Canada Needs a Visa for Immigrant Entrepreneurs

Published on 23.12.2009

Bootup Labs will inevitably choose companies from outside the country to invest in.  These companies would work for a minimum of 8 months with us in Canada.  In the case of our January cohort, potentially 3 of the 6 founding teams are moving here from outside the country, and all 3 companies have proactively indicated that they have no intention of leaving Vancouver after they have completed their time at Bootup Labs.

Bootup Labs has neither the time nor resources to work through the immigration red-tape every time.  I have to believe that reversing the brain-drain has to be a priority for the government.  So, I am asking for your help.  Let’s make Vancouver (and Canada) an easy place for entrepreneurs to set up shop!

The startup community in the US is rallying behind a way to streamline the immigration of foreign startup founders.  I say, let’s take advantage of Canada’s nimbleness (relatively speaking of course) and beat the Americans to their Startup Visa concept. This is how is could work for us:

1. VC Firms and Investors apply to become “Sponsors”
2. Founders apply to Immigration Canada along with an accepted Term Sheet from the pre-approved VC Firm
3. A temporary work visa is approved for the founders with certain conditions:
   1. They incorporate a canadian company within X days of Landing in Canada and become employees of that company.
   2. They close on the financing.
   3. They cannot work for another company.
   4. They can apply for a more permanent status after a “probationary period” of some amount of time.

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more links:

• Start-up Visas Can Jump-Start the Economy – Wall St. Journal
• The Founders Visa Movement – Brad Feld
• The Founders Visa – Paul Graham
• The Startup Visa And Why The Xenophobes Need To Go Back Into Their Caves – Techcrunch