Canada Start-up Visa

The programme does not require the applicant to invest their own capital. The sum to be shown is settlement funds, scaled by family size, in Canadian dollars:

That table was updated on 29 July 2025, and the immigration department states that the amounts are revised every year. Applicants should check the table again at the time of filing.

Settlement funds cannot be borrowed from another person. The Government of Canada also states that it will not support start-up visa immigrants financially, so this money carries the family through the first period.

Capital for the business comes from elsewhere: designated organisations are business groups approved to invest in or support start-ups. Since 1 April 2024, each organisation is limited to 10 complete group applications a year; an application filed after the cap is reached is returned and its processing fees refunded.

The two figures in the options table are commitment levels from the organisation, not the applicant's own money. The Ministerial Instructions published in the Canada Gazette on 19 August 2017 require a designated venture capital fund to commit to investing at least 200,000 Canadian dollars in the business.

Or a designated angel investor group to commit at least 75,000 Canadian dollars, with several groups investing together counted in total. A commitment from a designated business incubator is the third door and carries no figure. Each business may have at most five applicants.

The programme grants permanent residence directly rather than a temporary permit, but the conditions sit in the ownership structure and in the management obligation. An application may be filed individually or as a group of up to five owners.

On the qualifying business, each applicant must hold 10 per cent or more of the total voting rights, and the applicants together with the designated organization must hold more than 50 per cent of the total voting rights — so no founding group may keep absolute control separate from its sponsoring organization.

If the application succeeds the holder must incorporate the business in Canada, provide active and ongoing management of that business from inside Canada, and make sure an essential part of business operations happens in Canada.

The letter of support must come from a designated organization, and that organization sends a commitment certificate directly to the department — that certificate is the document used to evaluate the application.

A cap rarely mentioned, in force since 1 April 2024, is that the department will consider only ten complete group applications per designated organization per year; an application filed after the annual cap is reached is returned and the processing fees reimbursed.

The applicant must also achieve Canadian Language Benchmark 5 in all four skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking in English or French, with results from an approved testing agency.

The Government of Canada states that it will not support a start-up visa immigrant financially

The programme was paused on 30 June 2026; applications accepted before that date continue to be processed. Where a commitment certificate from a designated organisation was received before 1 January 2026, the applicant has six months to submit the application.

For applications in process, the first milestone is biometrics. The applicant has 30 days from the date on the request letter to give fingerprints and a photo; the ages concerned and the fee are recorded in the cost cell of this page.

The file is first checked for completeness: forms filled in correctly and signed, fees paid, documents included. If anything is missing, the application is not processed and is sent back.

The department names three causes of delay: criminal or security issues needing further checks, an unclear family situation such as an incomplete divorce or adoption, and the need to consult other visa offices to verify information.

Two of the department's pages currently disagree on the open work permit. The eligibility page still says eligible applicants can apply for one to work while they wait, while the permit's own page says new applications stopped on 19 December 2025 and only extensions remain.

On approval, the applicant sends in their passport to receive a permanent resident visa with a Confirmation of Permanent Residence. That confirmation is not extended, so entry must take place before it expires.

A successful applicant becomes a permanent resident, so the residence obligation is the general one for Canadian permanent residents.

The holder must have been in Canada for at least 730 days during the last five years, and those 730 days do not need to be continuous; some time spent outside Canada may still count toward the figure under the cases the department lists separately.

Two points are commonly read backwards.

First, an expired permanent resident card does not end permanent resident status — the card is evidence of the status, not the status itself. Second, even where the 730-day obligation is not met the person remains a permanent resident until an official decision is made on their status.

Status is lost in four cases only, namely an officer determining the person is no longer a permanent resident after an inquiry or a permanent resident travel document appeal following a refusal; the person voluntarily renouncing the status; a removal order made against them coming into force; or the person becoming a Canadian citizen.

On travel, a permanent resident leaving Canada and returning by commercial vehicle must present the permanent resident card together with a passport; travelling without a valid card in hand means applying for a permanent resident travel document before returning.

Permanent residents may live, work or study anywhere in Canada and receive most social benefits, but may not vote, may not run for political office, and may not hold certain jobs requiring a high-level security clearance

Dependants may be included in the application, and each one raises the settlement funds that must be shown under the family-size table. The applicant must prove they have the money to support themselves and their dependants after arriving in Canada.

The family faces the same checks as the applicant. Every family member must have a medical exam, even one not coming to Canada; the application is refused if anyone's health is a danger to public health or would place excessive demand on health or social services.

Every family member aged 18 or over must provide police certificates when asked, from each country or territory where they have lived for six months in a row since age 18.

A holder of a work permit under this programme who applies to extend it may bring a spouse or common-law partner and dependent children. The spouse may apply for an open work permit if eligible, children may apply for study permits, and each person needs a separate application filed at the same time.

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 programme page and the eligibility page of the immigration authority do not mention tax or income; the programme has no tax regime of its own.

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.

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 start-up category

Government fees are charged per person on the application, in Canadian dollars:

The CAD 600 right of permanent residence fee has one rare property — it is the only fee that can be refunded after the department has begun processing an application, and it is refunded both where the applicant withdraws and where the department refuses.

It does not apply to the dependent children of a principal applicant. Beyond the fees paid to the immigration department, applicants must also pay other organizations for the medical exam, police certificates and language testing; the department sets no amounts for these.

On biometrics, everyone between 14 and 79 must give fingerprints and a photo for every permanent residence application, even where they have given biometrics before and those are still valid, and must do so within thirty days of the date on the letter requesting them.