September 4th 2024 – Since April 30th, 2024’s policy change giving a maximum of 10 letters of support to designated organizations per year until the end of 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has made other changes to improve the Start-up Visa program. At that time, the immigration minister announced that start-ups receiving an investment of at least $75,000 from a designated organization will get priority processing. These changes were implemented to reduce backlogs and reduce wait times to attract the talented, innovative and entrepreneurial newcomers needed to continue growing Canada’s economy.
More recently, the agreement with industry associations National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) and the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) was not renewed and ended on July 31st, 2024. A membership with these organizations was required for business incubators, angel investors and venture capital firms that wanted to be involved in the Start-up Visa Program as a designated organization. This was no surprise, as IRCC had imposed a moratorium on new designated organizations with the April 30th policy change.
While this is mostly an administrative decision, it has an impact on SUV processing. Indeed, these industry associations were responsible for facilitating peer reviews, a process to review the due diligence performed by a designated organization when selecting innovative start-ups. As part of the program reform, the peer review process has also been paused by IRCC. As a replacement, IRCC launched the Quality Assurance Program that will randomly choose applications for a special review. Selected applicants will be notified in writing and will be asked to attend an interview with an IRCC officer to verify that the information provided was accurate and that the application was properly completed.
Finally, letters of support now have a new and simplified design. A commitment certificate number referring to the designated organization and the number of letters of support they issued, from 01 to 10, was added while the section listing the urgent business reason for requesting a work permit was removed. The work permit information is now only listed on the Commitment Certificate. Here is an example of a letter of support received by our clients. Congratulations to this med tech startup for this great achievement!
About Mandeville & Associates Ltd.
Since 1986, Mandeville & Associates – Immigration Group has been offering consulting services intended for international businesspeople of every continent wishing to settle in the United States of America, Canada, and Europe.
With its head office in Hong Kong and professionals permanently based in the United Kingdom and Canada, Mandeville & Associates – Immigration Group offers a wide range of immigration and consultancy services with a team of specialized lawyers and multilingual immigration experts. Business migration programs, such as the immigrant investor program, start-up visa program, and other residency-by-investment programs, allow the successful applicant, spouse, and dependent children to obtain a residency visa and this status may lead to citizenship with certain conditions.
Mandeville & Associates – Immigration Group provides specialized services to professionals, business incubators, brokers, and immigration consultants recruiting candidates for immigration to the United States of America, Canada, and Europe through business migration programs.