Entrepreneurs and business people

If you own a business or run one as a senior manager, Canada can still be a route to permanent residence for your whole family — but far fewer doors are open than a few years ago. This page tells you honestly which business programs are open, which are paused and which are closed, as of October 2026, so that you do not spend money on a route that no longer exists.

The federal programs: paused or closed

Start-up Visa — paused. Canada's federal program for innovative start-ups stopped taking new applicants. Only people who already held a valid 2025 commitment certificate from a designated organisation could still apply, and their deadline was 30 June 2026. In December 2025, IRCC announced a new "high impact" start-up pilot to replace it. As of 2 October 2026, no criteria or launch date have been published. Be cautious of anyone selling a place in it.

Self-Employed Persons Program — paused. Intake has been paused since 30 April 2024, and in December 2025 the pause was extended "until further notice". The program is now aimed only at people in cultural and athletic activities.

Federal investor and entrepreneur programs — closed. The federal Immigrant Investor and Entrepreneur programs ended in 2014, and the investor venture capital pilot that followed is also closed.

What is open today

Quebec has the most complete set of business programs, all accepting applications at any time with no cap on numbers:

• Investor Program: for experienced managers with a net worth of at least CAD 2,000,000, who make a five-year CAD 1,000,000 investment through an approved intermediary plus a CAD 200,000 financial contribution. Spoken French at level 7 of the Quebec scale (B2), at least two years of management experience in the last five, and a commitment to live in Quebec are required.
• Entrepreneur Program: for people who will start a business or take over an existing one in Quebec.
• Self-Employed Worker Program: for people who will practise their own trade or profession in Quebec.

Quebec chooses its own business immigrants; a Quebec selection certificate is then followed by a federal permanent residence application to IRCC. See Immigrating to Quebec for how Quebec selection works.

Provincial entrepreneur streams (see Provincial Nominee Programs) usually start with an expression of interest, then a work permit to run the business in the province, and a nomination for permanent residence once the business commitments are met:

• British Columbia: Entrepreneur Immigration, Base and Regional streams. BC has held invitation rounds for both through 2026, most recently on 22 September.
• Alberta: four entrepreneur streams — Rural Entrepreneur, Graduate Entrepreneur, Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur and Farm. Alberta clarified its "economic establishment" requirement in August 2026, with the criteria unchanged.
• Nova Scotia: the Entrepreneur stream, one of the four streams kept when the program was consolidated in February 2026.
• New Brunswick: the Business Immigration Stream, which replaced the old entrepreneurial stream. The province still describes it, but has published no business invitation rounds in 2026, so check the province's site for its current status.
• Newfoundland and Labrador: the International Entrepreneur and International Graduate Entrepreneur streams.

Each province sets its own net-worth, investment and residence conditions, and changes them. We check them on the province's own site before advising you.

What is closed

• Ontario: the current Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program has no entrepreneur stream. A new one has been mentioned for a later phase, with no date.
• Saskatchewan: the Entrepreneur, International Graduate Entrepreneur and Farm Owner/Operator categories were permanently closed on 27 March 2025.

Open, paused or closed at a glance

Other provinces' business streams are not listed here because we could not confirm their current status on official pages.

Other routes for business families

A business owner or senior manager is often not limited to business programs. Senior managers with Canadian work experience have their own Express Entry category in 2026; a job offer can open an employer-driven route (Job offers and employer-driven PR); and in many families the spouse — a nurse, teacher or engineer — has the stronger profile, with the business owner joining as the accompanying spouse. We look at every member of the family before choosing.

Why an inadmissibility check comes first

Business applications are expensive: business plans, fund tracing, travel, investments and professional fees. Before any of that, it is worth confirming that nothing in your history could make you inadmissible to Canada — a past refusal, a criminal or court matter, a health issue, a gap or contradiction in previous applications, or funds whose source cannot be shown. These problems are far cheaper to deal with at the start than after money has been committed. Our existing clients complete a short Entrepreneur Inadmissibility Evaluation at Entrepreneur Inadmissibility Evaluation for exactly this reason.

We will update this page

Canada has said it intends to open a new federal entrepreneur pilot, and provinces change their streams often. We will update this page when Canada opens new entrepreneur programmes. If you would like to hear when that happens, register your interest using the form on this page.

How Polinsys helps

Joy Stephen, RCIC (CICC licence R419719), gives you an honest written evaluation before any fee: which open program, if any, fits your net worth, management experience, language and family, and whether a non-business route would serve you better. We check admissibility early, plan the order of each step, and prepare the expression of interest, business documents and fund evidence with you. If no business program fits you today, we will tell you. Ask your questions first at our free Friday Q&A: FREE Webinars: Resource Guides and AR Q&A.