Canadian Council for an Innovative Economy calls for faster issuance of start-up visas

On February 17, 2022, the Council for an Innovative Economy held two expert panel discussions, one of which focused on ways to accelerate the movement of talented entrepreneurs to Canada. Canada is a country of immigrants. First— and second-generation immigrants started 34.7% of the startups in Canada, which is significantly higher than in most comparable economies.

Small businesses accounted for 35.8% of the net increase in employment in Canada from 2014 to 2019. This means that immigrant entrepreneurs provided a large number of new jobs. In addition, immigrant companies grew faster than companies founded by native Canadians.

There are three options to get investments of up to $200,000 CAD to launch your startup in Canada: business angels, a venture capital fund or a business incubator. Before the pandemic, the federal Start-Up Visa program was just starting to gain momentum: the program only became permanent in March 2018 — and the number of successful applicants doubled in a year.

Now the Department of Immigration is behind its own plans to process applications, so instead of 6-12 months, entrepreneurs have to wait on average about three years for a decision. The Council for an Innovative Economy believes that this is very detrimental to Canada's high-tech sectors of the economy.