Start-Up Visa or SUV is the program launched by Canadian Immigration Authorities to allow foreign entrepreneurs who wish to start a business in Canada or purchase a scalable business in the country. Hence it becomes a very popular policy for budding entrepreneurs who are interested in setting up their businesses in the country.

The demand for this visa is always on the rise. Before the rise of the pandemic, around 475 entrepreneurs were given PR in Canada. 

As the corona effects started login down and the virus got somewhat contained, people started reapplying for the Canadian PR. Immigration numbers spiked up to an all-time high, and people from all across the globe were ready to move to Canada and about 405k of them did so.

Here, numbers for every type of immigration program present in Canada went up. Start-Up Visa, as a result also saw the numbers skyrocketing. An all-time high of 555 newcomers came into the country through this program. British Columbia and Ontario were the provinces to receive the most amount of these entrepreneurs, 260 each in 2022.

new brunswick critical worker pilot

Comparison with other programs

To be fair, the numbers for SUVs are not as high as other programs like the Federal Skilled Worker Program, Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skill Trade Program, or even RNIP and AIP. But comparing the SUV 2015 edition with the last year, we can see that the numbers have increased by over 11 times. 

Even after 555 new entrants, the proportion of influx throughout the year varied. The number of people coming in through this program saw a decline in the last year’s last quarter. 

Part of the reason can be that it takes way too much time to get PR in Canada through SUVs. According to IRCC, the whole process takes 33 months. 

SUV Program

SUV is further divided into 3 categories on the basis of types of investors: Angel Investors, Venture Capital Funds, and Business Incubators. The minimum investment regulation for them is at least $200,000 (or 2 or more commitments concluding to the same amount) and at least $75,000 (or 2 or more commitments concluding to a similar amount) for Venture Capital Funds and Angel Investors. 

Business Incubators are very much necessary for nurturing Immigrant start-ups and navigating them in the right direction with the help of experienced corporate business immigration lawyers to make the start-up meet due requirements of the government authorities by building a proper business plan.

The very basic requirements set by the government for a candidate applying under SUV are:

• a qualifying business;
• a commitment certificate and letter of support from a designated entity;
• sufficient unencumbered, available, and transferable settlement funds to meet settlement funding, and;
• proficiency in English or French at the minimum Canadian Language Benchmark level 5. Higher levels could also be needed depending on the requirements. 

Want To know about WES Approved Universities?