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What is the Start Up Visa Program and How Did It Start?
The Pilot Start Up Visa Program began in 2013, as a replacement for the Federal Immigrant Investor/Entrepreneur Program that ended in 2011. This pilot program was made to help Entrepreneurial Immigrants who wanted to start-up new companies within Canada. These companies were to be innovative, globally competitive and employ a mostly Canadian workforce.
Entrepreneurs who qualified for the Start Up Visa Program had to have the right expertise and skill sets, in order to help Canada, improve and build a world class economy. Because of the program’s success, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has decided to make the Start Up Visa a permanent program by 2018.
The benefits of this program to the Canadian economy are well put by Navdeep Bains, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, where:
“Canadians benefit through the jobs that are created when entrepreneurs come from all corners of the globe to start businesses in this country. By making the Start-up Visa Program permanent, Canada will attract more innovative entrepreneurs who generate new business opportunities, create jobs and equip Canadians with the skills they need for the jobs of the future.”
Great Advantages of the Start Up Visa Program for Immigrant Entrepreneurs
As an Immigrant Entrepreneur, the Start Up Visa Program offers a chance to:
- become a permanent resident of Canada
- operate a business in an environment with a growing economy with:
- low tax rates;
- high quality of life; and
- low business costs
- gain access to advisers, planning professionals and mentors through Canadian angel investor groups/venture capital funds/business incubators
- earn higher returns based on how successful the business is, and the percentage owned by the entrepreneur
Through the Start Up Visa Program, 117 entrepreneur immigrants have been given the option to become permanent residents in Canada. Not to mention that the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) allows over 2,700 entrepreneurial immigrants to apply to this program every year.
