Canada Start-Up Visa (SUV)

Canada’s Start-Up Visa Program is a federal path to permanent residence for immigrant founders who want to build an innovative business in Canada outside Quebec. It’s meant for companies that can create jobs and compete internationally, not for short visits or remote work with no real business setup in Canada.

The program is tied to support from a designated organization, such as a venture capital fund, angel investor group or business incubator. That backing is the core of the program, because the government wants founders who can bring a real business idea to market, not just an idea on paper.

The catch is that the program is paused. IRCC says new Start-Up Visa permanent residence applications are generally closed and only applicants with a valid 2025 commitment certificate can still apply by June 30, 2026. New optional SUV work permits have also been stopped, though extensions are still allowed for people already in Canada.

The pause isn’t just a paperwork delay. Ottawa has said it plans to replace the program with a new entrepreneur pilot, but the detailed rules for that pilot haven’t been posted on official portals yet.

• Who it’s for: immigrant entrepreneurs building a qualifying business in Canada outside Quebec
• What it leads to: permanent residence, not a temporary stay
• What it requires: support from a designated organization
• Current status: paused, with a narrow exception for valid 2025 commitment certificate holders

IRCC has also introduced limits on group applications to deal with backlogs, including a cap of 10 complete group applications per designated organization per year. That tells you a lot about how strained the program got before the pause.

If you’re looking at SUV now, the main thing to understand is simple: the old intake is basically shut and the only live pathway is the limited 2025 exception. Anything beyond that depends on the new pilot and the government hasn’t released those rules yet.

The Start-Up Visa program is for immigrant entrepreneurs who want permanent residence in Canada, outside Quebec, by building an innovative business that can create jobs and compete globally. It’s not a temporary stay route and the federal government has marked the program status as paused. New intake is closed to everyone except applicants who already hold a valid 2025 commitment certificate and can file for permanent residence by June 30, 2026.

The core eligibility test is straightforward, if a little demanding. You need a qualifying business, a letter of support from a designated organization, language results at Canadian Language Benchmark 5 in all four skills and enough settlement money to support yourself and your family before the business starts paying you.

• Qualifying business: At the time the designated organization commits, each applicant must hold at least 10% of the voting rights and the applicants plus the designated organization must control more than 50%. The business also has to be incorporated and actively managed in Canada when permanent residence is granted.
• Letter of support: You need backing from a designated venture capital fund, angel investor group or business incubator. The minimum commitment is CAD 200,000 from a venture capital fund, CAD 75,000 from an angel group or acceptance into a designated incubator.
• Language: You must prove CLB 5 in listening, reading, writing and speaking in English or French with an approved test.
• Settlement funds: You need enough money to settle in Canada and it can’t be borrowed. IRCC uses a proof-of-funds table for the exact amount, which varies by family size.

There’s no explicit age limit in the official guidance. Nationality isn’t a barrier either, but you still have to meet Canada’s normal admissibility rules for security, criminality and medical issues. If you’re inadmissible, the application can be refused.

You can apply alone or with up to 5 owners, which sounds flexible until you run into the ownership rules and the designated organization’s limits. IRCC also limits each designated organization to 10 complete group applications per calendar year, so getting support isn’t a free-for-all.

Family members can come with you on the permanent residence application. Spouses or partners and dependent children need their own documents and have to clear the same admissibility checks.

The optional SUV work permit is a separate story. New work permit applications have stopped and only extensions are available for people already in Canada. For ongoing extensions, IRCC says the applicant must be named as “essential” in the commitment certificate, have enough income for 52 weeks and show significant economic benefit such as job creation or innovation.

Source 1 | Source 2

The Start-Up Visa permanent residence file goes through the Permanent Residence Portal and the program appears there as the "Start-Up Business Class." The intake is paused for new applicants, so only people with a valid 2025 commitment certificate can still apply for permanent residence by June 30, 2026. Everyone else is shut out for now.

