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Has the Startup Visa program changed? What is all this talk about the new instructions or policies or changes to the Startup Visa program? There is no need to worry…the program hasn’t changed. Only the Startup Visa work permit application guidelines have been updated back in May of 2023. Today we’re going to go over all the key steps on how to apply for your Startup Visa work permit and best practices. This article is not meant for beginners who have never done any type of immigration application but rather for those who already possess certain knowledge in the matter.
At INGWE we are EXPERTS in the Canada and UK 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 with us, fill out our form, click here.
Before you start, this is what you need in terms of functionality and eligibility:
* A working computer and internet connection… of course! No paper applications can be accepted unless there are specific medical reasons or a disability that doesn’t allow you to apply online.
* A valid Letter of Support from a designated organization for the Startup Visa program stating that you are an ‘essential’ member. This is basically page 8 of the commitment certificate of your designated organization that is sent directly to IRCC from their side. Page 8 is the standard IRCC Letter of Support template all these organizations must use when endorsing a Startup and its founders for the Startup Visa program. The letter of support must be valid meaning it should not have been more than 6 months from the date of issue otherwise your work permit application will be refused.
If it has expired, you can request your designated organization to re-issue them for all co-founders. This is possible and completely acceptable by IRCC.
Quick crash course in SUV PR and work permits: If you are an essential member listed on the Letter of Support you can apply for your PR and work permit under the SUV program. If you are a non-essential member you can apply for your PR but not a work permit. If an essential member is refused for PR then all members are refused by default, and if a non-essential member is refused for their PR application then it will not affect any other non-essential or essential members. A work permit application refusal will not by default cause any PR refusal between essential or non-essential members – although it can be a foreshadowing of what to expect for your PR application.
* All co-founders of the Startup should already have applied for their Startup Visa Permanent Residencies through the online IRCC portal – and have proof of this – even if you don’t have a temporary or permanent file number yet from IRCC. You can take screenshots of the online PR application submission and include all these screenshots in your explanation letter within your work permit application. If you already have a temporary file number from IRCC for your PR applications, then just include those. Either way, this is mandatory.
* An incorporated company inside Canada. This is required to issue yourself a job offer for the LMIA-exempt work permit for the Startup Visa program. We’re going to go through this in detail in this article as well as issuing yourself a job offer to be able to apply for this work permit.
* Proof of Minimum settlement funds for the total 52-week duration of your work permit depending on your family size.
* Proof of investment funds to run the startup inside Canada.
* Your Startup Visa eligibility documents such as the language exam for CLB 5 or higher in either English or French, your business plan, and proof of your upfront medical examination. If you have not done this already for your PR application and you are from a designated country where a medical examination is mandatory, you will need to do this, and we suggest doing it as soon as possible to be able to include it in your work permit application.
* You should pay all the IRCC and Service Canada fees for your work permit application. We’ll go over them shortly down below.
* And last but not least, answering all of the IRCC’s key questions on why it’s urgent for you to enter Canada as a Startup Visa business co-founder – we call this the ‘Statement of Purpose’ similar to how you do it for Study Permits & Study Plans.
* And finally answering the question of what the significant benefit is for Canada to let you in on a work permit. This is also critical for your work permit success under the Startup Visa Business Program.
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The fees you need to pay for your Startup Visa work permit application include the following and are required to be paid upon submission. Proof of payment should be added to your application, otherwise officers will return the application as incomplete:
A: Your closed work permit application fee of CAD$ 155.- for the main applicant or co-founder.
B: The employer compliance fee of CAD$ 230 is mandatory for ALL LMIA-exempt work permits. Each co-founder must pay this fee separately if they apply for a work permit. If you are refused once, you need to pay it again. We’ll go over this shortly for which you need an incorporated company inside Canada.
C: Your biometric fee which is different from your PR application biometric fee: CAD$ 85.
D: If your dependent family members are joining you then you will also need to pay CAD$255.- for your spouse or common-law partner’s open work permit, and CAD$ 150.- for your child’s study permit or CAD $100.- if they are not yet at the age to attend school. All dependent family members over the age of 14 also need to take their biometrics to enter Canada with their temporary status. You can pay a total of CAD$ 170.- for your biometrics for a family package fee if you are 3 or more persons.
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Now that we’ve covered the fees. Let’s look at y our company incorporation and employer compliance fee steps in more detail:
1: An incorporation of either a Federal or provincial business is mandatory to be able to issue yourself an LMIA-exempt job offer and pay the employer compliance fee. You can also do a sole proprietorship, but we don’t recommend this for the Startup Visa Business Program. To incorporate Federally you need a Canadian director, but if you don’t have a Canadian director you can incorporate a provincial company without one.
