START-UP VISA CANADA

Start-up visa (SUV) is the most prominent business visa for Canada. It is facilitated by foreign entrepreneurs with unique business ideas and who are sponsored by venture capitalist, angle investors or business incubators. Entrepreneurs having innovative businesses as well as established start-ups might benefit from this program to obtain permanent residency (PR) in Canada. Through this scheme, up to five founding members of a start-up can be granted Canadian residence status.

As of 2021, ease of doing business in Canada ranked 23^rd worldwide. The highest score were obtained in starting the business, trading across the borders and paying taxes.

Canada is the major hub in the search of new entrepreneurs who can generate employment for its citizens and can boost Canadian economy. Start-Up Visa was initially an experimental program for three years until it was made permanent on March 31 in 2018.

Eligibility Requirements:

There are four certain essential requirements that applicants must satisfy to be qualified to apply for a Start-up Visa and that deduce whether they have a qualifying business under this SUV program:

⮞ HAVING A QUALIFYING BUSINESS PLAN

• Each candidate must be entitled to 10% or more voting rights that are linked to all the shared outstanding in the corporation.
• The applicant and the designated entity together should hold greater than 50% of the voting rights attached to each share of the company that were outstanding at the time.

⮞ LETTER OF SUPPORT FROM DESIGINATED ORGANISATIONS

• Foreign entrepreneurs or business owners who are not familiar with the country must ensure that they have a solid backing from one of the designated Canadian organizations.
• They must get a letter of support or investment commitment from an authorized group to invest in or support their start-up in Canada.
• There are three different groups of Designated Organizations.

1. VENTURE CAPITALIST FUNDERS
2. ANGLE INVESTOR GROUPS
3. BUSINESS INCUBATORS

⮞ LOW-LEVEL LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT

All the applicants for the Start-Up visa must meet the basic eligibility of language test at least in one of the major speaking languages in Canada; English or French. They all must take a language test (IELTS/CELPIP/TEF/TCF) from an approved agency and must meet the minimum level of CLB 5 (Canadian Language benchmark).

⮞ PROOF OF FUNDS

• Canadian government does not provide any financial support to the new Start-up visa newcomer.
• Each applicant is must to show sufficient capital to support their business and   sustain themselves and their dependents after arriving in Canada.
• Depending on the size of the applicant’s family, this amount can be ranged between $13,310 to $35,224.

Advantages and disadvantages of star-up visa :

ADVANTAGES

DISADVANTAGES

▪No Canadian job offer is required. ▪Direct way to attain a permanent residency (PR) of Canada. ▪No need to show capital investment. ▪There are no limitations on business activities within Canada. ▪Allow upto 5 stakeholders of a start up to attain PR of Canada. ▪Minimum of CLB 5 is required for the process. ▪Convenience to migrate to Canada on a work permit while your Permanent residency application is being processed. ▪Low corporate tax i.e. 15% in comparison to many other countries.

▪It’s a lengthy process. Might take 2+ years for obtaining a permanent residency. ▪A high level of competition to get support from the designated organizations in Canada that is why it may be difficult to obtain this support. ▪Sometimes it might require huge capital investment to secure the support from the designated organizations. ▪A detailed well – developed, strategic, feasible and scalable business plan describing your business model and ascending growth. ▪Interdependency among all the partners ▪Conflicts between the partners.

How to apply for Canada Start-Up visa:

In order to apply for a Canadian Start-up Visa Program, you must follow the instructions in the following steps:

• Candidates need to present their business model to the designated organizations like angle investors or business incubators or a venture capitalist and make assure to get an investment commitment from them.
•  Upon approval from any of the designated authorities, obtain a ‘Letter Of Support’ from them.
• Apply for your permanent residency and Work permit along with the letter of support.
• If you pass your medical exam, Final stamped visa will be issued to you and your spouse and to your children under the age of 22 years.
• Arrive in Canada and start running your business.
• After completing 3 years in Canada, you are eligible to apply for a Canadian citizenship (Optional).

Processing Time for SUV:

The standard processing time for the Start-Up Visa (SUV) program can be between from 12 months to 20 months after the candidate submit their application. But, again this is totally depending on the backlog of IRCC.

Canada is not refusing or rejecting any applications in progress. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lack of documents, Canada is giving the applicant’s a tat of 90 days to complete their application scientifically including their documents, biometrics or medical exam.

As of today, the current processing timeline is around 32 months. You can check the current timeline status from the official IRCC Website.

How can Lebiz help you with this :

While the immigration process can often be complicated and challenging for entrepreneurs looking to start a business or new-setup in Canada, the highly experienced Financial experts& Business Consultant and team at  Lebiz Canada can help you navigate this process and evaluate why the Start-Up Visa program may be the best option according to your profile. We’re #1 Business consultant in India. Our team do the complete hand-holding and provide the entire ecosystem throughout the process and also able to help you connect with prospective investment companies for assistance and also to ensure that you have completed your application in accordance with the eligibility requirements.