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When you’re ready to apply for the Canadian Startup Visa program, you might start wondering whether you should apply for your letter of support through a designated business incubator, angel investor, or venture capital entity. Maybe you’ve started researching these entities or maybe the immigration agency you started working with is pushing one down your throat because that’s the only one they have access to. We’ve heard all this before. Not all designated organizations are created equally and we’ll explore why. We’re going to explain which facts you should consider when selecting an endorsing organization for your letter of support.
At INGWE we are EXPERTS in the Canada Startup Visa. We will guide and support you throughout the endorsement letter or Letter of Support process and the entire immigration process including work visas and permanent residencies. Get a FREE email assessment, click here.
The required step before becoming eligible to apply for your Canadian PR through the Startup Visa program is to receive a valid Letter of Support from one of the 86 designated organizations listed on the IRCC SUV website. You can receive a letter of support from any combination of these designated organizations. There is no maximum number of letters of support a group can have, but you need to have a minimum of one valid letter from one of three entity categories below:
1: Twenty-nine designated Venture Capital entities which are required to commit a minimum investment of CAD 200,000 to the Startup visa group they’re endorsing.
2: Eight designated Angel Investor entities which are required to commit a minimum investment of $75,000 CAD to the Startup visa group for which they are issuing the letter of support.
3: Forty-nine designated Business Incubators who do not required to make any financial commitment to the Startup group they are endorsing. (More than 90% of all letters of support are from this entity category).
At INGWE we are EXPERTS in the Canada Startup Visa. We will guide and support you throughout the endorsement letter or Letter of Support process and the entire immigration process including work visas and permanent residencies. Get a FREE email assessment, click here.
Don’t be fooled. 70% of these designated organizations are ‘pay to play’ arrangements – meaning you need to have the budget to cover their cohort, admission, and onboarding expenses. They don’t charge you for the letter of support (because they’re not allowed to) but they’ll charge you for other things along the way.
The only SUV designated organizations where you can expect a “free” ride, are specific incubators, VC’s or Angel Investors who take a chunk of equity in your Startup business, instead of cash, in return for endorsing your business through their Startup program. These Startups are the cream of the crop with amazing, developed technology and proven revenue. They make up less than 1% of the Startups who apply for the SUV Program. This is the big league, and most of the SUV applicants are not invited to this part of the game.
So, let’s talk about what you get from the not-so-free entity programs. Is it worth it to pay between $3000 to $100,000 (yes these are real numbers) to receive a letter of support from a VC or Angel Investor compared to an incubator? Will it increase your chances of approval for your Canadian PR with the IRCC?
We can’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to this question, but we can explain it to you this way – it doesn’t matter who issues your letter of support if you have one of these 3 red flags that the IRCC will watch for:
1: You or your co-founders don’t meet the minimum immigration eligibility criteria.
2: Your Startup business has done absolutely nothing, and is just a business plan on paper.
3: Your Startup business isn’t innovative or one of your essential co-founders has no professional experience or education related to any related business.
But let’s look at the flip side. Maybe you have an awesome, genuine Startup business, but you’re being endorsed by one of the ‘Letter of Support mills’, which pumps out a huge volume of letters of support without much due diligence or control. This route can actually hurt your Startup visa business application. The IRCC is aware of specific designated organizations who are overextending their capacity and undermining the integrity of the Startup Visa program – so it is important for applicants to be aware before they apply.
Another key point that many people misunderstand is that in 100% of the cases of Startup Visa applications, no VC or Angel Investor will actually pay or invest in the Startup business until the co-founders have all become Canadian permanent residents (PR).
The government of Canada will not pay you or your fees to bring you to Canada under this program, no matter how great your Startup or your profile is. The VC’s and Angel Investors who do sign a financial commitment with you to invest in your Startup business have thick and extensive agreements with lots of fine print and lists of conditions that have to be met before you see a single cent of that money, besides becoming a PR. It is well designed to make sure they don’t pay you a penny.
At INGWE we are EXPERTS in the Canada Startup Visa. We will guide and support you throughout the endorsement letter or Letter of Support process and the entire immigration process including work visas and permanent residencies. Get a FREE email assessment, click here.
So, you’re now asking yourself, that’s great, but what’s the answer to the question? What’s the difference and should you pay more in cash or equity to get access to VC’s and Angel Investors or other difficult incubators that are not volume based? You need to do your due diligence and make a critical analysis of these key factors to decide if the entity you’re considering is worth the price:
* Read the scope of services contract carefully
* Investigate their cohort program.
* Make sure you’re clear on the fees.
* Check if they will reissue a letter of support if it expires
* Are they a high-volume letter of support incubator?
* Are they going to nitpick every little detail about your business plan, your eligibility and settlement funds and plan to operate in Canada? Or will they not at all check any of this or just a very ‘light check’?
* How long will it take from the beginning to end until you receive your Letter of Support (i.e. before becoming eligible to apply for the Canadian PR)?
At INGWE we are EXPERTS in the Canada Startup Visa. We will guide and support you throughout the endorsement letter or Letter of Support process and the entire immigration process including work visas and permanent residencies. Get a FREE email assessment, click here.
Keep in mind that many features or services these entities offer you may not be relevant or useful to you at all – depending on your goals and plans for your Startup. Is the Canadian PR more important or the business progress and networking and mentoring – or maybe a combination of both?
Make a list of priorities such as price, timelines, services offered, cohort program, location, and how long it is expected to obtain the Letter of Support before you make your final decision. The final Startup Visa PR business application, post letter of support can take anywhere from 18-24 months with the IRCC, therefore it’s wise not to waste too much time on the setter of support before applying for the PR.
At INGWE we are EXPERTS in the Canada Startup Visa. We will guide and support you throughout the endorsement letter or Letter of Support process and the entire immigration process including work visas and permanent residencies. Get a FREE email assessment, click here.
Now that you know the key factors to consider before selecting and applying for a letter of support through an SUV designated organization, you can make an educated decision based on what is important and valuable to you. We work with VC’s, Angel Investors, and more than +10 incubators across Canada. So, we’ve seen it all and that’s why we can do a comparison on what’s important and what isn’t.
Ready for someone to help you make the right choices? When you work with us, you get access to reliable incubators, VC’s and Angel Investors, a database list of questions the IRCC officers will ask you about your business 12-15 months after you a apply cross-referenced again the officer code numbers, and our in-house licensed immigration team that helps Startup Visa applicants from over all over the world.
As you have figured out by now, we’re not new to the Startup Visa space, and we don’t sugar coat anything. Ready or not…. here we come….
If you’re thinking about immigrating whether permanently or temporarily - you’re at the right place! Our team speaks over +9 languages, and we help applicants from over 50 different countries during their immigration process. Get a free email assessment, click here.
If you’re ready to apply and would like a 1-on-1 session with one of our immigration team members at INGWE, you can also book a session directly using this consultation link.
