Canada’s Start-Up Visa: How Much Money Do I Need?

On This Page, You Will Find:

• Where the Start-Up Visa stands in 2026
• Settlement funds: the current IRCC table
• Why “unencumbered” matters more than the number
• What the designated organization has to commit
• What you pay IRCC
• What you pay everyone else
• Budgeting for the promised entrepreneur pilot
• Frequently asked questions

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The Start-Up Visa (SUV) Program has always had two separate money questions attached to it. The first is how much capital a designated Canadian organization must commit to your business. The second is how much cash you personally must show IRCC so that you and your family can live in Canada without government support. They are not the same money, and confusing them is one of the more expensive mistakes an applicant can make.

There is now a third question, and it is the one most readers arrive with: is any of this still worth budgeting for? The programme is closed to new applicants. IRCC stopped accepting applications on 30 June 2026 and is processing only what it received before that date. This article is therefore a reference for two groups: entrepreneurs already sitting in the queue who need to know what they still have to pay, and entrepreneurs planning ahead for the replacement pilot Ottawa has promised. It is not a savings plan for a programme you can join today.

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Where the Start-Up Visa stands in 2026

IRCC set out the wind-down in a notice dated 19 December 2025. Three things happened at once. Effective that day, IRCC stopped accepting applications for the optional work permit available to SUV applicants, with one exception: people already in Canada applying to extend an existing SUV work permit. Effective 31 December 2025 at 11:59 p.m., IRCC stopped accepting new SUV permanent residence applications, except from applicants holding a valid 2025 commitment from a designated organization. Those holders were given until 30 June 2026 to file. That deadline has passed.

The designated-organization side closed on the same schedule. IRCC stopped accepting commitment certificates after 31 December 2025 and is not designating new organizations. The canada.ca programme pages now carry a single status line: Paused.

The notice also promised a transition “to a new, targeted pilot program for immigrant entrepreneurs,” with details to be communicated in 2026. Departmental planning documents describe it as a high-impact start-up pilot aimed at elite entrepreneurs. No eligibility criteria, no investment thresholds and no fee schedule have been published. We have covered what is and is not known about the replacement in our piece on the Start-Up Visa suspension and the new 2026 entrepreneur pilot. Anyone quoting you a required investment figure for that pilot is guessing.

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Settlement funds: the current IRCC table

The Government of Canada does not support SUV immigrants financially. Applicants must prove they can pay their own living costs on arrival, and the required amount is set by family size. IRCC updates the table annually. The figures below were last updated on 29 July 2025 and are the amounts currently published on canada.ca.

• 1 family member: $15,263
• 2 family members: $19,001
• 3 family members: $23,360
• 4 family members: $28,362
• 5 family members: $32,168
• 6 family members: $36,280
• 7 family members: $40,392
• Each additional family member beyond seven: add $4,112

All amounts are in Canadian dollars. Family size counts your spouse or common-law partner and your dependent children even if they are not travelling with you. These thresholds move most years, so anyone whose application is still in processing should check the published table rather than the figure quoted in an older letter. The same logic applies across economic programmes generally, as our guide to settlement funds required for skilled worker immigration explains.

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Why “unencumbered” matters more than the number

Hitting the dollar figure is the easy part. Satisfying an officer that the money is genuinely yours is where applications fail. IRCC’s rule is short and unforgiving: you cannot borrow this money from another person, and you must be able to use it to pay your family’s living costs. In practice that means the funds must be readily available, transferable to Canada, and free of debts or obligations attached to them.

Money sitting in a business account earmarked for the start-up does not count as settlement funds. Neither does a line of credit, a gift that is really a loan, or a lump sum that appeared in your account a fortnight before filing with no explanation of where it came from. Officers look at the history of the account, not just the closing balance. Note also that if you bring more than C$10,000 into Canada in cash or negotiable instruments, you must declare it to the Canada Border Services Agency or risk a fine or imprisonment.

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What the designated organization has to commit

The investment thresholds are set by the type of designated organization, and they have not changed:

• Designated venture capital fund: a minimum investment of $200,000.
• Designated angel investor group: a minimum investment of $75,000.
• Designated business incubator: no dollar investment required. You must be accepted into the incubator’s programme.

These minimums can be reached collectively rather than by a single cheque. IRCC’s guidance for designated organizations allows them to team up with other designated organizations to meet the minimum investment or support required, and the published angel wording refers to “one or more investors connected to these groups” reaching $75,000. A syndicated commitment is still a commitment, provided every participating organization is designated.

One wrinkle worth noting: when IRCC introduced processing priorities, business incubators with committed capital of $75,000 were placed in the priority stream alongside venture capital funds and angel groups. So while an incubator route carries no mandatory investment, capital still buys you queue position. If you are unclear on the difference between the three routes, see our explainer on what a business incubator is, and on what a commitment certificate and letter of support are. Commitment certificates were valid for six months from issue, which is why the 2025 cohort faced a hard filing deadline.

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What you pay IRCC

Permanent residence fees rose on 30 April 2026. Applications received on or after that date are charged the new amounts. Current fees for the business immigration category, which covers the Start-Up Visa, are:

• Principal applicant processing fee: $1,895 (up from $1,810)
• Right of permanent residence fee (RPRF): $600 (up from $575)
• Principal applicant, processing plus RPRF paid together: $2,495
• Spouse or common-law partner: $990 processing, or $1,590 with the RPRF
• Each dependent child: $270
• Biometrics: $85 per person, capped at $170 for a family of two or more applying at the same time

The RPRF is payable before you become a permanent resident, and is normally requested once your application is approved. It does not apply to dependent children. It is also the only fee IRCC refunds after processing begins, if you withdraw or are refused. A couple with two children applying together would face roughly $4,625 in IRCC fees, including both adults’ RPRF, plus $170 in biometrics. Our government of Canada immigration fee schedule tracks changes across all categories.

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What you pay everyone else

IRCC’s fees are the smaller half of the bill. The costs it does not charge, but which you cannot avoid, include:

• Language testing. The SUV requires Canadian Language Benchmark 5 in listening, reading, writing and speaking, from an approved agency. The test provider sets the price.
• Medical exams. Performed by an IRCC panel physician, who sets their own fee. Every accompanying family member is examined.
• Police certificates. Charged by the issuing authority in each country where you have lived. Costs and processing times vary widely.
• Translation and certification. Any document not in English or French needs a certified translation plus a scan of the original.
• Designated organization due diligence. Incubators and investor groups run their own screening and frequently charge programme, due-diligence or acceleration fees. These are commercial arrangements between you and the organization, not government charges, and they are not regulated by IRCC.
• Representation. Optional. If you use a paid representative, they must be authorized. IRCC states plainly that using one does not improve your odds.

One cost you will not incur: the Start-Up Visa has no education requirement, so no educational credential assessment is needed. That is a genuine difference from Express Entry, and a fee some applicants budget for unnecessarily. Whether the replacement pilot introduces an education requirement is unknown.

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Budgeting for the promised entrepreneur pilot

Until criteria are published, the honest planning assumption is that a high-impact pilot aimed at elite entrepreneurs is unlikely to ask for less capital than the programme it replaces. Settlement funds are indexed and updated annually, so whatever table applies when the pilot opens will almost certainly be higher than the 2025 figures above. Entrepreneurs who cannot wait may want to look at provincial entrepreneur programs, which operate on their own timetables and set their own investment and net worth thresholds.

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Frequently Asked Questions