Canada Provincial Nominee Program: Entrepreneur Streams

The Provincial Nominee Program has no single threshold: each province sets its own net-worth and investment minimums for its entrepreneur streams, and several lower them for businesses located outside the large cities. The streams below were verified on each provincial government's own pages on 3 October 2026, in Canadian dollars:

Three points set this table apart from an ordinary investment threshold.

First, the investment is the applicant's own money put into a business the applicant owns and runs, not a contribution to a fund or the purchase of an asset to hold; Alberta states that the minimum investment in the Rural Entrepreneur Stream must come from the applicant's own or their spouse's or common-law partner's equity.

Second, net worth is a separate test and usually has to pass an independent verifier: Prince Edward Island assigns verification to a designated verifier, while Manitoba and the Northwest Territories require third-party verification.

Third, the streams for graduates of the province, namely Alberta's Graduate Entrepreneur, Newfoundland and Labrador's International Graduate Entrepreneur and the graduate route within Nova Scotia's Entrepreneur stream, set no net-worth or investment minimum, but are open only to people who studied at the province's own institutions.

The entrepreneur streams of the Provincial Nominee Program do not grant permanent residence directly. The end result is Canadian permanent residence, but it comes in two tiers: the province nominates first, and only then does the federal immigration authority assess the permanent residence application.

In most streams a temporary stage sits between the two tiers. The province signs a Business Performance Agreement with the applicant and issues a support letter for a work permit; the applicant comes to Canada to start or buy a business, runs it, and is nominated only after meeting the commitments in the agreement.

That work permit carries the labour market impact assessment exemption code C60, which covers people creating or maintaining a business as an entrepreneur supported by a province or territory, and requires a support letter under paragraph R205(a).

The exceptions are the streams for graduates of the province. Newfoundland and Labrador's International Graduate Entrepreneur and Nova Scotia's graduate route require the applicant to have run a business in the province for one full year before applying, so they skip the work-permit stage and go straight to nomination. Alberta's Graduate Entrepreneur requires a post-graduation work permit valid when the expression of interest is submitted, in place of a provincially supported work permit.

Once nominated, the applicant applies to the federal immigration authority for permanent residence by one of two routes: through Express Entry, where a provincial nomination adds 600 points, or through the non-Express Entry route for people who do not qualify for the federal programmes in that system.

Each stream also sets its own ownership share and job-creation duty. British Columbia requires at least one third of the equity in the Base stream and 51 per cent in the Regional stream; Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and the Northwest Territories require one third. Most streams require at least one full-time job for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident.

Ontario no longer has an entrepreneur stream: the province's programme page states that the Ontario Workforce Priority stream has launched and all other streams are now closed. Québec selects entrepreneurs through its own programme, outside the Provincial Nominee Program.

There is no single timeline: each province sets its own deadline for each step, and the federal immigration authority publishes processing times for the permanent residence application after nomination.

In British Columbia, an invited applicant has four months to apply. Once approved, they have 90 days to apply for the work permit and must arrive in British Columbia within 12 months; they then have up to 20 months to implement the business plan, and submit the final report between month 18 and month 20. The province publishes a processing time of about four months for the work-permit-stage application and about four months for the final report.

In Alberta, the Rural Entrepreneur Stream requires the business application within 90 days of the invitation, signature of the agreement within 14 days, a two-year work permit application within three months and arrival in Alberta within 12 months. The applicant must run the business for at least 12 months before submitting the report for nomination, and must apply for permanent residence within six months of nomination.

In Nova Scotia, the applicant must run the business for at least one full year before requesting nomination, and apply to the federal immigration authority within 12 months of nomination.

At the federal level, processing of a nominee's permanent residence application takes about 13 months by the non-Express Entry route and about 7 months through Express Entry, according to immigration authority data updated on 3 September 2026.

The residence obligation has two tiers, and the first is far heavier than the second.

During the work-permit stage, the province sets its own presence requirement and ties it to running the business. British Columbia requires the applicant to live within 50 kilometres of the business and be physically present in the province for at least 75 per cent of the time on the work permit. Prince Edward Island requires the applicant and accompanying family to live in the province and be physically present for at least 274 days of the year. The Northwest Territories require the applicant to live within 100 kilometres of the business and reside in the territory for at least 75 per cent of the time on the work permit. Alberta does not accept remote management.

The management has to be real: British Columbia states that active management must take place while the applicant is physically present at the place of business in the province, and the Northwest Territories make active management at the place of business a mandatory requirement.

