11 ms·

Summary of the conditions: - Secure $75k in angel funding or $200k in venture funding, from a list of designated Canadian funders. - Score relatively highly o

• enry_straker 13y ago
  It's canadian dollars, right?
  • mjn 13y ago
    I assume so, but the current exchange rate is 1.00 USD = 1.03 CAD, so it's more or less the same either way.
    • bzmwillemsen 13y ago
      Yes it's CAD, as all figures on .gc.ca websites are.
• toomuchtodo 13y ago
  I'd say that this is actually pretty reasonable, especially if they'll consider your retirements account towards the $11K-30K reserves. Almost anyone can be a founder in Canada now. Congrats Canada!
• goatforce5 13y ago
  I had to do the English test as part of my Canadian permanent residency and it was oddly terrifying. English is my first (and only) language. Luckily it turns out I can speak the English reel gud. I now have a certificate to prove it! There were other people in my test group who couldn't follow basic instructions that were given out before the test ("Please wait over there", etc.). I imagine they didn't do so well.
  • agilebyte 13y ago
    Maybe they were French? (Primarily)
    • goatforce5 13y ago
      They'd have been doing the French test, presumably. You only have to do one or the other. No point making it hard on yourself, right?
      • agilebyte 13y ago
        Thanks for clarification. Thought you do both so that you can get more total points.
        • mjn 13y ago
          For the skills-based immigration (not the startup immigration) you're right, you can do both. You can get up to 16 points for your primary language (out of [English|French]), and up to 8 points for the other one. So it can be worth getting even a very low qualification for your second language, if you need to tack on a point or two to reach the threshold.
  • levosmetalo 13y ago
    As someone that speaks English "reel gud" I can understand that the test was "reeli harrd". It's amazing how many people have problems with tests of their own first language just for the fact that they have never learned grammatical rules and that they can't distinguish between "standard" language and a local dialect they are used to. After all, it's native speakers that are guilty of "their" and "there's" confusion.
  • fduran 13y ago
    I didn't take an English test when I applied as a skill worker for permanent residency (it's not my first language). It was heavily recommended to do so but I wrote a page outlining my work experience in the US, other test results etc and I didn't have any problem. It was a bit risky because it was up to the official reviewing the application to accept it or not but I didn't feel like spending a grand and flying to another city for a day to take a test. I don't know if things have changed and now a test is required without exception; all data indicate that not knowing well the country's language(s) is the main factor for not succeeding in it as an immigrant.
• adamgravitis 13y ago
  The big part is this: you get the equivalent of a green card - Permanent Residency. The Minister's office actually did a lot of research into this thing before launching it, and consciously didn't want to put talented people into the awkward position a lot of H1B holders have when their visas expire and are forced to pack everything up and head home.
  • goatforce5 13y ago
    ...and there's a very clear and easy path to get from Permanent Residency to Citizenship.
    • turar 13y ago
      Timeline for citizenship is 5-6 years: 3 years of residency, after which you can apply for citizenship, which currently takes additional 2-3 years to get. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/canada/cit-processing.asp http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/canada/cit-pr...
      • zaatar 13y ago
        One key thing to note is that Canadian Citizenship Law does not require the applicant to be present physically on Canadian soil while the application is being processed, nor does it require "proof of intent to live in Canada" for award of Citizenship. What this means is that in theory, someone could land as a PR one Day 1, file the application exactly 3 years and 1 day later, and then leave Canada and go sit in a hut in Guatemala while the application is being processed. [1] After it is ready for the test/oath in 2-3 years, applicant flies back, declares a desire to live and die in Guatemala, and still gets his Canadian citizenship, a shiny new Canadian passport, and leaves the country. And all this is 100% legal, at least as per Canadian Citizenship Law as of 2013. [1] Unfortunately, C&IC will only correspond to Canadian addresses, so the applicant does need a reliable mailing address in Canada
        • otoburb 13y ago
• kitcar 13y ago
  If anyone is seriously considering applying and needs assistance meeting the Canadian angel / VC requirement, feel free to reach out to me, I am based in Canada and active in the angel/VC community. Contact info is in my profile.
  • xtrumanx 13y ago
    Quick question; what would kind of person would you imagine would successfully secure funding from an angel/VC as a person trying to immigrate to Canada. I guess one would have to have more than an idea and a MVP. Also, any differences between Canada's angels and VCs than the impression one would get from Hacker News stories which is probably more U.S. focused?
