Startup Visa

Canada’s start up visa program offers Permanent Residence to qualified applicants and is available to up to 5 founding partners within a start up. This program is intended to attract foreign entrepreneurs who wish to establish a new high-growth and scalable businesses in Canada that will support innovation and job creation.

The program links these entrepreneurs with private sector investors in Canada who will help establish their start-up business. Candidates can initially come to Canada on a work permit supported by their designated Canada-based investor, before qualifying for permanent residence once their business is up and running.

There are three types of private-sector investors:

1. Angel Investor Groups
2. Venture Capital Funds
3. Business Incubators

Who Qualifies?

To qualify a candidate must:

• Have a qualifying business
• Have a letter of support from a designated organization
• Meet the language requirement
• Have enough money to settle and live in Canada before you make money from your business

Our team can help you bring your startup business to Canada and assist you with your permanent residence application. For assistance contact us today.

Owner Operator LMIA

Owner Operator LMIA is a special class of applications whereby a self-employed individual wishing to enter Canada can do so by establishing or purchasing a business in Canada.

This pathway grants an LMIA from Service Canada or ESDC to work as a business owner operator in your established or purchased business in Canada. A positive LMIA allows to apply for a Work Permit to come and operate your business in by presenting a detailed and comprehensive business plan. This can eventually pave a path for permanent residency in Canada.

Who Qualifies?

To qualify under as an owner-operator the applicant must be:

• A foreign investor with verifiable, transferable management experience.
• Sufficient assets to purchase or start the targeted business in Canada.
• Sufficient language abilities in either English or French to actively work as a manager in the business.

Different Type of Owner Operator Application Options:

1. New Start-up Business

This option is applicable to foreign entrepreneurs who launch a new business in Canada and hold 100% ownership of it. Under the owner-operator guidelines, a TFW can be considered as an owner-operator for the purpose of LMIA if they show a genuine intent and experience to open and operate this business. This needs to be supported with a detailed business plan that must meet government requirements and standards, customized to your business situation. This program has dependency on a positive LMIA, and Work Permit and the applicant must show and a plan to hire or retain Canadian citizens or Permanent Residents.

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2. Purchase an Existing Canadian Business

Here a foreign investor acquires 100% of an existing Canadian business and submits an LMIA along with a suitable business plan to acquire a work permit. For acquiring an existing Canadian business, the employer being acquired must be a legal entity and appropriate documents for either transfer of ownership or purchase must be included in the application such as the share purchase agreement, new shareholding and ownership documents and NOA (Notice of Articles). The owner- operator foreign national must establish a full controlling interest in the business and under contract be actively involved in its operations. The proof of foreign nationals relationship to the business must be clearly established for a successful application.

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3. Partial- Purchase of an Existing Canadian Business

For a partial ownership to be considered for an owner-operator work permit, the entrepreneur must hold a minimum of 50.1% of the shares in an existing Canadian company. The burden of proof in an owner- operator LMIA application is on the foreign national investor to provide documentation to prove their shareholding and ownership status.

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4. Pending Purchase of an Existing Business

Here the business purchase is pending and contingent on a positive LMIA and WP and the immigration authorities will judge if the anticipatory purchase is genuine. The key factors taken in consideration include, how advanced the transaction is, completion of the share purchase agreement, how sound the foreign employee-investor’s business plan to acquire 100% ownership in the shares of the business as principal owner is and whether the intent to hire or retain Canadian workers can be established.

To be successful in an owner-operator program, the foreign national has to demonstrate a level of controlling interest in the business, be a sole proprietor or a majority shareholder (50.01% plus); demonstrate that such temporary entry will result in the creation or retention of employment opportunities for Canadians and permanent residents and have a viable or solid business plan.

The entire process is complex and requires professional expertise. We are licensed and experienced in handling your business immigration cases by developing a detailed, comprehensive, and tailored business plan. We work with an established network of licensed professionals, and we can help introduce foreign investor entrepreneurs to buy suitable businesses for sale in Canada. Our legal partners help with completing all the formalities with care and precision.

The process can be complicated, we are here to simplify and make it easy for you: Call Us Today !

