Federal Start-Up Visa
This was the federal permanent-residence program for an innovative business supported by a designated organization: a venture-capital fund, an angel-investor group, or a business incubator. It was not a passive investment.
Right now
- New applications are paused. On 19 December 2025 IRCC said it would stop new applications at 11:59 p.m. on 31 December 2025, except for people who already held a valid 2025 commitment from a designated organization and had not yet applied.
- The program page shows the program paused from 30 June 2026. Applications accepted before the pause continue to be processed.
- The optional start-up work permit is stopped for new applicants. Extensions remain for people already in Canada on that permit.
- IRCC has said this prepares a new, targeted entrepreneur pilot. As of October 2026 that pilot is not an open application on the public pages. There is no route a client can file under an unofficial pilot name.
- Someone who needs to start a business now looks at a provincial entrepreneur stream or at Quebec.
How we can help
- Check whether a 2025 designated-organization commitment is still unused and was filed in time. If it was not, we do not open a new federal start-up file.
- Move an active business plan to Quebec or a province that is actually receiving entrepreneur files.
- For a file already accepted, keep it moving. The pause is on new intake, not on files already in process.
Quebec Entrepreneur
For people who will settle in Quebec and start or acquire a business, and operate it. It is not the investor program. Quebec says an application in each stream may be submitted at any time, with no maximum number. The principal applicant’s selection fee was published at $1,272 for 2026, with a smaller fee for a spouse and each dependent child. Fees change on 1 January.
The three streams
- Stream 1 — an innovative business, supported by an organization.
- Stream 2 — a business start-up.
- Stream 3 — takeover of an existing business.
What has to be true
- Each stream has its own net-worth test, a start-up deposit or spending requirement, a business plan, and rules on how much of the business you must own and run.
- Those figures are not the same across the three streams, and they are not the investor program’s two-million-dollar test. Read them on the current Quebec page for that stream. Do not carry a single net-worth number from one stream to another.
- The file includes a narrative document. The spouse on the file completes one as well.
- After Quebec selection, you still apply to the federal government.
- A business that exists only on paper, or a person who will not manage it, does not meet the program.
How we can help
- Pick the stream from what you will actually do: innovate with a supporting organization, start, or take over.
- Build the plan and the narrative around ownership and day-to-day management, and use the threshold on that stream’s current page.
- Prepare the federal file after selection.
Other Provinces (PNP)
Most provinces nominate entrepreneurs inside their nominee programs. The dollar figures differ. The shape is similar.
- Net worth, a minimum investment, experience owning or managing a business, and a plan to live in the province and actively run the business.
- Often an expression of interest, an invitation, a performance agreement, and a period on a work permit while the business is opened and staffed, before nomination.
- Some provinces have a lower investment if the business is outside the main city, and a separate stream for international graduates who start a business.
- A minority share, or a residential property, is not the stream.
- Intake is frequently capped. British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, the Atlantic provinces, and the territories have all run entrepreneur categories, and several have paused them.
- The worker streams of each province are on the Other Provinces page. Entrepreneur rules, the current minimum, and whether expressions of interest are open have to be read on that province’s site before money moves.
How we can help
- Confirm the province is accepting entrepreneur files before a business is purchased.
- Map the performance period: what has to be open, staffed, and documented before the province will nominate.
- Keep a passive “investment” plan out of a program that expects you to operate the business.
