It will be easier for entrepreneurs to immigrate to Ontario
The government has decided to make changes to the immigration process for businessmen.
The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program — Entrepreneur) allows people who want to buy an established business in the province or set up their own business to get permanent residency. In addition to high eligibility requirements, the program requires an entrepreneur to attend an interview and provide detailed reports on business development every quarter.
Ontario's Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development has proposed amendments that are expected to allow candidates to immigrate to Canada faster and then focus on business development rather than reporting. There are two amendments:
- conducting online interviews instead of face-to-face ones;
- reduced reporting requirements.
Ontario's immigration program already practices online interviews because of the pandemic, but conducting these interviews on an ongoing basis has several advantages:
- faster scheduling of interviews;
- saving the candidate the cost of visas and travel to Canada;
- expedited processing of applications.
The entire in-person interview process often dragged on for several months, but the virtual format will reduce this time to just 2-4 weeks. In this way, the potential candidate will be able to find out the decision on their application much faster and move to Canada if they are successful.
As for reporting, now entrepreneurs are monitored for 18-20 months. During this time, a businessman must file 6 quarterly reports and 1 final report. The Ministry of Labor proposes to reduce this number of reports to 3 semiannual and 1 final report. The changes will make the work of the entrepreneur somewhat easier, but it is still an effective way to evaluate the development of the business. In addition, the candidate will still have time to correct deficiencies (if any) before the end of the monitoring period.
The proposed amendments have not yet entered into force. A public discussion is being held until 23 April: those wishing to comment on the proposed changes may do so. Comments are accepted at link.
