New Delhi [India], February 10: While Canada is renowned for inviting immigrants from across the global, not many options of acquiring the Canadian Permanent Residency and Citizenship are available for people who are in their late 30s and above. To understand these options, it is imperative to first understand the immigration framework of Canada.
Unlike USA, where all the immigration programs are controlled by the Federal Government, Canadian immigration structure is divided amongst – the federal & provincial governments. With this, each province has its own immigration program- known as Provincial Nomination Program (PNP). The popular categories under these PNPs include skilled based program and entrepreneur programs. While the skill based programs are suitable for young applicants, entrepreneur programs are more apt for middle-age-group applicants as these programs generally have minimum experience & investment requirements raging from CAD 200,000–500,000. It must however be noted that the entrepreneur programs do not give the opportunity to apply for Permanent Residency directly and would generally be contingent on the success of the business in the first two years.
On the Federal side, the know programs are Express Entry- a point based program suitable for young applicants, Inter- Company Transfer (ICT)- a work visa program suitable for Senior Management Executives with their employer being present in Canada and LMIA-a work visa program where the applicant has a job offer from Canadian Company with a requirement to prove that no Canadian worker or permanent resident is available to do the job. Both ICT and LMIA would require the applicants to shift to Canada and be employed till they qualify under the Express Entry as working in Canada generally boosts the points and cover the age bar.
Notably, there is another federal category which has recently acquired interest of the Senior Executives i.e. Canada Start-up Visa. The start-up program was made permanent by Canadian Government in 2018 and lately has become the preferred choice for senior executives owing to various benefits. It provides for direct Permanent Residency with an option to shift on Interim Work Permit while the Permanent Residency Application is pending. Canada Permanent Residency for senior executives under this program, coming with various benefits including the opportunity to become part of an innovative start-up team by using the existing senior management experience.
The key requirements of the start-up program include minimum ten percent stake as a co-founder, minimum IELTS score of 5, obtaining Letter of Support from a Government Designated Organization and having sufficient funds to sustain in Canada.
Attractively, the start-up program does not have any age bar and also does not require the applicants to go through the point based system. Furthermore, the program allows the applicant to leverage their skillset for creating synergies with the pilot team members of the innovative start-up.
“As North America remains top choice for senior management executives, we regularly help them in their residency planning and business endeavors by finding the right form of start-up which combined with their experience could not only provide the residency option for their family but also could create value for the Canadian economy” says Divesh Sharma of Arcum Global
About the contributor: divesh@arcumglobal.com
Divesh Sharma is the Founder & Director of Arcum Global, and has been practicing in foreign exchange laws, immigration laws and corporate laws since more than 8 years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Delhi College of Arts & Commerce, University of Delhi as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Law. He is also a qualified CS and holds an Associate membership of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI).
Prior to founding Arcum Global, Divesh has gained hands on experience in corporate laws and foreign exchange control laws, while working with various renowned consulting firms like Grant Thornton.
Diveshhas helped many of leading global companies in cross border setups, and regularly assists start-ups in fund raising and High Net Worth families in their residency planning.