IRCC wants a full digital application, not a paper package. The core forms are pretty standard for Canadian immigration, but the business schedule is specific to this program.

• IMM 0008: Generic Application Form for Canada
• IMM 5669: Schedule A, Background/Declaration
• IMM 5406: Additional Family Information
• IMM 5562: Supplementary Information, Your Travels
• IMM 0008 Schedule 13: Business Immigration Programs, Start Up Business

Supporting documents are part of the package too. You’ll need a valid passport or travel document, language test results showing at least CLB 5, the letter of support from a designated organization, civil status documents, children’s information, police certificates, photos for you and each family member, a fee payment receipt and proof of funds.

Proof of funds is one of the more annoying pieces because the money has to be yours, available and not borrowed. IRCC says the amount depends on family size and it has to cover living costs after you arrive. Cash and financial instruments can count, but customs rules still require you to declare more than CAD 10,000 if you bring that amount into Canada.

IRCC also requires medical exams and police checks for admissibility. The medical instructions come after you submit the file and the portal doesn’t give a special passport-validity rule beyond requiring a valid travel document. Translation rules follow IRCC’s general standard, so anything not in English or French needs a certified translation, but the SUV pages don’t spell out any extra apostille rule.

The optional SUV work permit is a different story. New permits aren’t being issued, though extensions can still be available for people already in Canada. For that permit, IRCC says you need a letter of support, must be named as "essential" on the commitment certificate and have enough income for 52 weeks for your family size.

Source

The big cost problem with the Start-Up Visa is that the official program page doesn’t give a neat, all-in price list. What it does say is that you must pay IRCC processing fees for yourself and any dependants, plus a biometrics fee and those are paid online through IRCC’s payment system.

That’s frustrating, because applicants need to budget before they apply and the federal pages available here don’t show the exact current CAD amounts for this program. IRCC’s general economic permanent residence fee schedule applies, including the processing fee and the Right of Permanent Residence Fee, but the SUV-specific figures aren’t visible in the material provided.

There’s also a harder reality right now. The program is marked paused, intake is closed to new applicants and only people holding a valid 2025 commitment certificate can still apply for permanent residence by June 30, 2026. So even if you’ve lined up funding and an incubator, you may not be able to move ahead at all.

• IRCC processing fees: required for the principal applicant and any dependants, but the official SUV page snippet doesn’t show the current CAD amounts.
• Biometrics fee: required at submission, though the exact amount isn’t shown in the SUV page snippet provided.
• Right of Permanent Residence Fee: part of the broader economic permanent residence fee schedule, but the SUV page excerpt doesn’t list the current figure.

Beyond government charges, you should expect extra expenses that IRCC doesn’t standardize on the SUV page. Those usually include language tests, medical exams, police certificates, translations and, in many cases, legal help or incubator-related fees. Those private costs can swing a lot, so don’t assume a single budget number will cover everyone.

The blunt answer is this, the official sources available here don’t provide a clean SUV fee total. If you’re planning around exact numbers, you’ll need to wait for the current official fee schedule to be visible or check the live IRCC payment pages before you spend money on anything else.

Canada’s Start-Up Visa is a permanent residence route, not a visitor or temporary business visa. The catch is that the program is paused for new intake, so only applicants with a valid 2025 commitment certificate can still file a permanent residence application by June 30, 2026. If you don’t have that certificate, the door is closed for now.

The application itself is filed online through IRCC’s Permanent Residence Portal, where the program is listed as the Start-Up Business Class. You don’t send this through an embassy or consulate. IRCC handles it centrally, whether you’re in Canada or abroad.

What you need to submit

• Forms: IMM 0008, IMM 5669, IMM 5406, IMM 5562 and Schedule 13.
• Support documents: your letter of support and the matching commitment certificate from the designated organization.
• Fees: the application fee and biometrics fee, paid online before submission.
• Other uploads: all supporting documents IRCC asks for in the portal.

