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Processing times, statistics and facts about approval and refusal rates in the Canadian Startup Visa program.
Is it better to receive a Letter of Support from a designated organization such as a business incubator, Angel Investor or Venture Capital category?
What support will these designated organizations provide to their Startup groups?
Why is the IRCC so silent in terms of publicly announcing the result of this program which was launched back in 2013. How come there haven’t been any evaluation reports published by the IRCC on the Startup Visa business program since November 2016, although the government decided at the end of last year to multiply the number of applications it can process under this category for the next 3 years. These are all unsolved mysteries that neither us nor anyone else can have a clear answer to.
However, what we can do is look into the numbers and statistics published by the IRCC to indicate the trends. Using this method, we can potentially understand this program and the results it provides for its applicants.
If you are trying to make up your mind about applying to Canada or the UK through the Startup Visa Program, look no further. That’s our specialty here at INGWE Canada. 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.
Why is it that when you search for Startup Visa approval rates on Google, all the major articles on the first page indicate 75% or higher approvals in this program, when this is not the truth. Is it a conspiracy? Are the agents, consultants and lawyers making too much money with this program for anyone to tell the truth? Is there too much at stake? The secret is in the numbers. If you can decipher the statistics, then the real information will be clear to you. The only challenge is that the official (IRCC) government statistics are always lagging.
Here are the statistics and refusal and approval rates for the Canadian Startup Visa Program, followed by the latest processing times.
|
Year |
Refusal % |
|
2014 |
55% |
|
2015 |
15% |
|
2016 |
0% |
|
2017 |
19% |
|
2018 |
36% |
|
2019 |
20% |
|
2020 |
33% |
|
2021 (*Jan to Oct) |
10% |
So far up to October 2021 (since Jan 2013), the number of successful individual applications under the SUV via the designated business incubators was reported at 1020.
Total number of PR applications processed under the Startup Visa program from January 2013 to March 2022 has been 1425 principal applicants, with 2921 dependents.
The peak processing time for SUV cases where decisions are rendered are during Q3 and Q4 as of the stats from 2021 to 2022. So, expect to receive the greatest number of IRCC decision letters on the SUV program in the next 6 to 9 months.
As of 2018 the most Startup Visa refusal cases came from BC. It also had the highest volume of applicants. Ontario was in 2nd place, with the greatest number of designated organizations.
In 2019 BC had 54 approved and 14 refused and Ontario had 106 approved and 22 refused. In 2020, BC had 21 approved and 15 refused, and Ontario had 26 approved and only 7 refused, and in 2021 BC only had 7 refusals and 97 approved, and Ontario had 78 approved and 18 refused.
Until March 2022, the province of BC had 18 approvals and 3 refusals, and Ontario had 27 approvals and 5 refusals.
New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and PEI had no refusals from 2019 until March of 2022, although their volume was significantly lower compared to the hyper-active provinces of BC and Ontario. 3rd and 4th places went to Manitoba and Alberta in terms of volume, although their numbers are nowhere near BC and Ontario.
From January 2013 until March 2022, out of the total 1425 Startup Visa applicants processed under this program, 504 were from designated organizations in BC and 654 from Ontario. In third place was Manitoba with 79 and then Alberta and Prince Edward Island were tied for 4th place with 57 each.
If you’re interested in applying for the Canada Startup Visa, at INGWE we will guide and support you throughout the endorsement letter or Letter of Support process and the entire immigration procedure, including work visas and Canada PR. Get a FREE email assessment with one of our Business Immigration consultants. Fill out the form, click here.
Let’s look at the most common IRCC refusal reasons from 2018 to 2021 for Startup Visa applicants as per the published statistics. The number one reason was IRPR R98(1) which stated that the principal applicant does not qualify under the Startup Visa class due to the following reason as stated in the regulations:
“An officer may substitute their evaluation of the applicant’s ability to become economically established in Canada for the requirements set out in subsection 98.01(2), if meeting or failing to meet those requirements is not a sufficient indicator of whether the applicant will become economically established in Canada.”
This reason is typically used when the applicant does not have the education or work experience to fulfill their role in a C-level position in the Startup group. This is a very common reason IRCC officers use and would be concurred by a 2nd officer as well for such a refusal reason.
The 2nd most common refusal reason is related to the Ministerial Instructions for Startup Visa program from 2013, section 2(5), stating that an “An applicant is not to be considered a member of the start-up business class if the applicant intends to participate, or has participated, in an agreement or arrangement in respect of the commitment primarily for the purpose of acquiring a status or privilege under the Act and not for the purpose of engaging in the business activity for which the commitment was intended”
The 3rd most common refusal is so far the IRPR 89(1)(b) “For the purposes of this Division, an applicant in the self-employed persons class or an applicant in the start-up business class is not considered to have met the applicable requirements of this Division if the fulfillment of those requirements is based on one or more transactions that were entered into primarily for the purpose of acquiring a status or privilege under the Act rather than (b) in the case of an applicant in the start-up business class, for the purpose of engaging in the business activity for which a commitment referred to in paragraph 98.01(2)(a) was intended.”
This reason basically means in laymen’s terms that you as an applicant or group paid the designated organization for the Letter of Support and/or business concept and the transaction cannot be considered arm’s length.
The 4th most common refusal reason is also related to the Ministerial Instructions for Startup Visa program from 2013, section 9(2); “ If there is more than one applicant in respect of the same business and one of the applicants, who was identified in the commitment as being essential to the business, is refused a permanent resident visa for any reason, the other applicants must be considered not to have met the requirements of subsection 2(2) and their applications must also be refused.”
And at the bottom of the list, the 5th most common reason for SUV refusal is from the Immigration Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) section 11(1) which states that the applicant is not admissible to Canada (this could be a slew of reasons such as medical or criminality).
At INGWE we are EXPERTS in the Canada and UK 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 with us, fill out our form, click here.
Work Permit approval rates for the SUV program from 2015 to October 2021:
100% in 2015, and always above 90% until 2021 October with 428 total cases processed under exemption code A75 (now changed to A77). Renewals of SUV work permits are not included in these stats. