Connect with us
Connect with us
No other Startup Visa program in the world has ‘essential’ and ‘non-essential’ labeling of its co-founders. As you should all know by now, the Canadian Startup Visa program allows 1-5 co-founders to apply together, but if there are more than 1 co-founder, you’ll need to decide if they are essential or non-essential members of the startup business. What if you’re in a group together and one of them decides to leave? For personal reasons, medical reasons, or they’re just fed up with Canadian immigration processing times and uncertainties – especially with the Startup Visa program.
This is the topic of our article today – and this is not for new applicants of Startup Visa who have not yet applied or are thinking of applying. Please do NOT read this article if you don’t fall in this category. This video is specifically for people who have already applied for their PR under the Canadian Startup Visa program.
In our article today we are covering 2 key questions that come up for existing Canadian Startup Visa applicants:
1: What happens when a non-essential co-founder leaves your Startup Visa group?
2: What happens when an essential co-founder leaves your Startup Visa group?
In both scenarios, it means there are more than 1 co-founders in the Startup Visa group, they already have their Letter of Support which could be from 1 year ago or more, or more recently, and all the co-founders have applied for their PR applications as per the IRCC eligibility requirements.
At INGWE we are EXPERTS in the Canada Startup Visa. We will guide and support you throughout the endorsement letter or Letter of Support process and the entire immigration process including work visas and permanent residencies. Get a FREE email assessment, click here.
In our first case we cover the situation where one of your co-founders is a non-essential member of the Startup Visa group and decides they want to leave and not apply anymore through this program. They already have a temporary or permanent file number from IRCC for their PR. This is probably the easiest case you can come across. Since non-essential members are not critical for the operations & success of the startup business, as per the IRCC regulations, the non-essential member can withdraw their PR application from IRCC without affecting any of the other members of the Startup Visa group. All other non-essential and essential members will have their PR applications processed without any negative effects.
This does not raise any red flags with the IRCC officer if a non-essential member withdraws at any time. They can withdraw during the time they have a temporary file number or even after they receive a permanent file number – even during the entire IRCC request for information and update process.
All you need to do is inform IRCC of the withdrawal and your designated organization so they can update their records. And the simplest reason for withdrawal is “personal reasons which do not allow them to dedicate enough time to the startup business along with the other co-founders as originally planned”. It’s as simple as that, with no concerns or issues by the rest of the co-founders, IRCC or the designated organization. If the IRCC has not yet started processing their PR application, their processing fees will be refunded as well – otherwise there will not receive a refund.
Remember that we’re always posting about these key details about the Canadian Startup Visa Program and other investment & business immigration programs for professionals and entrepreneurs – and if that’s what you are interested in, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel for more deep dive videos.
The second scenario is not as clean and pleasant as the first case we covered. This is when other co-founders in the Startup Visa group start grinding their teeth and may put the SUV group into panic mode. What happens when an essential co-founder in the Startup Visa group decides to withdraw, cancel, forfeit, or resign from the group – no matter what verb you use to describe this scenario it’s all the same as per the IRCC’s point of view. If any team member in the Startup Visa group, who is deemed an essential person, has their start-up business permanent residence application withdrawn or refused, as per subsection R98.08(2), all start-up business permanent residence applications linked to the same business proposal must be refused for not meeting the requirements of being a member of the start-up business class.
These are the possible solutions and steps the SUV group must go through in such scenarios. If the essential member already has a temporary or permanent file number from IRCC for their PR application, and is withdrawing, you’ll need to immediately follow these steps:
1: If they held a key role such as CEO or specific position that was critical to the success of the group, you need to either:
A: have another essential or non-essential member take over that role based on their skills matching this new position; or
B: hire somebody in Canada either part-time or full time to take over this vacated position in your startup business.
2: The next step is to Inform your designated organization immediately of the changes and have a well written explanation letter with details of the new person taking over that role, their background, skills & experience all having to be relevant. If you are not filling the position with another member of the group or a Canadian employee, then you still need to have an explanation to the designated organization on why no replacement is required for the success of the business.
3: The designated organization needs to re-issue everyone’s Letter of Support again, the remaining co-founders, without the name of the member who withdrew. And in the updated commitment certificate they send to IRCC they need to explain the shuffle and the justification, and any new milestones achieved by the startup group.
4: In the next round of updates, you send to the IRCC regarding your business progress, assuming you are sending a webform to the IRCC every 6 months, which is a best practice in case you didn’t know, you can explain and update them on this shuffle that has happened with your co-founders.
5: If the essential co-founder is inside Canada with a work permit, their status will be void, and they need to apply to restore and convert to a visitor visa or any other status depending on their specific case or leave the country. The spouse and children can stay on their valid permits until the expiry – with no option to renew.
Keep in mind that if an essential co-founder leaves during the time that the IRCC officer has already started reviewing your PR applications, by sending requests for updated information, forms and business progress from you and your co-founders, then this shuffle of your co-founders will be a red flag and you can expect serious turbulence with your PR decision. The officer will have doubts and will try to take you down a very dark path while deciding on your permanent residencies. You want to avoid having essential members leave or withdraw from the SUV group if you have permanent file numbers for your PR. Anything that happens before this stage is manageable, anything after will be considered high risk. It’s up to you and your consultant or lawyer and designated organization to make sure the justifications and explanations with supporting documents are in order.
We’ll leave you with this final thought: When applying for Canadian immigration, the IRCC considers you guilty until proven innocent.
If you like immigration hacks, creative immigrations solutions or key analysis and the raw truth about immigration policies & updates then you can click on the subscribe button for our YouTube channel.
At INGWE we are EXPERTS in the Canada Startup Visa. We will guide and support you throughout the endorsement letter or Letter of Support process and the entire immigration process including work visas and permanent residencies. Get a FREE email assessment, click here.
If you’re thinking about immigrating whether permanently or temporarily - you’re at the right place! Our team speaks over +9 languages, and we help applicants from over 50 different countries during their immigration process. Get a FREE email assessment, click here.
If you’re ready to apply and would like a 1-on-1 session with one of the immigration team members at INGWE, you can also book a session directly using this consultation link.
