Canadian startup visa
The Canadian startup visa is for entrepreneurs who intend to establish their innovative ideas in Canada. After receiving a letter of support from authorized organizations, these entrepreneurs apply for immigration to Canada for themselves and all their family members. These innovative people combine with the Canadian private sector and form businesses on a global scale.
How about immigrating to Canada through a startup?
With the Canadian Start-up visa, this country seeks to attract entrepreneurs who have the potential to start innovative companies and can create jobs. The Canadian startup visa has been launched with the aim of making Canada more competitive in attracting startups, and Canada’s view of the future of this visa is very clear.
The vision of Canada’s startup visa is to build a platform like Silicon Valley in America, where the best of the world can go to Canada.
Innovative idea is a necessary but not sufficient condition
Do you have a great and creative idea? Does your idea have the ability to grow in a short period of time? Well, now is the time to get approval from one of the organizations approved by the Canadian government and convince them to invest in your idea. Did you manage to get a letter of support? Now the Canadian Immigration Department must also be convinced that you intend to launch a startup. At the end of your stay in Canada, you and your family will receive a startup visa.
Canada startup visa application requirements
With a startup visa, you should not intend to settle in Quebec. Now let’s take a look at the prerequisites of this shining pearl, yes, we mean the Canadian startup visa.
First condition: get IELTS 5.
More details
General IELTS test:
CLB Level Speaking Listening Reading Writing
5 5 5 4 5
French TEF test:
NCLC Level Speaking Listening Reading Writing
5 225 180 150 225
The second condition: Get a letter of support.
More details
Providing the minimum amount of start-up visa investment by the subgroups of the relevant organization:
If your capital is provided by venture capital funds: $200,000
If your capital is provided by angel investor groups: $75,000
If your capital is provided by business incubators or growth centers, you will not need to provide the initial cost and you must be accepted into their program.
If your capital is provided by several different organizations, the maximum amount of investment is considered.
Third condition: Have at least one year of university education.
The fourth condition: You do not have a bad history or medical problem that would lead to a ban on entering Canada.
Fifth condition: You have the ability to financially support yourself and your family for 6 months.
Up to 5 people can act as business owners in this way.
What are the conditions for registering a company in the startup program?
The business in question must be established and operated in Canada.
The applicant must have at least 10% of the voting rights in the company.
No other person can have 50% or more of the voting rights in this company.
Read more: Company registration in Canada
Get to know the seven features of the Canadian startup visa
I tried to show the Canadian startup visa cycle in the chart above. Well, this picture seems a bit complicated at first glance. So, step by step, I will check the components of this chart for you.
First step: Prepare your idea or business. But not every project requires presenting a new idea, based on technology and on a global scale. Write a business plan and find the right organization to support.
Second step: Let’s be optimistic. Your presentation went well and you passed the first stage, which is Haft Khani alone. Now, after agreeing with the sponsoring organization, you will receive the letter of support. At the same time as the sponsoring organization sends you the letter of support, it also sends the letter of commitment to the Canadian Immigration Department.
Third step: Now you have a letter of support. So it’s time to work with the Canadian Immigration Department. Prepare the documents and submit the application for residence visa and work visa (for essential persons).
Step 4: You will usually receive the answer to your work visa application soon. How many months are you asking? Between three and six months is your answer. Don’t forget that your permanent residence project is going on at the same time. So you are still under the supervision of the Immigration Department.
Fifth and sixth steps: If the Immigration Department decides to check your project, here you will find the heads of other organizations that I have talked about below in this article. In the peer review phase, one of these organizations starts collecting information. The information is obtained from the sponsoring organization and the immigration department, and the result of the investigation is given to the immigration department.
Step 7: Congratulations, now it’s time to get your permanent residence. From now on, you are not responsible for the project.
What are the conditions of sponsoring organizations: Venture Capital, Angel Investor and Incubator?
Venture capitals are hungry. Usually, they look for bigger ideas that have passed the early stages of development. So if you go to them, don’t send an email with an idea that has been in your mind for several years. Ventures usually ask about your sales record at the very beginning. Our experience shows that venture capital is looking for an idea that has the ability to generate several million dollars and currently has several hundred thousand dollars in sales.
Angel investors are personal investors or medium-sized companies that accept projects relatively easier than ventures. Angels usually pay them money in exchange for receiving a percentage of the company’s shares
They suggest that with those amounts, the companies will get new blood to move forward.
