on 18 August 2026: French language skills carry a maximum of 50 additional points. Treat that ceiling as solid and everything under it as moving parts, because how the points split across the two tiers is exactly the kind of detail an amendment changes. The value in force on the day you plan lives on Canada's own page, and it takes about ninety seconds to read yourself: IRCC, Comprehensive Ranking System criteria.

This is not caution for its own sake. The same system removed every job offer point on 25 March 2025, and scripts selling those points are still circulating today. Read the grid, write the number down with the date beside it, and when somebody quotes you a different one, you will know immediately what you are dealing with.

The second French door most people never hear about

Everybody talks about Express Entry. There is another door, and its French requirement is lower.

Canada has a Francophone Community Immigration Class, created by ministerial instructions in force from 26 November 2024 until 26 November 2029. Its language requirement is set out plainly: the applicant must show, using an approved test less than two years old at the time the application is made, that they have reached benchmark 5 or higher in each of the four skill areas in French under the NCLC.

NCLC 5, not 7. That is a materially shorter climb, on a different route with its own separate conditions, and it is worth knowing exists before you decide that French is out of reach.

Source: Canada Gazette, Ministerial Instructions with Respect to the Francophone Community Immigration Class.

Both doors need the same thing from you: a French test result from an approved provider, taken in Nigeria, paid for in naira. So the next section is the one that decides whether any of this is real for you.

The tests, and what they cost in Lagos

Two French tests are used for Canadian immigration purposes, the TEF Canada and the TCF Canada, and both are sat in Nigeria at Alliance Française. On 18 August 2026, IRCC's own language testing page named exactly those two as the accepted French tests. Confirm it again before you pay for one, because that list is not a permanent fixture either. To see what score equals NCLC 7, use the "Check your language level" tool on that same page: pick your program and it reads your result for you, which is how IRCC now presents the conversion rather than a static chart.

The TEF Canada is four compulsory papers. At Alliance Française de Lagos: reading, 60 minutes, 40 questions, 300 points; listening, 40 minutes, 40 questions, 360 points; writing, 60 minutes, 2 topics, 450 points; speaking, 15 minutes, 2 topics, 450 points. The TEF certification is valid for two years from the date of the test.

The TCF Canada is open to anyone aged 16 or over: listening, 39 questions in 35 minutes; reading, 39 questions in 60 minutes; writing, three exercises in 60 minutes; and speaking, three exercises in a face-to-face 12 minute test with an examiner.

Now the number that decides everything.

The student price is not a discount code. It is earned: eligibility comes after 180 hours of study with Alliance Française in Nigeria in the twelve months before the test, and an attestation of registration is required.

Sit with that first figure for a moment. ₦750,000 is about C$760 at today's rate. You are paying a near-Canadian price, in Lagos, in naira, for one sitting of one test. That is the real gate on this route, and it is the reason so many people who start French never finish it. Anybody selling you "French to Canada" without putting this number in front of you first is not being straight with you.

The Lagos centre publishes the TEF fee on its page but does not publish a TCF Canada fee there, so ask by email before you plan around a number for that one. And note this line, which is on the page and which people learn the hard way: there shall be no postponement or refund once you have completed your registration.

Sources: Alliance Française de Lagos, e-TEF Canada, Alliance Française de Lagos, e-TCF Canada and Le français des affaires, CCI Paris Île-de-France, TEF Canada.

Tonight

Twenty minutes, three moves. Do them in this order.

One. Price your real route, not the fantasy one.

1. Open the TEF Canada page for Lagos and read the fee with your own eyes.
2. Decide now whether you are going for the student price. If yes, your plan starts with 180 hours of Alliance Française study inside twelve months, not with the test.

Two. Create the booking profile before you are ready to book.

1. Go to the Alliance Française de Lagos examinations portal.
2. Create your student profile and register for your preferred date.
3. Upload a copy of the biodata page of your international passport and a passport photograph.
4. For the TCF, the portal entry is here, and you wait for a confirmation email during the following week.

Doing this now, months early, means the day you are ready there is no scramble and no "the portal is not working" excuse to yourself.

Three. Send one email about classes.

Copy this exactly.

Good afternoon. I am planning to sit the [TEF Canada / TCF Canada] and I would like to qualify for the student price. Please confirm the class schedule and fees that would give me 180 hours of study with Alliance Française within twelve months, starting [MONTH]. My current French level is [complete beginner / I studied it in secondary school / other].

Send it to reception.lagos@afnigeria.org for classes, and certification.lagos@afnigeria.org for questions about the examinations themselves.

