The Startup Visa is an international temporary residency visa sometimes called a Business Start Up Visa. It aims at establishing a short term, specialized, entrepreneurial visa category for young entrepreneurs venturing outside funds and transforms into a permanent residency visa when certain conditions are fulfilled.
You can apply for the start up visa by submitting an application to the Home Office of the Canadian immigration authorities. The whole procedure takes about three weeks. Once the application is approved, you get a letter of authorization and a receipt confirming that your application has been approved.
Entrepreneurs applying for the visa are required to set up a business plan and present three years of details about their business before the immigration authorities. This information is required because the Startup Visa is mainly targeted at established, profitable businesses in major cities.
The main criteria for selecting a successful business are commercial intent and business development strategies. Some of the basic points to be clarified are the nature of the business, history and purpose, legal structure, market and customers.
There are certain guidelines that need to be followed while filling up the application form. In order to know more about these guidelines, you can access the Canadian Immigration website. The website also provides some valuable tips on how to prepare and manage the necessary documents.
All the basic information required should be filled in accurately. If you are looking forward to bring your business to Canada, then you can refer to the tips given below which will prove useful in the process.
The tips are divided between formal paperwork and informal paperwork. First of all, you need to understand what are you exactly doing. There are several formal paperwork that needs to be submitted to the concerned offices like the Canadian Immigration officials and the provincial office so as to get the approval for the entrepreneur program.
The formal paperwork include ITRs or Invitations to enter the country, employment and labour contracts, investment proposals, tax returns, and banking statements among many others. Among the informal paperwork, there are work permit applications, business plans, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Specification of Items for Import and Export, Insurance policies, and Permanent resident card (PR card) among others.
It is important to bear in mind that the entrepreneur program does not require any fees. However, if you wish to be eligible for a business visa, you need to apply for an immigrant visa. This application is however processed by the government immigration office, which may take around 6 months to one year.
If you have applied for a business visa but are yet to receive a decision, don’t worry! The Canadian Immigration authorities will process your application accordingly. The best way to speed up the process is to hire a knowledgeable and experienced Canadian immigration lawyer who can guide you throughout the application procedure.
