Entrepreneur Investors

Entrepreneur Investors

Entrepreneurs investors are welcome in Canada. At federal level, there is Start-up Visa program, and at provincial level, there are policies to attract foreign investors to invest and stay in their territory to add fuel to the economy and create new job opportunities.

There is only one passive investment available facilitating investor to become PR in Canada, it is called “Quebec Investor Program”. This program requires your past experience as a senior manager, business owner or operator and does not require the investor carry on the obligation of daily operation of the business invested. However, the program open only certain time as defined by the Quebec government.

On the other hand, most provincial nominee program sets out its own entrepreneurs immigration program at provincial level. These  become a good choices to investors. It is a vital tool to the province to prompt the their economic priority. Selected entrepreneurs will come to Canada under work permits to carry on their business plan first. After approximately 12-18 months of operation, the provincial government will validate the fact of investment and job creation versus the signed performance agreement then issue the nomination letter. With such nomination, the entrepreneur is eligible to apply to the federal government and become permanent residents.

Below we illustrate Quebec Investor program and Entrepreneur investors program of BC to give you a rough idea what it entails. To inquire more details or for other PNP entrepreneur programs, please contact us.

BCPNP Entrepreneur immigration

There are three path under BCPNP entrepreneur immigration program, vary from the amount of investment and where the business is located.

Base category

To be eligible, you must have:

• Personal net worth of at least CAD$600,000
• Business and/or management experience, if no business experience, must have the equivalent of a 2-year post-secondary diploma.
• Basic English or French language skill equal to CLB 4 or higher.

You will need to:

• establish an eligible new business or buy and improve an existing business
• make an eligible personal investment of at least CAD$200,000 in the business
• create at least one new full-time job for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident

Regional Pilot

This Regional Pilot program involves communities on the BCPNP list. Applicant need to seek endorsement from the designated community through proposing a business that will meet the local needs and create new job opportunity. To qualify, you must:

• have personal net worth of at least CAD$300,000
• make an eligible personal investment of at least CAD$100,000
• demonstrate a minimum language proficiency of CLB 4 or higher

Strategic Projects

This Strategic Projects stream is for foreign corporations who have identifed strategic investment opportunities in BC to establish operations that are integral to the growth and expansion of their core business.

This stream enables foreign corporations to permanently transfer key staff with the corporate knowledge and expertise to B.C. The foreign corporation may apply for provincial nomination to support the permanent residence of up to five of its current senior employees. These employees will actively manage the B.C. operation.

To be eligible, the foreign corporation must meet the following requirements:

• be well-established and in good financial standing
• demonstrate investment readiness and capacity for international expansion into B.C.
• provide significant economic benefit to the province by making a high value investment in B.C.

The foreign corporation must:

• make a minimum equity investment of at least $500,000 directed toward the corporation’s operations in B.C.
• establish new or purchase and expand an eligible business in B.C.
• create at least three new full-time equivalent jobs for Canadian citizens or permanent residents for each foreign key staff member proposed (to a maximum of five key staff)

Start-Up-Visa (SUV)

Start up visa program aims at entrepreneur immigrants who have innovative skills can compete on a world level, and will build the business in Canada. IRCC relies on the recognition from designated organization through their financial commitment to your proposed business idea. You don’t need to be rich or invest a lot, just minimum 10% of the new entity. An innovative new business may support up to 5 principal applicant and their family to become permanent resident. Principal applicant need to have CLB5 language skill plus has sufficient settlement fund for his or her family.

Quebec Investor Program

This program suspend new application to April 1, 2023