TCF Canada rules: re-marking, retakes

Read the rules before you book

Most candidates meet the rules of the TCF Canada backwards. They book a date, practise, sit the test, and only open FEI’s pages when a result comes back a level short, looking for a way out.

By then the rules have already done their work.

We think that is the wrong order. The rules are few, and almost none of them is about French. They decide something more practical: how many chances you get, how long each one takes, and how long a good result lasts.

Read before you book, they are a calendar. Read afterwards, they are a list of doors already shut.

Three bodies, three questions

Half the confusion in the forums comes from asking the wrong body the wrong question. Three hold a piece of the TCF Canada, and each answers only for its own.

1The approved centreGives the session dates, the registration steps, the price, and whether you sit on paper or on computer. You report any incident to it on the day.
2France Éducation international (FEI)Sets the test and its rules, marks every paper centrally, and issues your attestation.
3IRCCReads your four results as NCLC levels and decides which level your programme needs and how recent the result must be.

Who holds each piece of the TCF Canada, from booking to your immigration file.

So a thread arguing about the fee is arguing about one centre. A promise of a given NCLC is a promise only IRCC’s grid can keep.

And the rules this hub covers are FEI’s. The only copy worth trusting is on FEI’s own pages, which is where we read them, with the date we last checked.

The whole rulebook on one page

Strip out the administration and the rules that shape a candidate’s year fit in one table. None of them is hidden. Most people simply meet them one at a time, at the worst moment.

Rule	What FEI says	What it means for you
Sittings	As many as you wish, 20 days apart	Unlimited chances, each at least three weeks away
Results	Within 15 working days of FEI receiving the session’s papers	The 20 days can run out before you read your result
Marking	Speaking and writing marked twice	A second opinion before you ever see your mark
Re-marking	Suspended from the sessions of 1 September 2026; restart planned for autumn 2027	For now, a retake is the only remedy
Validity	2 years from the date results are issued	IRCC wants results under 2 years old at your Express Entry profile and at your application
On the day	Valid photo ID, no digital documents; report any difficulty to the centre the same day	No appeal is accepted once the attestation is issued
Fraud	Reciting a text learned by heart is fraud; subjects are neither kept nor shared	Learn structures, never scripts

The TCF Canada’s rules that shape a candidate’s plans, and what each one means in practice.Source: FEI, TCF Canada page and Mes droits et devoirs de candidat au TCF; IRCC, Express Entry: language test results

A wall calendar with blank squares above a tidy desk, a few squares marked with small coloured dots, a closed folder and a pen below, in soft morning light. No people, no legible text. — Read before you book, the rules are a calendar. · Illustration generated with AI

Two rules that changed the maths

Two lines in that table matter more than the rest, and this hub’s two guides are about them.

between two sittings of the TCF Canada: 20 days
for results, from FEI receiving the papers: 15 working days
when FEI plans to restart re-marking: Autumn 2027

Source: FEI, TCF Canada page

No second look, for now

From the sessions of 1 September 2026, FEI accepts no requests to re-mark speaking or writing. FEI’s word is temporarily suspended, to improve its tools, with the service planned to resume in autumn 2027.

Suspended, then, not abolished. But a year is longer than most people’s entire preparation, so we would plan as if the pause covers you. What the suspension means for you goes through it.

Twenty days is a floor

The 20-day rule looks like a waiting period. Set it beside the 15 working days for results and it nearly vanishes: the real wait is the centre’s calendar and your own readiness.

Each sitting now gets one marking, and the next sitting is weeks away.

That is why we think the decision these rules make heaviest is not how to contest a result, but when to sit at all. Book when your practice sits comfortably above your threshold, not to find out where you stand.

Where candidates go wrong

Most mistakes about the rules are not ignorance. They are half-truths that spread because they were true once, or true somewhere else.

What people say

Re-marking has ended.
You can retake in 20 days.
A model answer learned by heart is safe.
A photo of my passport on my phone will do.
If the room went wrong, I can complain later.

What FEI says

It is suspended, with a restart planned for autumn 2027.
You can sit again 20 days later; the result may take 15 working days.
Reciting a text learned by heart is fraud.
A valid photo ID; digital documents are not accepted.
Tell the centre the same day; no appeal once the attestation is issued.

What candidates often say, and what FEI’s pages actually say.

The last one is the one we would underline. With re-marking paused, a same-day report to the centre may be the only trace that something went wrong in the room.

The rules work for you too

Rules read like restrictions, but FEI’s list of a candidate’s rights is just as concrete, and far fewer people read it.

You may register at the approved centre of your choice, without having passed any other exam first.
If you have a disability, you can have adjustments, with a medical certificate, declared when you register.
Your speaking and writing are marked twice, by right.
If force majeure keeps you away (illness, a transport problem, a strike, a death in the family, a work obligation), you can ask for your registration fee to be refunded or carried over, with proof given to the centre within 5 weeks of the session’s start.
Your attestation is digital, secured with a QR code, and valid for 2 years from the date results are issued.

None of these helps if you learn about it afterwards. The force-majeure right has a deadline, and the adjustments must be asked for at registration, not on the morning.

Which guide to read

This hub holds two guides, each on one of the rules that changed. Start with the one that matches where you are:

Deciding when to sit for the first time: Re-marking is suspended, on how you are already marked twice, how thin the score bands are, and why to aim a point or two above your threshold.
One level short and thinking of sitting again: Retaking the TCF Canada, on reading your score rather than your level, and a 20-day plan for the one ability that fell.

For the test itself, task by task, the exam guides go further; for the work in between, the preparation guides.

If you want to know where you stand before you book, Salut Canada’s timed tests put each section on the exam’s clock. Its marks are practice feedback, not an official result: only FEI marks your TCF, and Salut Canada is not FEI.

Sources

France Éducation international, TCF Canada page (sittings and the 20 days, results within 15 working days, the 2-year validity, the suspension of re-marking and its planned restart, same-day reporting).
France Éducation international, Mes droits et devoirs de candidat au TCF (choice of centre, adjustments, double marking, force majeure, identity on the day, memorised texts, subjects, no appeal after the attestation).
France Éducation international, Évaluation des épreuves du TCF (marking centralised at FEI).
IRCC, Express Entry: language test results (results under 2 years old at profile and at application).

Checked on 25 October 2026.