Incubators are growth centers. Incubators don’t give money to startups, but basically they also receive money. The role of incubators is to prepare startups to start working. Incubators provide information on how to start and grow a business, and also teach ways to raise capital. Another role of incubators is supervision or mentorship and they examine the initial growth process of companies.
Canadian startup visa fee
The first question that most applicants ask is the amount of money required to obtain a Canadian startup visa. In this section of the article, we have covered this issue completely.
Expenses of investing companies
Angel investors and ventures usually invest in bigger ideas that have taken off and inject an amount to invest in these ideas. So the applicant who works with these groups is not required to pay any amount to these companies.
But incubators, which are growth centers, receive an amount that varies from center to center for holding business training courses and mentorship. These amounts are usually between fifty and one hundred thousand dollars for each group.
Fees for handling the case at the Immigration Canada
The amount of work visa application in the startup program per main applicant
Job offer $230
Work permit $255
Wife’s work permit is $255
Children’s visit visa is $100
The amount of the application for permanent residency in the startup program per main applicant
Permanent residence $2,140
Permanent residence of spouse $1,365
Accommodation for each child is $230
The amount of funding required for a Canadian startup visa
You must have enough capital for the first year of living in Canada to cover your and your family’s basic expenses. Please note that this fee has nothing to do with investing in Canada and you do not need to invest in this type of visa.
Officers usually expect you to have 50% of your and your family’s living expenses. This amount is determined based on the LICO table. This table is announced annually by the Canadian Immigration Department. Here is the summary you need.
Number of family members required financial resources (Canadian dollars)
13,757
217,127
3 21,055
4 25,564
5 28,994
6 32,700
7 36,407
3,706 for each additional person
You can pay this amount through a bank account in Riyal or foreign currency.
Important definitions in startup immigration program
Support letter in the Letter of Support startup program
The first step in the Canadian startup program is to apply for a letter of support from approved investors. In this letter, one of Canada’s approved organizations express their support for you and their interest in supporting your idea or project. A support letter will be sent directly to you as the project manager.
At the same time, a letter is issued by these supporting organizations to the Canadian Immigration Department. In the following, you will get to know this letter.
The letter of support must be submitted to the Immigration Department in the application file for work visa and permanent residence.
Commitment certificate in Canada’s startup program Commitment certificate
The company that gave you the support letter will send a letter to the immigration office at the same time, in which they inform the members of the group and the desired plan. So the certificate contains information about the agreement between the applicant and the investor organization.
What do key and non-key members mean in a startup?
Key members or Essential Applicants are members who are inseparable members of the startup project. For example, imagine that your idea is about a mobile application, well, in this plan, the person who is the developer of the software or the developer of the idea will definitely be one of the essential people of the group, and the development of the idea will be impossible without him. If the case of key members is rejected for any reason, the case of other people mentioned in the letter of commitment will also be rejected.
Non-essential members are people without whom the open project will not work. In the previous example, imagine that the marketing manager of the project is probably an unnecessary member of the group. If he is not in the group, the development of the idea may not be seriously affected.
If one of the key members of the group is rejected for any reason, all members will be rejected and the case will be closed. Even if one of the dependents of the key members is rejected, for example, the child or spouse of an essential member, the whole group’s case will still be rejected. Let’s give an example to better understand this issue:
Reza along with 4 of his colleagues presented the software development startup plan and received a letter of support from one of the angel investors. In this group, Reza, Ali and Tarane are the main members of the group. Taraneh and Ali are married, and Taraneh’s wife, Babak, applies for her work and permanent residence visa at the same time as Taraneh.
After conducting medical tests, it is found that Babak (singer’s wife) has MS.
The officer rejects the request for permanent residence of all the members of the group. All members of the group are now inadmissible and it will not be possible for them to continue the immigration project in this case.
Canada Startup Visa Work Permit
The Canadian Start-up Visa work permit allows you to work as an entrepreneur in the development of your business. According to the new Canadian law in 2023, this permit will be valid for three years and will allow you to work in Canada while your application for permanent residence is being processed.
. Most permanent residence applications are processed within one year.
In this section, we discuss how to apply for this temporary work permit and its conditions. This work permit is only for people who have received a letter of commitment and a letter of support from the introduced organizations. If you are eligible for this permit, you must apply for it before applying for permanent residence.
