Canada Startup Visa program is an immigration program designed to bring entrepreneurs to Canada. This is a not well known program and when I was looking to apply for this program, I couldn’t really find any useful information other than the Canada Govt website.
You can read all about it here https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/immigrate-canada/start-visa.html
Or continue to read my personal experience of applying and getting accepted into the program.
Canada Startup Visa Program has multiple steps to it. The first step is getting accepted by a designated organization for funding or incubation. The three types of organizations are
- Venture Capital Funds
- Angel Investor Groups
- Business Incubators
The first two are if you require business capital for your Startup and the designated organization has to commit to invest into your business. To qualify for either of those, you need a very solid idea and a willing person to invest in your business.
Personally, I applied for business incubators because I thought getting someone to invest in a Startup run by someone who has never lived in Canada was a long shot and I had a better chance with a Business incubator.
First step is to apply to an incubator and get a Letter of Support (LOS). After getting Letter of support, you can apply for Canada PR based on the LOS. At the moment, PR processing time is at 30 months + and you obviously can not wait 3 years to start your business. The workaround for this is that you apply for a Work Permit which arrives in a few months, and you can be in Canada working on your company while you wait for your PR to arrive.
If you are looking for more information or have specific questions related to the program, you can contact us here