    • kitcar 13y ago
      It's tough to generalize across all VCs and Angels in the country, but a few high level items to consider: - Canada is somewhat unique in that there are federal and provincial subsidies for specific sectors related to technology (I.e. Video Game development tax credits, scientific research and develop credits - see http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site//cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/wr00850.html http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site//cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/... for some of the big ones at the federal level). Most of these incentives don't require your business to make a profit. Some Angels and VCs have a preference to invest in businesses which are eligible to receive these incentives, and in rare cases will even ask you to relocate in order to a specific location in Canada to maximize incentives. - There aren't THAT many VCs in Canada, and of the few that there are, some of the more active ones are are operated by pension plans (http://www.omersventures.com/ http://www.omersventures.com/) and arms-length government organizations ( https://www.bdc.ca/EN/solutions/venture_capital/ https://www.bdc.ca/EN/solutions/venture_capital/ , http://www.marsdd.com/aboutmars/partners/iaf/ http://www.marsdd.com/aboutmars/partners/iaf/, etc... ) . As can be expected, this affects the types of companies most likely to get funding in Canada. - IMHO, the cliche that Canadians are conservative with their money is mostly true - historically the majority of the big money in Canada was made in resources, banking, real estate & manufacturing, which are all (for the most part) much less risky than early stage technology investing. Yes, there have been a few big tech winners - but they are almost rounding errors compared to the amount of cash made in these other industries. My personal hypothesis is the "conservative" cliche is somewhat self-enforcing, as the Canadians who like early stage technology end up moving to NYC or SF, have success there, and then rarely return. This has resulted in the creation of informal Canadian clubs in those locations, as well as formal organizations like http://www.thec100.org/ http://www.thec100.org/ . Some general links for more info: - http://www.cvca.ca/ http://www.cvca.ca/ - http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/061.nsf/eng/h_02772.html http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/061.nsf/eng/h_02772.html
• ritchiea 13y ago
  Isn't having 11k around a slightly high bar? Do most under 25 founders have that kind of cash lying around? And if you are the kind of foreigner that has that kind of North American cash in your account you probably come from a family who isn't hard up for Canadian citizenship or have already experienced some business success.
  • jacquesm 13y ago
    $11K is irresponsibly low if that's your savings when you move from one country to another, even if your start-up is somewhat funded. After all, your chances of success are just as low as every other funded start-up and you're going to have nothing but your savings and your skills to fall back on in an unknown market if your start-up should fail. Personally I think that $50K in savings is more in line with realistic expectations of moving country, setting up shop and getting a company under way, funding is icing on the cake, it's not as if that's your money.
    • ritchiea 13y ago
      Well who are they trying to attract with this visa? If you are the kind of person that has 50K in savings, is this startup visa really going to help you? If you have 50K in savings you are already wealthy on a global scale even though you are not really a person of high net worth (after all to have 50K in savings you have to have earned a healthy income in some line of work that allows you to save or have a wealthy family). My impression of this kind of visa is it is should be attempting to attract young people with high potential but without necessarily having other great routes to the life they desire in North America. If you think they are targeting a different audience, say older foreigners with established businesses/careers who just want to move to Canada then 50K is reasonable. Also there's definite risk on one side here, otherwise it's an opportunity for no one. If you have $50K of your own, why start a company in Canada rather than SV? I think to make this a worthwhile visa, Canada has to take on the risk that they are going to let someone into their first world country with a good social safety net because that person has untapped potential. Canada takes the risk if the savings threshold is low, but if the savings threshold is high they are not creating much of an incentive to move to Canada rather than an established startup hub and its the entrepreneur taking the risk.
• enraged_camel 13y ago
  I was excited about this, until I heard the Canadian VC/angel requirement. If they really want to encourage foreigners to found startups, they should allow private investors to become angels, even if the investor in question is of foreign status. Think about it: you have a bunch of rich people injecting large amounts of money into your economy, and the only thing you have to do is give one person permanent residency - and there's a chance their company will be successful and contribute to the economy even more.
  • cperciva 13y ago
    They probably want to avoid the "fictitious investor" problem -- without the "Canadian" requirement, Canada would get lots of people jumping the immigration queue by having their friends and family "invest" in their "startup". (There's already a way for rich people to buy their way into Canada, but it takes around a million dollars instead of a hundred thousand.)
    • barry-cotter 13y ago
      A million dollars and an opaque amount of waiting time. Just having the money and fulfilling the stated requirements doesn't reliably get Chinese people into Canada. May differ for other nationalities.
• pasbesoin 13y ago
  I'll look for myself, but in order to float both the question and possible responses out of the full details, are there age boundaries? -- P.S. In an initial, brief search, I did not find any mention of specific age qualifications attached to this program (beyond, I suspect, being at least 18 years old).
• deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
• rullopat 13y ago
  I don't get why you need to complete at least one year of higher education. You need to prove that you are a college dropout?