Founders & investors
Build the company. We will build the status around it.
Canada has no passive golden visa — every business route demands a real venture, real control or real economic story. We structure immigration alongside your corporate counsel so the two files strengthen instead of contradicting each other.
The routes that exist (and the ones that do not)
The federal Start-Up Visa grants permanent residence to founders whose venture wins the backing of a designated organization — a venture fund, angel group or incubator — with peer-reviewed diligence and, since 2024, tighter caps and prioritization for capital-backed ventures. Processing is long, but an entrepreneur work permit lets qualifying founders build in Canada while the PR file waits.
Owner-operator strategies — acquiring or founding a business and securing a work permit on the strength of your controlling role — survive in disciplined form through LMIA and mobility streams. Provincial entrepreneur streams (including Ontario’s) run nomination pathways with investment and job-creation thresholds. The federal self-employed class for cultural and athletic occupations remains paused for new applications; anyone selling it today is selling history.
How we work with founders
Business files fail at the seams — a share structure that breaks program rules, a business plan that contradicts the LMIA, drawn-out diligence that outlives a status document. We run a single integrated calendar across corporate milestones and immigration filings, draft the narratives investors and officers both read, and keep personal status (yours and your family’s) lawful through every stage of the build.
FAQ
Business Immigration: the questions we hear
Purchase alone confers nothing. Routes run through operating roles (work permits) or provincial entrepreneur nominations with performance agreements — real management, real jobs, verified later. Plan on being an operator, not a passenger.
Designated organizations conduct genuine diligence and IRCC second-guesses weak endorsements. A pitch deck without traction, a team without the founder, or a founder without equity are the classic collapse patterns.
Begin properly
Your route to Canada deserves counsel, not guesswork.
A one-hour consultation with a lawyer — C$250, credited against your retainer if we act. You leave with routes, timelines and a written fee quote.