Federal Entrepreneur Start-up Visa Program

This is the ideal program for persons who have unique business plans in their mind. The applicants must secure or obtain funding from IRCC (Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada) designated Canadian investment organizations to be eligible to apply for this program. These organizations could be any one of the following:

• Venture Capital Funds
• Angel Investor Groups
• Business Incubators

Eligibility Criteria

These programs are for people with entrepreneur skills who has the potential to start new businesses in Canada that:

• Are innovative;
• Can create job for Canadian citizens and/or permanent residents;
• Create a positive impact on the Canadian economy (for example, if an export component is involved in your business plan);
• Can compete at a global scale.

Investment Requirements:

• The total investment minimum investment for the startup business must be at least C$200,000 (if the investment is made by a venture capital fund)
• The total investment minimum investment for the startup business must be at least C$75,000 (if the investment is made by an angel investor)

Processing Timelines

The processing timelines will vary from case-to-case and also, depending on the type of program you are applying under. It also varies from one visa office to the other (depending on which program you are applying under.

Contact us to know more about this program.

Designated venture capital funds

You must get one or more of these groups to agree to invest a minimum of $200,000:

• BDC Venture Capital
• Blackberry Partners Fund II LP (doing business as Relay Ventures Fund II)
• Celtic House Venture Partners
  • Celtic House Venture Partners Fund III LP
  • Celtic House Venture Partners Fund IV LP
• Extreme Venture Partners LLP
• Golden Opportunities Fund Inc.
• iNovia Capital Inc.
• Lumira Capital
• New Brunswick Innovation Foundation Inc.
• OMERS Ventures Management Inc.
• Pangaea Ventures Fund III, LP
• PRIVEQ Capital Funds
  • PRIVEQ III Limited Partnership
  • PRIVEQ IV Limited Partnership
• Real Ventures
• Rho Canada Ventures
• Top Renergy Inc.
• Vanedge Capital Limited Partnership
• Version One Ventures
• Wellington Financial LP
• Westcap Mgt. Ltd.
  • Canadian Accelerator Fund Ltd.
• Yaletown Venture Partners Inc.

Designated angel investor groups

You must get one or more investors connected to these groups to agree to invest a minimum of $75,000:

• Angel One Network Inc.
• Canadian International Angel Investors
• First Angel Network Association
• Golden Triangle Angel Network
• Oak Mason Investments Inc.
• Southwestern Ontario Angel Group
• TenX Angel Investors Inc.
• VANTEC Angel Network Inc.

Designated business incubators

You must be accepted into one of these programs:

• Alacrity Foundation
• Alberta Agriculture and Forestry
  • Agrivalue Processing Business Incubator
  • Food Processing Development Centre
• Communitech
• Creative Destruction Lab
• The DMZ at Ryerson University
• Empowered Startups Ltd.
• Extreme Innovations
• Genesis Centre
• Highline BETA Inc.
• INcubes Inc.
• Innovacorp
• Innovate Calgary
• Interactive Niagara Media Cluster o/a Innovate Niagara
• Invest Ottawa
• Istuary Idea Labs – suspended
• Knowledge Park o/a Planet Hatch
• Launch Academy
• LaunchPad PEI Inc.
• NEXT Canada
• Real Investment Fund III L.P. o/a FounderFuel
• Ryerson Futures Inc.
• Spark Centre
• Spring Activator
• TSRV Canada Inc. (operating as Techstars Canada)
• Waterloo Accelerator Centre
• York Entrepreneurship Development Institute