This is possible in Ontario, Alberta, BC, and Nova Scotia. We provide this service for our clients at cost, so they don’t pay more than ~$690 to incorporate for example in Ontario. In the company incorporation, you need all co-founders who are immigrating to Canada as directors and shareholders of the entity in Canada. You will need proof of this for IRCC.
2: When anyone incorporates in Canada, a CRA business number is automatically mailed to them, to the local address inside Canada which was included in the original registration process. With this CRA business number, you can go to the Service Canada Employer Compliance portal and register your business. After you have created an account, you can apply for an LMIA exemption code using this portal and pay CAD$ 230.- You enter the details of the position you are offering yourself (usually as an entrepreneur or C-level position) with NOC code 88888, a quick job description and wage and the LMIA exemption code for which you are applying, such as A77 which is the correct code for the SUV work permit.
Within a few minutes or an hour max you will receive an email from Service Canada with a number starting with the letter ‘A’ and a sequence of numbers which is the LMIA exempt code you will be using on your SUV work permit application form IMM 1295 E (Application for a work permit made outside Canada – although you can technically apply from inside Canada too, using the IRCC policy update for conversion from a visitor visa to a work permit if you have a valid job offer). But remember, no flag poling or applying at the border is allowed for the Startup Visa work permit stream.
3: Let’s say you incorporated or somebody else incorporated your business inside Canada, but you never received a CRA business number – or at least you don’t have access to the letter they sent to the registered address of the business. If this is the case, you can skip the online portal and just fill out the IRCC form IMM 5802 E ‘Offer of Employment to a Foreign National Exempt from Labour Market Impact Assessment’. When you take this option, then in the work permit application IMM 1295 E, in the LMIA exempt field you will enter A9999999 after you pick the category ‘Exemption from Labour Market Impact Assessment’ in the ‘Details of the intended work in Canada’ on the form. Voila, you’re done with this step.
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Now that we’ve covered the fees, the incorporation, the Employer Compliance Fee, and Portal, let’s look at the next really important factor: Why is it urgent for you as a founder or co-founder of the Startup business to enter Canada before a decision on your PR applications is made? We call this the ‘Statement of Purpose’ or even the ‘Statement of Entrepreneurial Purpose’ – you won’t hear about this part anywhere else online or in any other video. So, pay close attention as this is our secret recipe for our success here at INGWE Immigration for our Startup Visa client’s work permit success.
You can either have your legal representative include this in their legal submission letter or you can include a cover page in your own application if you are applying for yourself or a family member – and don’t forget to sign and authorize your family member as an unpaid representative.
The statement of purpose should address the following questions which IRCC officers are looking specifically for the Startup Visa work permit application:
1: Legitimacy of the Start-up business in Canada
This is where you put the history of the startup business. A brief about the startup business – a short synopsis of what it does or is supposed to do and its innovation and why and how it’s going to change the world. Other details you can include besides your company profile and history are when and where it was incorporated. Where it is in its Startup stage. How many and from where do you have investors for this Startup and any interesting facts about your Startup that can help shed some light on it.
2: What has been completed so far by the Start-Up Business?
In this section, you include the description of your key Startup business milestones and accomplishments so far including screenshots, links, etc., and reference to supporting documents. You do not want to state anything for which you do not have proper supporting documentation because anyone can claim they did a lot of work so far, but if there is no proof the IRCC officer can ignore all your claims. Literally this section is your activity Progress before and after you received the Letter of Support. Examples include: the development of your MVP, proof of your product, expenses, hiring, marketing, application development progress and/or costs, contracts with third parties, etc. media coverage of your Startup, screenshots, videos, links of your product/platform or solution development can be included.
3: Why is it urgent for the founder to enter Canada to continue working on the business?
This is where you include your detailed 12-month roadmap of what you are planning to implement in Canada on arrival for your Startup business. It should be detailed, realistic, and not too long-winded or vague. It can be in point form and should have supporting documentation or screenshots. When writing the key points in this 12-month roadmap you can refer to the next section which will validate each point you have included under this specific question.
4: What has been set in place already inside Canada to facilitate these key milestones & tasks as per the above 12-month roadmap?
You guessed it, this section is going to prove and validate all the points you mentioned in the previous section of your 12-month road map. Of course, even if it covers 75% of all those points with supporting documentation, it will suffice. This is the section where the IRCC officer will decide whether your claims are all legit on why you want to come to Canada with a work permit.