Self Employed

The Self-Employed Program is designed to attract applicants who intend and are able to become self-employed in Canada. To qualify as a self-employed person, you must have two years of relevant experience in the past 5 years. You must also score at least 35 points on a selection grid designed to determine if you will be able to make an economic contribution to Canada. Professional athletes and individuals in the arts and culture industry may be eligible to apply for permanent residence under this program.

Eligibility

To immigrate as a self-employed person, you must:

• Have relevant experience
• Be willing and able to be self-employed in Canada
• Meet the program’s selection criteria
• Meet medical, security and other conditions

If you’re interested in this program, you must:

1. have relevant experience in cultural activities or athletics and
2. be willing and able to make a significant contribution to the cultural or athletic life of Canada

We can help you immigrate to Canada if you are an entrepreneur or an investor. Complete our Assessment Form and we will review your eligibility.

Intra Company Transferees

Intra-company transferee is a category that falls under the International Mobility Program and is covered under the exemption code C-12. This category permits international companies to temporarily transfer qualified employees to Canada for the purpose of improving management effectiveness, expanding Canadian trades, and enhancing competitiveness in overseas markets. If a company has a subsidiary office in Canada, they are eligible to apply under this category to transfer their employees to Canada for work. A LMIA-exempt, one year work permit is usually issued to the transferee to come and operate the business in Canada and provide significant economic benefits through transfer of their expertise and skills.

Eligibility

To be eligible for ICT work permit, there are 3 key requirements to be met by:

1. Employees/Transferees

   To be considered eligible for transfer, the employee must have been working for the foreign entity – Full time (30 hours/week), without any breaks and in a similar position for at least one year (in the past 3 years) in an executive, senior managerial or specialized knowledge worker position. Further, the position offered to them in the Canadian entity must be similar to their current position and temporary.

2. Enterprises

   1. Foreign Enterprise:

      The Company’s eligibility is the foundation of the ICT work permit. The foreign enterprise must be a legal entity doing active business such as providing goods or services to the public for at least the past one and a half year.

   2. Canadian Enterprise:

      The Canadian enterprise must be a subsidiary, branch, or affiliate of the parent foreign enterprise. It must either be an existing or a new setup legal entity doing business on similar lines as the parent company. The senior managers and executives can be transferred to a start-up company to establish operations in Canada.

3. Qualifying Relationship between Entities

   The Canadian branch must be an operating division, or a subsidiary office of the foreign company located in outside of Canada. Both must be legal entities doing continuous business and have an association with each other: parent, subsidiary, branch, or affiliate.

   If the parent company owns at least 50% of an entity, then it is a subsidiary of the parent company. For intra-company transferee classification, ownership and control are the factors which establish a qualifying relationship between the two entities.

Intra-Company Transferee Start-Up

This immigration option is widely used by foreign companies outside of Canada who can establish a branch in Canada and use it as a means to transfer an employee, or the business owner to establish and a run a business in Canada.

Under the Intra-company Transferee Start-Up, there is a parent company that has multiple branches, one each in its home country and in Canada. The start-up company in Canada can only transfer employees once the affiliate company is first set up in Canada. The employee and the company both need to meet requirements to be granted a work permit under ICT Start-Up.

Requirements for ICT Start-Up

1. Physical address

   The Canadian branch must have a stable physical business address in Canada that can be used for mailing and application purposes.

2. Business Plan

   A comprehensive Business Plan must be included to show the objective of the business and a plan to provide employment to Canadians.

3. Financials of the Start-Up

   Through the business plan and other documents, it must be established that the company has enough funds to start and run the start up, offset its operational costs and compensate the employees.

4. Company Management

   The parent company continues to oversee and manage the branch in Canada through its transferred executive or managerial staff. If the transferee is not a senior executive, they must at least be a specialized skilled worker, who will be supervised by a management team at the Canadian subsidiary.

5. Overall Evaluation

   Annual year end assessment on the start-up and its operations is done to evaluate if the company met the objectives laid out in the business plan. Hence it is important to use your business plan as the guiding factor to operate your new setup in Canada.

Ask a Canadian Immigration Expert to guide you with your ICT application. Call us today!