Home

In an increasingly globalized world the economic success of a city, a region or a whole country depends increasingly on their ability to attract the best and brightest from all around the world. This has been the driving force behind the rise of Silicon Valley as the technology hub and whole countries like the US and Canada. But often we make it too hard for (technology) entrepreneurs to come to our country and build great companies that can create thousand of new jobs. Entrepreneurs and Venture Capitalists in the United States have recognized this first and have lobbied the US government in the past months to encourage immigration on the valuation of their business ideas and legislation is now pending in Congress.

So it is about time that we pursue similar ideas in Canada and we are therefore happy to announce the launch of the Startup Visa Canada initiative. Here is what we are proposing:

Currently, the federal and provincial governments’ entrepreneurial immigration programs contain minimum personal fixed asset provisions of about $300,000 and a long approval process that make it nearly impossible for today's immigrant entrepreneurs to start companies here. The Startup Visa Canada Initiative would create an additional new visa program that:

  • would allow for an investment of $150,000 into a newly formed Canadian technology startup to qualify in place of the minimum asset provisions.
  • would enable approved local investor(s) to endorse qualified entrepreneurial immigrants to obtain their temporary work permits which.  This permit would only allow the immigrant to work for a newly formed company, and thus not take jobs away from qualified canadians.
  • would require immigrants to have at least a third equity position in their companies, be active in management and create at least 3 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs over the course of a 2-year program period.

It would be truly fantastic if we could beat the US to the punch and be the first to extend an invitation to the best entrepreneurs out there: Entrepreneurs of the world, Canada is open for business!

 

Please endorse the initiative to show your support.

Stay up to date on our Blog and Twitter.