Start-up visa business plan Canada: what reviewers check

What to take away

Who holds jurisdiction over a Start-up Visa plan

IRCC administers the program under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and its regulations. The Start-up Visa program page states that a designated organization must review and support the business concept before IRCC assesses the application. IRCC also publishes the current processing time for the permanent residence stage, and the program page is the only current source for it.

Designated organizations are business incubators, angel investor groups and venture capital funds. Each one is named on the IRCC list of designated organizations, and each applies its own review standard. The category sets the money on the table: a designated venture capital fund must commit at least CAD 200,000, a designated angel investor group at least CAD 75,000, and a business incubator that accepts the applicant carries no minimum investment. The DMZ at Toronto Metropolitan University is one of the incubators on that list.

What a compliant disclosure contains

A plan that survives review opens with the legal name of the Canadian corporation and the statute or provincial Act used to incorporate it. It shows the share structure as it stands on the date of the letter of support, not the date the draft was written.

It separates Canadian dollar projections from any foreign currency figures and labels the exchange assumption in the same table. It names the roles to be created in Canada, their locations and their reporting lines, since job creation sits inside the program's expectations.

Market size claims have to be traceable, and the market analysis trends review covers how much of that material reviewers treat as checkable.

The eligibility requirements set ownership and language conditions. Each applicant must hold at least 10% of the voting rights in the Canadian corporation, up to five applicants can be owners, and every applicant has to show Canadian Language Benchmark 5 in English or French on an approved test, through IELTS General Training, CELPIP-General or TEF Canada. Settlement funds are proved separately, at the amount IRCC publishes for the applicant's family size. The cap table in the plan has to be consistent with those figures, applicant by applicant.

Records that have to sit behind the plan

Keep the paper trail that answers the plan's claims. Each item is small and each one is checkable.

Corporation tax records generally must be kept six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to. That is the Canada Revenue Agency rule, so the corporate file and the immigration file rest on the same papers.

For the wording of the corporate description both reviewers read, the company descriptions template shows the parts to adapt.

What happens when the plan and the record do not match

If the designated organization concludes that the plan describes a business it did not support, it can withdraw the letter of support. IRCC then has no program basis for the application, and the file is refused.

A withdrawn letter of support leaves IRCC nothing to assess, and the file closes without a decision on the merits.

If the mismatch looks deliberate, IRCC can make a finding of misrepresentation under section 40 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. That finding bars entry to Canada for five years, and it applies to a new application as well.

Where the rules differ by place

Incorporation can be federal under the Canada Business Corporations Act or provincial, and the plan has to name which one applies. Director residency rules, filing calendars and corporate registers are set province by province, so a plan drafted for Ontario does not fit British Columbia or Quebec.

The designated organization adds a second layer. A venture capital fund and a business incubator both sit on the same IRCC list, yet they read the same plan differently, because each one is looking for evidence that fits its own mandate. A venture capital fund reads for the scale that justifies its minimum investment, an angel investor group for the founding team and the early market evidence behind the forecast, and an incubator, which commits no money, for whether the venture can be built inside its program with the team the plan names. For the corporate sections, the organization plans checklist ties each item to the reason behind it.

Common questions

Does IRCC read the business plan itself?

IRCC works from the commitment certificate and letter of support, so the plan reaches the officer through the designated organization's review. The plan still has to be accurate, because a mismatch between it and the corporate record can end the file.

Can a designated organization change its mind after issuing a letter of support?

Yes. Organizations can withdraw support, and IRCC treats the application as unsupported once that happens. There is no appeal against the withdrawal itself.

Do the projections have to be in Canadian dollars?

The program and the reviewers are Canadian, so projections in Canadian dollars remove an argument. Another currency can appear only with the exchange rate and the date attached. The executive summaries checklist covers what the front page of the plan has to carry.

How long do the records need to stay on file?

Six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, for corporation tax records. Nothing in the program gives the immigration file a shorter life, so the two sets are best kept together.