How to book TEF Canada or TCF Canada in India

You book TEF Canada or TCF Canada in India directly with an Alliance Française centre. There are 12 of them, a full four-module test costs about ₹26,000 including GST in 2026, and each centre runs its own calendar. The hard part is not the booking form. It is being there, ready, in the few minutes a seat is actually free.

This guide walks you through it in order: pick the right exam, pick the right centre, get your documents ready, then catch the seat.

For IRCC, they are equal. Both convert to the same NCLC scale, so NCLC 7 on one gives exactly the same CRS points as NCLC 7 on the other.

So for most people in India, the honest answer is: book whichever one you can get a seat for first. If you want to compare the formats, read TEF vs TCF Canada or take the 1-minute TEF or TCF quiz.

This is the part that catches people out. Not every Alliance Française offers both exams, and each one releases seats in its own way.

Each centre has its own page with its current status and notes. The busiest ones: Delhi (TCF Canada only), Mumbai, Bengaluru (TCF Canada only), Chennai and Chandigarh, whose TEF waiting list has run to 10–12 months.

Often quieter: Pune, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Trivandrum and Puducherry. You can see all of them together on the India page.

~₹26,000

Full test incl. GST (2026)

12

Alliance Française centres

Minutes

How fast big-city seats can go

About ₹26,000 including GST covers all four modules for either exam, for example TCF Canada at AF Delhi or TEF Canada at AF Mumbai. The exact fee varies by centre, so check before you pay.

Once you register, the fee is usually non-refundable. That is one more reason to be sure of the exam name and the date before you click pay.

1. 1Pick one or two centres you can reachUse the table above. If your city has no centre, pick the nearest one plus one backup city you could travel to.
2. 2Create your online account nowNot on registration day. Log in once to check your password works, and that your name matches your passport exactly.
3. 3Get your documents readyKeep your passport, a recent photo and your payment method ready in one place. Some centres, like Delhi, ask for the passport at registration.
4. 4Learn how your centre releases seatsA window centre opens at a set time. A seat-count centre can free a place at any moment. A waitlist centre emails you. Plan for the one you picked.
5. 5Book and pay in one goA seat is only yours once payment goes through. Don’t stop halfway to check something.

For the minute-by-minute version of the last step, read the registration day playbook.

Indian centres announce times in IST. If you are an Indian applicant living abroad (in the Gulf, say, or already in Canada), it is easy to get the hour wrong. Convert it now:

Set two alarms: one 30 minutes before and one 5 minutes before. The registration time converter can do this for any centre.

• Watch both exams. If your centre runs TEF Canada and TCF Canada, you roughly double your chances.
• Watch a second city. Many candidates from smaller cities book Delhi, Mumbai or Kolkata and turn the trip into a few days of revision.
• Watch for returned seats. Unpaid or cancelled places come back on seat-count pages, and few people are looking.
• Book the first seat, keep watching. Take what you can get, then look for an earlier date (check the transfer policy first).

There’s a full five-step plan in Every session sold out?.