Once a permanent resident, the obligation returns to the general one for Canadian permanent residents: physical presence in Canada for at least 730 days in the last five years, and those 730 days need not be continuous.

An expired permanent resident card does not end permanent resident status. Status is lost only through an official determination of the person's status, voluntary renunciation, a removal order taking effect, or the person becoming a Canadian citizen.

A spouse or common-law partner and dependent children may be included, at both the temporary and the permanent residence stage.

At the work-permit stage, British Columbia's support letter allows the applicant and dependants to move to the province, while Prince Edward Island requires accompanying family to live in the province as well. When the province nominates, the permanent residence application sent to the federal immigration authority covers the spouse or common-law partner and dependent children.

Newfoundland and Labrador counts children under 22 as dependants. The spouse is also a scoring factor: Alberta and Manitoba award points for the spouse's language ability or education in the assessment grid.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Canada passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Canada passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Canada passport reaches 199 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The provinces' entrepreneur stream pages and the federal nominee programme page set no tax regime of their own for these streams.

In exchange, the revenue agency states in terms what elsewhere must be inferred, and the sentence deserves quoting whole:

Your immigration status tells you if you can live, work, or study in Canada; it reflects your reasons for being in Canada and the length of your stay; unlike your residency status, it does not tell you your tax obligations.

And immediately after: under the Canadian income tax system, your income tax obligations to Canada are based on your residency status. The governing test is residential ties rather than immigration paperwork.

Significant residential ties are: a home in Canada; a spouse or common-law partner in Canada; dependants in Canada.

In the entrepreneur streams the applicant usually brings the family and sets up a home in the province during the work-permit stage, so these ties may form during temporary residence, before permanent residence.

Secondary ties include personal property such as a car or furniture, social ties, economic ties such as a Canadian bank account or credit card, a Canadian driver licence, a Canadian passport, and health insurance with a province or territory.

A person may be considered an immigrant where they left another country to settle in Canada, established significant residential ties and became a resident of Canada in the tax year.

A day-count door also exists: a person may be a deemed resident where they have not established significant residential ties sufficient to be a factual resident but stayed in Canada for 183 days or more in the year.

Running the other way: a person is a non-resident where they have no significant residential ties and either lived outside Canada throughout the year or stayed in Canada for fewer than 183 days.

For certainty, an official opinion may be requested on Form NR74 on entering or NR73 on leaving, with the full guidance in Income Tax Folio S5-F1-C1.

First-year obligations: the agency treats a person as a newcomer to Canada for the first year they are a resident for income tax purposes, and for most newcomers that starts the first day they live in Canada.

The tax year runs 1 January to 31 December, the filing deadline is generally 30 April of the following year, extended to 15 June for the self-employed and their spouses; a person living in Québec must file separately with the provincial revenue authority; and supporting records must be kept for at least six years.

One obligation is little known and looks backwards: income earned outside Canada for up to two years before becoming a resident must be reported, on a Statement of Income, converted at the central bank rate on the day the income was received.

And the foreign asset reporting duty: Form T1135 is required of Canadian resident individuals, corporations and certain trusts that at any time in the year own specified foreign property costing more than CAD 100,000.

Specified foreign property is defined in subsection 233.3(1) of the Income Tax Act and includes shares of non-resident corporations, debts owed by non-residents, interests in foreign insurance policies, and precious metals held outside Canada.

Read this cell within its scope: the immigration authority covers immigration requirements; the revenue agency covers how tax residence is determined, first-year filing duties and foreign asset reporting, but says nothing about any particular provincial tax, gives no rates, and says nothing specific to the entrepreneur streams of the Provincial Nominee Program.

Government costs come in two layers: the province's fee for the entrepreneur application, and the federal immigration authority's fee for the permanent residence application after nomination. Provincial fees, in Canadian dollars:

The federal immigration authority's fees for a provincial nominee: the principal applicant pays 1,590 including the processing fee and the right of permanent residence fee, or 990 without it; an accompanying spouse or partner likewise pays 1,590 or 990; each dependent child pays 270.

The most notable item is Prince Edward Island's 10,000 application fee, many times higher than in other provinces, and refunded in full only if the file is not accepted; nothing is refunded after the interview.

Beyond these, the applicant also pays for medical examinations, police certificates, language tests and third-party net-worth verification; the government does not set these amounts.