A realistic plan, month by month

This is a plan, not a promise. People reach NCLC 7 at very different speeds, and anybody who gives you a guaranteed timeline is selling something.

• Months 1 to 2. Absolute beginner to comfortable with the sound system and the present tense. Daily contact, not a weekly class. French collapses without daily contact.
• Months 3 to 5. The grammar spine. This is where most people stop, and stopping here is exactly why most people never get the points.
• Months 6 to 8. The four abilities trained separately. Listening and speaking are where Nigerian candidates most often lose the fourth one, because reading and writing come faster to people who already read academic English.
• Month 9. A full mock under exam conditions, all four papers, timed, no mercy.
• Month 10. The real test, booked and paid, the date already in your calendar.

If you are chasing the student price, your hours with Alliance Française must sit inside the twelve months before the test, so the classes and the test date get planned together, not one after the other.

Tunde's arithmetic

Tunde is 33, in Ikeja, and his score has not moved in a year. He decides on French in September, with a plan rather than a vibe.

He looks at the fee first, which is the part most people do last. Standard TEF Canada in Lagos, ₦750,000. Alliance Française student price, ₦650,000, if he does his 180 hours there inside twelve months. So the classes he was treating as the expensive part actually pay him ₦100,000 back on the test fee, before you count what they do to his chances of passing all four papers first time.

Then he prices the honest version, which includes a second sitting, because losing one ability out of four is the most common way this goes. Two sittings at the student price is ₦1.3m. Two sittings at standard price is ₦1.5m. He budgets for two, and if he only needs one he is ₦650,000 richer than his plan.

His result, once he passes, is valid for two years, which is his real window to use it.

So Tunde's French decision is not "should I learn a language". It is "am I willing to commit roughly ₦1.3m and ten months to move myself from a room where I am invisible into a smaller room". Written like that, it is a decision he can actually make, and that is the whole point of putting the number in front of him.

Questions people actually asked

"I am 39. Is it too late to start this?" Age is one input among several and nobody honest will forecast your outcome, including us. But the question worth asking at 39 is not "which pathway should I use", it is "which facts in my profile can still change". Language is one of the very few that you can change by decision rather than by luck, and it does not care how old you are. What it does care about is the ₦650,000 to ₦750,000 and the ten months. Price both, then decide. If the honest answer is that this year cannot carry it, that is a twelve month plan, not a closed door.

"I am a teacher in Nigeria and I want to come through a specific occupation route. Do I still need French?" These are two separate levers, not one. Category or occupation eligibility is about what you do; the French threshold is about what you can prove in four abilities. Some people qualify on one, some on both, and which categories are running is set by instruction and changes. Check what is open on IRCC's own pages on the day you plan, and do not let anyone tell you your occupation makes French pointless, or that French makes your occupation irrelevant. Neither is true.

Who should not learn French for this

This is the section the people selling French classes will never write.

Do not start if the ₦650,000 is not findable within your plan. A person who studies for ten months and cannot pay for the test has bought nothing. Secure the test money first, even roughly, even as a savings plan, then start the classes.

Do not start if you cannot give it daily contact. Two hours on a Saturday will not reach NCLC 7 in all four abilities, and a year of Saturdays is the most expensive way to end up with nothing. Be honest about your week before you pay for the year.

Do not start if your English test is stale or weak. The higher French tier in Express Entry is built on top of English at level 5 or higher, so for many people the cheapest points on the table are in the English test they already almost have. Fix the cheap thing first.

Do not start if somebody promised you an outcome. French moves you into a smaller room. It does not decide what happens in that room, and nobody can, including us.

If two or more of those describe you, your next twelve months are a money and profile plan, not a language plan. That is not a defeat. It is the version of this that actually finishes.

What quietly goes wrong

• Reaching NCLC 7 in three abilities and stalling on the fourth, which is the same as zero for this purpose.
• Treating French as a class instead of a habit.
• Booking the test before doing one full timed mock of all four papers, then losing ₦750,000 to a paper you had never sat under pressure.
• Registering for a session you are not sure about, then discovering there is no postponement and no refund.
• Paying an agent for something Alliance Française sells you directly, on its own portal, at a published price.
• Letting a certificate go stale. The TEF certification is valid for two years from the test date, so a result earned too early can expire before you use it.
• Taking a points figure from a video, a blog or an agent instead of from Canada's own page on the day.
• Believing that French guarantees an invitation. It does not. It changes which room you are standing in.

One thing to do now

Open the Lagos test page and look at the fee. Whatever you decide after that, you will be deciding with the real number in front of you, which is more than most people who start this route ever do.

Naira figures on this page were converted at the 18 August 2026 rate (C$1 = ₦982).