What is the status of Canada’s Start-up Visa program?

Since 2018, Canada made the Start-up Visa (SUV) program permanent, allowing startups with one to five business partners to get Permanent Residence in Canada if they launch a qualified startup, have enough funds, and have a basic language level.

The selection criteria, being quite vague and in appearance easy to meet (no committed capital is required), led many people to apply, especially since 2022 when the number of applications quadrupled. While the SUV program remains popular, Canada has placed it under review to limit its access because the exponential growth of new applications was “too hot to handle.”

Let’s look at the several “game-changing” events that became effective in 2024:

Since the beginning of 2024, the previously announced fast-track has started to show results: while it would take up to two years to get a file number; it now only takes 6 to 9 months.

Since April 2024, Canada has imposed a quota drastically limiting the intake of new Start-Up Visa applications. While about 3,500 startup projects were submitted in 2023, the intake is now capped at 800 projects per year for the next three years.

Since October 2024, SUV applicants can apply for a 3-year open work permit, which allows them to work for any company in Canada while launching their startup.

Since October 2024, the target of PR visa issuance in this category has been reduced from an expected 6,000 visas per year to 2,000 PR visas in 2025, then 1,000 PR visa issuance per year for 2026 and 2027. All other categories of permanent and temporary immigration have been affected as immigration targets are now reduced by 20%, with a strong priority given to people already in Canada.

WHAT THESE CHANGES MEAN: APPLY WITH THE SUV FAST-TRACK STREAM OR DON’T APPLY

To have their file processed in a reasonable time frame (within two years), applicants must ensure they will benefit from the SUV Fast-track stream. To do so, they must invest significant capital and get support from a designated organization that benefits from this fast-track stream.

For someone applying for an SUV project that does not benefit from Fast-track, it is cheaper but officially takes longer, too. It could take 5 to 10 years to decide on their PR application. Indeed, there is a significant risk of this stream being canceled before any decision is made. In 2012, Canada stopped the Federal Immigrant Investor Program and reimbursed applicants for their processing fees even if some had already waited many years. Keeping history in mind, it doesn’t seem likely that Canada would maintain a startup stream (incubator) with delays that long because no startup technology project can remain pertinent under these conditions.

Since we are not fortune-tellers, it seems that the future of the Canadian Start-up Visa program lies only with the Fast-track stream.