July 31, 2020 – Start-up Visa’s applicants are eligible to obtain a temporary work permit during the processing of their permanent resident application.  It is a requirement for applicants requesting a work permit to be qualified as “essential” and be needed in Canada for urgent business reasons.  How is that decided?

It is the designated organization (Business Incubator, Angel Investor Group or Venture Capital Fund) that will determine if an applicant is essential or not.  If a designated organization would not be supporting the project without an applicant as a member, this “essential” applicant should be identified as such in the Commitment Certificate and Letter of Support.                                            

It must be noted that this qualification is heavy in consequences for a multiple applicants sharing the same start-up.  Indeed, if the application of a person identified as essential is refused or withdrawn, all the other team members will be refused.