Conditions for obtaining a work permit for a Canadian startup visa
To qualify for this work permit, you must:
Intend to live in a province or territory of Canada other than Quebec
Pay the Employer Agreement Fee ($230)
Have received the letter of commitment and letter of support from the introduced organizations
Have enough capital to cover your and your family’s living expenses for 52 weeks
Can the wife and children also get accompanying visa?
If you apply for a Work Permit, you can bring your spouse and dependent children with you when immigrating to Canada under certain conditions.
Spouse
If your wife intends to work in Canada, she can obtain an Open Work Permit and complete the relevant forms as a spouse of a skilled workforce.
children
If your dependent children intend to study or work in Canada, they must obtain a study permit (teacher permit) and work and complete the relevant forms.
But how does Canada review the work practices of support organizations?
It is a good question that all applicants should know the answer to. Through Peer Review
What is Peer Review? Controlling the quality of work of investor organizations by the secret police
Who is the secret police? The NACO organization, which is responsible for controlling the work of angel groups, and the CVCA organization, which is responsible for controlling the activities of venture capitals, are the secret police of startups.
Immigration Canada is committed to preventing fraud. The role of Peer Review is to make sure that the transaction between the investor and the ideator is legal.
Peer Review Peer review can sometimes be due to the officers doubting the relationship between the investor and the entrepreneur, or sometimes they are done randomly.
Officers provide the letter of commitment to the organizations responsible for Peer Review so that they are aware of the agreement between the parties. Investor organizations should also provide the package according to which they agreed with the investor so that these associations can perform their quality control work.
The purpose of all these activities is to ensure that sufficient checks are done at the time of issuing the letter of support. But what do we mean by the reviews that ventures, angels, and incubators should do before issuing a letter of support?
What was the amount of review done by the organizations that issued the letter of support?
What were the obligations between the applicant and the organization that issued the letter of support?
Ensuring that the startup is registered in Canada.
Ensuring that the stock structure is followed.
Ensuring that the startup’s focus is on ideas with the potential for rapid growth.
Ensuring that the startup has participated in the incubator programs (in regards to the support letter of the incubators).
Ensuring that the startup’s management team has protected the intellectual property of the business.
The immigration status of family members of the startup applicant
All family members of the applicant can apply for accompanying visa. This law includes spouses and children under the age of 22.
Accompanying visa at the time of work permit
If the applicant is on the list of key business members, it is possible for the applicant to apply for a work visa. At the same time, his wife will be able to apply for an open work visa. This visa allows the spouse of the Canadian startup applicant to work in Canada without restrictions.
Children of Canadian startup applicants can also benefit from the advantage of studying at a Canadian cost.
Accompanying visa for permanent residence in Canada
Naturally, his wife and children will accompany him when applying for permanent residence in Canada. It is possible for all family members of the applicant, including spouse and children under 22 years of age, to apply for permanent residence in Canada at the same time.
Should a startup be launched after migration?
The nature of any startup is risk. Risk is in the fabric of startups. Canada does not expect all startups to win. Of course, some may be successful and some may not be.
But the very important point before applying for residency is that the applicant intends to launch the idea and after obtaining the work visa, the startup must be launched.
As long as you are in Canada with a work visa, the progress of the startup will be reviewed by the immigration department, and if their conclusion is that the startup was launched only to obtain permanent residence, the issue of permanent residence will be at risk.
How much chance do I have with limited capacity and high demand?
Yes that’s right. Canada startup visa capacity is limited. According to the law approved in 2012, this capacity will not exceed 2,750 cases per year. In 2020, the capacity of startup program and self-employment program together was 2000 applicants. In 2021, this capacity will be reduced to 1000 cases.
But in 2023, the capacity of the startup program has reached 3,500 people, which is good news for the applicants of this program.
After the federal investment immigration programs were closed and the Quebec investment program was limited, many applicants and immigration companies and lawyers saw this program as a good alternative to those programs. But we should not forget that the capacity of Canada’s startup program is limited.
The capacity of the startup program is less than the number of requests.
Therefore, we recommend that you stop at the time of taking action
Friend, act well and thoughtfully. Choose the right ideas and consult only and only reliable lawyers.
Considering the large volume of applications, Canada’s strictness on the startup visa will definitely increase.
(mrvisacanadaa)
No comment