How much money Canada’s investor routes require in 2026

Canada’s two federal business routes, the Start-up Visa and Self-Employed Persons Program, are paused. What remains are the Quebec Investor Program and provincial entrepreneur streams; The Legation Times did not check Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick or Yukon. Among streams read, floors start at CAD 300,000 of net worth and a CAD 100,000 investment in two provincial streams. Quebec asks for CAD 2,000,000 of net worth, a CAD 1,000,000 placement returned without interest after five years, and a CAD 200,000 contribution.

The federal routes

Two provisions mark the end of the federally selected investor class. Section 87.5 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act terminated investor and entrepreneur applications on which an officer had not made a decision before 11 February 2014, and a 2016 amendment repealed the federal definitions of investor, entrepreneur and minimum net worth from the Regulations. The only investor class left in the federal Regulations is the Quebec investor class, whose members Quebec selects.

The Start-up Visa page reads “Status: Paused”. It says applicants must hold a valid 2025 commitment certificate and “apply by June 30, 2026”, and that the programme “is closed to all other applications”. That date has passed. The Self-Employed Persons Program, aimed at people with experience in cultural activities or athletics, is also marked paused. The Legation Times reported the Start-up Visa pause in August.

Quebec: CAD 2 million of net worth, CAD 1 million placed, CAD 200,000 contributed

The Quebec Investor Program asks for net worth of at least CAD 2,000,000, which can be shared with a spouse in the application and excludes gifts received in the six months before applying. Within 120 days of the ministry’s request, the applicant’s financial intermediary must make a five-year investment of CAD 1,000,000 and a financial contribution of CAD 200,000. The CAD 1,000,000 is repaid without interest within 30 days of the end of the term; the page does not say whether the contribution is repaid.

Applicants also need spoken French at level 7 or above on the Quebec scale. After a notice of intention to select, the applicant may apply to the federal government for a work permit within six months of the notice. A stay in Quebec of at least 12 months must then be completed within two years of the work permit: at least six of those months by the principal applicant, the other six by the applicant or the spouse. A Quebec selection certificate is needed before applying for permanent residence. Applications can be submitted at any time with no cap, and the review fee for the principal applicant is CAD 18,241, not refundable. The Legation Times set out the Quebec steps in September.

Provincial entrepreneur streams: CAD 300,000 to 600,000

Provincial streams ask the applicant to start or buy a business and run it before the province nominates them for permanent residence; Alberta, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador require at least a year of operation, Alberta on a two-year work permit. The figures below were read on provincial websites on 28 September; the Newfoundland and Labrador status was checked again on 5 October.

British Columbia lists CLB 4 and the job condition for its entrepreneur programme; The Legation Times’ 28 September reading did not record them separately for the Regional stream. Each stream also has a job requirement of at least one job, with wording that varies: British Columbia asks for one new full-time job, Nova Scotia for one permanent full-time job, and Alberta for one job where a new business is started. Saskatchewan permanently closed its entrepreneur and farm pathways on 27 March 2025. Ontario’s entrepreneur page is archived; The Legation Times could not establish when the stream closed. The Legation Times did not read the pages for Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick or Yukon. The September report has the details stream by stream.

What the floors do not include

The net worth figures are minimums the applicant must show, not sums paid to the government. The money tied up is the investment in the business, or in Quebec the CAD 1,000,000 placement, returned without interest after five years, and the CAD 200,000 contribution, plus fees. Canada plans 91,500 provincial nominee admissions in 2026 across all streams. Canada.ca gives “about 13 months” for provincial nominee applications made outside Express Entry. That figure covers the federal permanent-residence stage after nomination; whether an entrepreneur nominee uses that route is set by the province, and the time to run the business and obtain nomination comes on top.

What every route adds to the money

None of the routes The Legation Times read grants permanent residence for money alone. Quebec requires French at level 7; the provincial streams list a language level of Canadian Language Benchmark 4 or 5, and each requires a business that the applicant runs in Canada.

What this article does not establish

The status of the streams in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Yukon, when Ontario’s entrepreneur stream closed, whether Quebec’s CAD 1,000,000 can be borrowed, and how long any route takes from application to permanent residence.