Start-Up Visa (SUV) immigration to Canada rose 27.4 per cent in July compared to the previous month largely fuelled once again by immigrant entrepreneurs in British Columbia, reveals the latest data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
After welcoming 565 new permanent residents in June through the SUV, Canada granted permanent residence to another 720 immigrant entrepreneurs in July, bringing total immigration under that program to 3,745 new permanent residents for the first seven months of this year.
That’s a 688.4 per cent spike in SUV immigration this year compared to the first seven months of last year when only 475 new permanent residents came to Canada under that program.
Based on the trend set in the first seven months of this year, the country could expect to see 6,420 new permanent residents arrive under the SUV by the end of 2024, a 339.7 per cent increase over the total number of SUV immigrants last year.
British Columbia fuelled the country’s strong SUV performance in July with that province seeing a 59-per cent spike in newly-arrived immigrant entrepreneurs. The number of SUV immigrants to British Columbia in July hit 310 in July, up from 195 the previous month.
That almost matched the 345 new permanent residents who became new permanent residents through the SUV in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, that month.
The francophone province of Quebec and the Prairie province of Saskatchewan – and all three of Canada’s territories – do not participate in the SUV program. Among the other provinces, only the Atlantic Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island have failed to see SUV immigration by the end of July this year.
The remaining six provinces have seen the following numbers of new permanent residents through the SUV program in the first seven months of this year:
- Nova Scotia – 30
- New Brunswick – 25
- Ontario – 1,980
- Manitoba – 365
- Alberta – 80
- British Columbia – 1,265
Launched in 2015, the SUV saw only 55 immigrant entrepreneurs come to Canada through that program in its initial year.
That number, though, doubled to 110 new permanent residents in 2016 and rose another 22.7 per cent the following year. By 2018, the program had more than quadrupled in popularity with 240 new permanent residents arriving under the SUV that year.
In 2019, the last full year before the arrival of COVID-19, the SUV welcomed 515 new permanent residents to Canada.
As the pandemic swept across Canada and public health and travel restrictions were imposed, though, immigration plummeted 45.9 per cent – and the number of people who arrived under the SUV fell in tandem with that overall drop in immigration to Canada.
In 2020, only 260 immigrant entrepreneurs became new permanent residents of Canada through the SUV.
With immigration rebounding strongly in 2021 to hit 406,020 new permanent residents, the SUV also saw increased activity with 385 new permanent residents coming to Canada through it that year, an improvement of 48.1 per cent over 2020.
It took until 2022 for the SUV to fully recover from the pandemic-fuelled downturn but it more than doubled in popularity last year compared to the previous year.
The SUV program generates much lower overall numbers of new permanent residents than federal worker programs, such as the Federal Skilled Worker (FSW) and Federal Skilled Trade (FST), the Provincial Nominee Programs (PNP) or the regional economic development programs including the Atlantic Immigration Program (AIP) or Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot (RNIP).
Due to these smaller numbers, the monthly and even yearly fluctuations in the number of new permanent residents under the SUV can sometimes seem exaggerated when examined in percentage terms.
Candidates applying under the SUV program can initially come to Canada on a work permit supported by their designated Canadian investor before their application for permanent residence is finalized.
The entire process of applying for permanent residence to Canada through the SUV is currently estimated by the IRCC to take 37 months.
Under the SUV, three types of private-sector investors are considered: angel investors, venture capital funds, and business incubators.
A designated venture capital fund must confirm that it is investing at least $200,000 into the qualifying business. Candidates can also qualify with two or more commitments from designated venture capital funds totalling $200,000.
A designated angel investor group must invest at least $75,000 into the qualifying business. Candidates can also qualify with two or more investments from angel investor groups totalling $75,000.
A designated business incubator must accept the applicant into its business incubator program. It is up to the immigrant investor to develop a viable business plan that will meet the due diligence requirements of these government-approved designated entities.
That investing and the development of the business is usually done with the help of business consultants in Canada’s start-up ecosystem with oversight from experienced corporate business immigration lawyers who can ensure a start-up’s business concept meets all industry-required terms and conditions.
The basic government-imposed candidate eligibility requirements for the 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. However, it frequently occurs that higher levels of English are needed to meet due diligence requirements imposed by designated entities.
