Canada start-up visa program with incubation support

by XIPHIAS IMMIGRATION migration executive

Canada Start-up Visa program is for all those non-Canadians who want to start a new business in Canada. Through this program, the non-Canadians will be provided with Canada Permanent Residency there. Canada intends to invite as many as a million immigrants into the country before 2022 and to achieve this, Canada has introduced as many as 70 immigration programs. Of the million immigrants, they intend to invite at least 30-40% entrepreneurs into the country. With Canada Start-up program, they intend to achieve this goal where in a lot of new ideas will get implemented in the country.

Process –

i. First the applicant will get the work permit to set up the business in Canada

ii. Post that, once the business is established, the applicant can proceed to apply for Canada PR for Entrepreneurs

Such entrepreneurs will need to obtain a letter of support from designated organizations. Canada immigrations have segregated companies who can provide letter of support into 3 categories –

i. Designated Venture Capital fund

ii. Designated Angel Investor groups

iii. Designated Business Incubators

For the start-ups which need a minimum investment of CAD $75000, they need to approach Designated Angel Investor groups to obtain the Letter of Support

For those start-ups which need a minimum investment of CAD $200,000, they will need to work with Venture Capital funds to obtain the letter of support

For those start-ups which do not need too much of financial aid, can work with Business incubators. However, the start-ups should have attended at least one incubation program organized by these business incubators.

A group of innovators together can apply for this program under the same business plan, but each of them should provide a separate letter of support and should provide independent documents. The process too, would be independent of each other.

Each of the applicants can bring their families to Canada through this program and their families will be getting the same visa status as the applicants. It is better to work with Immigration consultants in India who can provide the required support in every manner possible.

Get eligible under this program, by providing –

i. Letter of support from the chosen designated organization.

ii. a commitment certificate

iii. proof of running a qualifying business

iv. language proficiency test result either in English/French

v. Must provide documents proving their economic stand point to settle in Canada. They should in no manner be dependent on public funds for survival in Canada

vi. Must provide documents proving their clean background

vii. Must provide medical certificate proving their clean health both mentally and physically

As per this program, it requires the applicants and the designated organizations to hold a minimum of 50% of shares in the start-up. This includes voting rights too in the corporation. 5 partners together can apply for this program. This is close to UK Start-up Visa Program.

To obtain the work permit, they need to first obtain commitment certificate from the designated organization.

The applicant will need to provide a proper business plan to the chosen designated organization. Once the organization is confident about the business idea, they provide Commitment certificate. Once the applicant obtains this, they can proceed to apply for Canada PR with the IRCC.

Although one can apply directly to the immigrations, it is better to work with immigration firms which are registered ICCRC Consultants. Such immigration firms are strong and can provide the required backing for the entrepreneurs. They will have the right kind of connections to help the applicants connect with the designated organizations to obtain the required commitment certificate and letter of support.