Australia or Canada: what is still open to investors in 2026
Michael Mai
Australia closed its investor visa streams in 2024; its permanent 858 visa sets no capital floor but is granted on achievement, by invitation. Canada has Quebec's CAD 2 million route and provincial streams.
Australia closed the business and investment streams of its subclass 188 visa to new applicants in July 2024. Its National Innovation visa is permanent and its regulations set no capital threshold, but applicants need an invitation and an internationally recognised record of achievement. Canada has paused its Start-up Visa; Quebec’s investor programme takes applications at any time, and several provincial entrepreneur streams were taking expressions of interest or inviting applicants when The Legation Times read their pages on 28 September.
Side by side
| Australia | Canada | |
|---|---|---|
| Route for a new investor applicant | Subclass 188 business and investment streams closed to new applicants; the 858 selects on achievement | Quebec Investor Program; provincial entrepreneur streams |
| Money the rules require | No capital threshold in the 858 regulations; visa charge from AUD 6,235 | Quebec: CAD 2,000,000 net worth, CAD 1,000,000 placed for five years, CAD 200,000 contribution. Provinces read on 28 September: net worth of CAD 300,000 to 600,000 plus an investment of CAD 100,000 to 250,000 |
| How applicants are chosen | By invitation, from expressions of interest | Quebec: applications at any time, no cap; provinces: expressions of interest or invitation |
| What comes first | Permanent residence | Quebec: work permit, then a Quebec selection certificate, then a federal application for permanent residence. Provinces: applicants run a business in Canada before nomination (The Legation Times Canada guide) |
| Language | No English test among the criteria The Legation Times read; adults without functional English pay a second instalment of AUD 4,890 | Quebec: spoken French level 7; provinces: Canadian Language Benchmark 4 or 5 |
Australia: the investor streams have closed
Regulations made in July 2024 required applications for four streams of the Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) visa, subclass 188, to be made before 31 July 2024. The streams were Business Innovation, Investor, Significant Investor and Entrepreneur; the Significant Investor stream had asked for at least AUD 5 million. Applications already lodged are still processed, and holders of a 188 visa can still apply for the permanent subclass 888.
The National Innovation visa, subclass 858, is a permanent visa for people with an internationally recognised record of exceptional and outstanding achievement in a profession, a sport, the arts, or academia and research. Applicants must be invited and must lodge within 60 days of the invitation, and they need a nominator with a national reputation in their field. The regulations, in the compilation of 1 July 2026 that The Legation Times read on 28 September, contain no capital, investment or business-turnover criterion.
The visa charge starts at AUD 6,235 for the main applicant, with AUD 3,120 for each additional adult and AUD 1,560 for each child; adults without functional English pay a second instalment of AUD 4,890. The grant criteria turn on achievement; invitations follow a ministerial priority direction in which a record as a significant angel investor is only an indicator, and only for applicants nominated by a government agency. In the five quarters from April 2025 to June 2026, the department’s published quarterly figures sum to 11,046 expressions of interest received and 854 invitations issued. Australia’s planning level for its talent and innovation category falls to 3,500 places in 2026–27, from 5,300 the year before, including 20 places for the closed business and investment visas. The Legation Times explained the 858 visa on 29 September.
Canada: Quebec and the provinces
Canada’s federal Start-up Visa and Self-Employed Persons Program are both marked paused. The Quebec Investor Program asks for net worth of at least CAD 2,000,000. Within 120 days of the ministry’s request, the applicant’s financial intermediary makes a five-year investment of CAD 1,000,000, repaid without interest at the end of the term, and a CAD 200,000 financial contribution; the conditions page does not say whether the contribution is repaid. Applicants need spoken French at level 7, receive a work permit first, and must spend at least 12 months in Quebec within two years of the work permit being issued. Quebec’s application page says applications can be made at any time, with no maximum number, and sets the review fee for the principal applicant at CAD 18,241.
Provincial entrepreneur streams ask the applicant to start or buy a business and run it before the province nominates them, as The Legation Times’ Canada guide sets out. Among the streams The Legation Times read on 28 September, net worth floors run from CAD 300,000 in British Columbia’s Regional stream and Alberta’s Rural Entrepreneur stream to CAD 600,000 in British Columbia’s Base stream, Nova Scotia (Halifax) and Newfoundland and Labrador. Manitoba was not holding draws, Saskatchewan closed its entrepreneur pathways on 27 March 2025, and Ontario’s entrepreneur page is archived. The Legation Times read the pages of British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador only.
What the comparison does not show
Neither country grants residence for money alone. In Australia, the 858 is granted on achievement; in Canada, the money comes with a French requirement in Quebec and a business to run in the provinces. Processing times were not established for any route, and the provincial figures are as read on 28 September.
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