In this section, you need to include copies of communication and meeting set up with stakeholders/partners/academic/research/institutions/vendors/events/potential customers in Canada, local chambers of commerce in the region where you want to set up, agreements signed or about to be signed with accounting firms, HR firms for hiring/recruitment in Canada, proof of any sales or revenues potentially from inside Canada, office or manufacturing premises with landlords, development companies (software, manufacturing and/or marketing, business development etc. – should also include screenshots, supporting documents, links, etc. all inside Canada. If anything is related to outside Canada, then it may not be for this section or you need to explain in detail why you can only perform this task from inside Canada and not from outside.
5: What is the significant benefit factor for Canada for the founder to enter with a work permit before the PR is approved?
This is one of the most important questions and probably one of the IRCC officer’s favourite questions which they always use to refuse legitimate work permit applications in the economic and business categories. As you all know or should know by now, Startup Visa work permits are LMIA exempt as part of the Immigration Regulations R205(a) which clearly states that:
205 A work permit may be issued under section 200 to a foreign national who intends to perform work that
(a) would create or maintain significant social, cultural or economic benefits or opportunities for Canadian citizens or permanent residents;
In order to prove the significant benefit, you need to see if your startup will be covering social, cultural, or economic benefits – or a combination of 1, 2, or all 3 of these factors. As an example, you can include an explanation of job creation, the critical nature of this industry and the fast pace of change, priorities, and initiatives by provinces or federal governments in this specific field related to your startup which means that it can help those pain points that the government has identified. As per the suggestion of one of our YouTube audience members, we are going to release a dedicated video just for this significant benefit factor in July of 2023 as it is a very critical component of all major LMIA-exempt economic class work permits which are not part of the bilateral agreements.
Keep this in mind about the significant benefit factor for your Startup Visa work permit; if you are claiming something, make sure you have evidence-based sources and/or supporting documentation.
Mention why this is a significant benefit – you need to spoon-feed the IRCC officer. Also, be creative – sometimes you need to have a ‘wow’ factor in place for these types of claims – but something that can be validated maybe with official statistics, third-party reports, media coverage, etc. on this specific subject that your startup will be helping with or solving. Remember, the full amount of all co-founder’s investment amount combined is also planned to be injected into the Canadian economy as per your business plan – so you can detail this as well precisely as per your 12-month roadmap.
6: Why and how is/does the applicant a subject matter expert / have relevant experience in this industry/field to be able to manage this Startup business?
This is probably the IRCC officer’s 2nd most favorite question and reason to refuse you. If you are in no way related to the industry or have any previous experience or education related to this field, they’re going to refuse you easily. You will need to refer to your supporting documentation regarding your educational credentials, any specific training or certification for this industry or activity, perhaps any awards or industry recognitions you have received, any media coverage validating you as a subject matter expert, past success as an entrepreneur or raising money or starting/existing successful businesses. It doesn’t need to be technical in nature, it could all be managerial-based or entrepreneurial skills that you are bringing to the table for this Startup. Again, be creative and have validation of your claims with documents and make sure you link your skill sets and background to the specific industry or business model of your startup if it's not that obvious. Remember that IRCC officers are not subject matter experts for this specific startup or its related industry, but they want to make sure you are – and you need to explain to them why and how.
7: Availability of funds by a work permit applicant to invest in the business and support themselves while inside Canada for a minimum of 1 year:
In this section, you will include financial info, liquid assets, and any income for applicants and/or co-founders with supporting documents to prove that they can invest in the business inside Canada and meet the 52-week LICO requirement as per the Canada government website.
The LICO is the minimum settlement funds you need as a co-founder to move to Canada on a work permit and it depends on your family size. Each year this amount is updated to reflect inflationary pressures in Canada. As an example, a family of 2 would require a minimum of CAD $ 34,254.- for 1 year and a family of 3 would require a minimum of CAD$ 42,111.- (refer to the table we are posting for this video and article on our website for detailed numbers) (refer to the table below for 2023 figures). The key is that your minimum settlement funds are separate from your investment funds – they cannot overlap, and you need to prove both separately otherwise it can be grounds for refusal. For the proof of investment funds for your startup, you can also include external investments and successful fund-raising accomplishments for the business as well – this also can count if you have access to the funds during your stay inside Canada on a work permit. However minimum settlement funds cannot be substituted with external sources or even other co-founders.
The amount of money required is determined by the size of the family. The LICO table is updated every year.
Ok. We hope you’ve paid close attention to this ‘Statement of Entrepreneurial Purpose’ in this video for your Startup Visa work permit application and all the other details we went over. Whether you’re a DIY kind of person who wants to do it themselves or you want to hire a legal representative, this guide can help you make a proper decision on how to apply.
If you’re interested in applying for the Canada Startup Visa, at INGWE we will guide and support you throughout the endorsement letter or Letter of Support process and the entire immigration process, including work visas and Canada PR. Get a FREE email assessment with one of our Business Immigration consultants. Fill out the form, click here.
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