Canada to extend start-up visa to encourage entrepreneurs

Canada’s federal government is to extend its new start-up visa in order to attract entrepreneurs, even although no start-up visas have been issued as yet.

The recently-appointed Immigration Minister Chris Alexander announced the expansion of the new visa on Monday, describing it as a business incubator immigration stream aimed at complimenting the existing angel investor and venture capital streams. To be able to apply to join the programme, potential entrepreneurs must have an angel investor group’s support or venture capital fund, and backers are expected to give seed money as well as mentoring the applicant and his or her fledgling company.

The support is aimed at growing the company into a sustainable business employing Canadian nationals, and backers will often be given a stake in the new enterprise in return for their efforts.Major problems incoming entrepreneurs are facing involve unfamiliarity with Canada’s working practices and the lack of a credit history in the country which can create barriers between incomers, banks and professional networks.

The pairing of immigrant entrepreneurs with business incubators and investors familiar with start-ups is intended to address these and other challenges and give the new businesses a head start. The original start-up visa, announced some six months ago, was brought in by former immigration minister Jason Kenney to replace a similar programme which had been closed down ahead of time,leaving a nine-year backlog of applications to be cleared.