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Entrepreneur Applications for Permanent Residence in Canada

The Canadian government announced in October 2015 that Canada wants entrepreneur immigrants. Canada’s new Start-Up Visa is the first of its kind in the world, linking immigrant entrepreneurs with experienced private sector organizations that have expertise in working with start-ups.

Successful applicants to this program will be able to immigrate to Canada as Permanent Residents with no conditions attached to the success of their business.

Naturally, it is not as easy as proclaiming yourself as an entrepreneur and receiving immediate permanent residency. Qualifying for this program requires the following:

  • You will have to prove that a Canadian "angel investor" is committed to your business idea
  • You will have to pass standard health and security checks
  • You will have to demonstrate the ability to communicate fully in English or French. Applicants will need to take an IRCC approved language test and hit the CLB 5 benchmark in one or both languages
  • You must have at least one proven year of study at a post-secondary institution
  • You will need to demonstrate that you have adequate income to support yourself while establishing the business (as well as your family if you have one immigrating with you). You cannot borrow this money from another person. You will need to prove you have this when submitting the application.

Clearly, this means that the first step is to obtain your financial commitment by an angel investor and the Canadian government has revealed its dedication to making this program a success by collabourating with several groups. IRCC is aligned with Canada’s Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, the National Angel Capital Organization and the Canadian Acceleration and Business Incubation Association to identify the participating private sector organizations. A full list of designated organizations is made available at their website.

You will also want to spend time speaking to an immigration expert who is familiar with the new Start-up Visa program, and all other forms of visa programs.

Eligibility and Next Steps

Once you have the commitment in hand and a formal letter of support, you will need to prove that your business actually meets the formal ownership requirements. Currently, up to five people can apply for a visa as the owners of a single business. They must each have ten percent control and the designated organization (the angel investor) along with the applicants must have more than 50% voting rights as well. This must be shown when submitting the application along with the financial ability of the applicants.

You can obtain an application package from the IRCC online, and it can be completed using a computer. You can learn about this at the Start-up Visa application page.

Naturally, it does take a lot of planning, and the first step is to be sure you can obtain solid financial backing and support through a designated organization. Once you have that letter of commitment, it is simply a matter of meeting the visa eligibility guidelines. Then you can be on your way to business ownership in Canada as a Permanent Resident.

Contact us today at (403) 452-9515 Ext. 100 or 1-800-932-1190 or email us directly.

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It is one thing to earn a living; it is another thing to make a difference in the world.

This is our formal thank you note to Evelyn Ackah and the Ackah Law Team for all the effort they put into helping us navigate and finally resolve the hurdle that was Canadian Immigration back in the spring of 2012.

A friend referred us to Evelyn; he assured us that Evelyn would take good care of us. Our friend was confident we were in good hands and said Evelyn would do her very best to help us and she did! At the time we did not know that his referral would go far beyond finding us help. Slowly we realized that it would become our own personal story of how we received grace and were reminded of the power in paying it forward

We wrote a detailed page of our dilemma, explaining how we came to be in the position we were in (overwhelmed with the hurdle that was Canadian Immigration and the uncertainty that we faced as a young family in Calgary). Evelyn agreed to take on our file with her team. They found the time to personally call us and listened intently and understood the details of what we were dealing with. They gave us their time, an honest opinion and provided clear direction which proved to be invaluable advice. Months went by but in time, we received word from Ackah Law that the Immigration office had finally reviewed our file and a decision had been made allowing our family to finally put the immigration matter to rest. We were finally able to focus again to live our lives without fear or pending doom.

Looking back now, even the sun appeared to shine a little brighter that day. At first we didn’t know whether to bake them a cake, drive out to meet their team, find their offices and personally thank them with a mighty hug or simply cry out to the heavens in thankful relief. Instead we emailed them to express our heartfelt thank-you and we hoped that they would know deep in their hearts just how grateful we were for all of their help.

Even though we relied on emails and phone conversations to communicate with them that year, we will always remember their constant professionalism, their kindness and understanding at a time that brought us so much pain not to mention fear. As if all their hard work wasn’t enough, Evelyn then then casually mentions that all their work was done pro-bono! We were thoroughly humbled!

To this day we are still eager to share how wonderful they all are as human beings but even more than that, we continue to pay it forward in honour of them, their service to us and their continued dedication in helping others.

Eternally thankful

– The Brummunds

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