IRCC says to make sure every question is answered, all fees are paid and every required document is uploaded before you hit submit. The commitment certificate has an expiry date, so you can’t sit on the file forever. If it expires before IRCC gets your application, you’re out of luck.

If you want to come to Canada while the PR file is being processed, there’s a separate short-term work permit option under the International Mobility Program. That only works if IRCC and the designated organization have named you as an essential applicant in the commitment certificate and you have the letter of support. It can be requested before or after the PR application.

There used to be an optional open work permit tied to the SUV, valid for up to three years, but new applications for that permit are stopped. Only extensions are possible for people who already have one. IRCC’s posted processing time for SUV applications isn’t clearly visible in the material here and current timelines have been long enough to be a real headache.

Canada’s Start-Up Visa is a permanent residence program, not a short stay visa. If you get through it, you can live in Canada indefinitely as a permanent resident, but you still have to meet the normal residency obligation for PR, which is generally 730 days in Canada in every five-year period.

The catch is that the program is paused for new intake. Only applicants with a valid 2025 commitment certificate can apply for permanent residence by June 30, 2026 and the official portal says intake is closed to everyone else. That makes the timing unusually tight and, frankly, not very friendly for anyone still lining up a startup partner.

There’s no fixed “SUV duration” in the usual visa sense because the status is permanent residence. Once you’ve got it, there isn’t a maximum cumulative stay tied to the program itself. If you later meet Canada’s general citizenship rules, you can apply for citizenship under the normal process, though the SUV pages don’t give a special timeline for that.

The work-permit side is different. The optional Start-Up Visa open work permit for new applicants has been stopped, so you can’t count on that route anymore. For people who already have one, the permit can be valid for up to three years and extensions are possible while the permanent residence application is still in process.

There’s also a short-term work-permit route tied to the commitment certificate, but the official SUV material doesn’t spell out a single fixed term or renewal rule for that option. In other words, don’t assume it behaves like the open work permit. Check the specific work-permit category you’re using, because the duration depends on the permit type, not the startup program label.

• Permanent residence: No fixed end date, but you must meet the 730-day residency obligation in each five-year period.
• Open work permit: Up to three years for existing holders, with extensions possible while PR is pending.
• New applications: Closed unless you hold a valid 2025 commitment certificate and file by June 30, 2026.

Source

Canada’s Start-Up Visa doesn’t come with a special tax break. The official program pages don’t set out reduced tax rates, foreign-income exemptions or any SUV-specific tax regime, so applicants should expect the same tax rules that apply to other Canadian residents.

That matters because tax residency is usually what changes the picture. Once someone becomes a Canadian tax resident, worldwide income is normally subject to Canadian income tax, with foreign tax credits and tax-treaty relief available under general Canadian tax law. The SUV pages don’t spell out those residency triggers, so you can’t treat the immigration file as a tax guide.

The program itself is also in a narrow place right now. It’s marked paused and only applicants with a valid 2025 commitment certificate may apply for permanent residence by June 30, 2026. Intake is closed to everyone else, so there’s no point planning around a fresh SUV filing unless the rules change.

Work permits tied to the program have also been stopped for new applicants. Only extensions are being allowed for people already in Canada, which makes timing even more awkward if you were counting on landing first and sorting out the business later.

For tax planning, that means you’ll need to think like a resident, not like a visitor, once you actually establish life in Canada. The official SUV materials don’t give a special checklist for this, so most founders will need separate advice on residency, reporting foreign income and how their home-country tax position lines up with Canada’s system.

• No SUV tax discount: The program pages don’t mention any special tax treatment.
• Residency still matters: Canadian tax residency can trigger tax on worldwide income under general law.
• Program timing is tight: Only valid 2025 commitment-certificate holders can apply for permanent residence by June 30, 2026.
• New work permits are stopped: Only extensions are allowed for applicants already in Canada.

The federal government has said it plans to replace the paused SUV with a new entrepreneur pilot, but the rules for that program haven’t been published yet. Until they are, there’s no official SUV-specific tax roadmap to lean on.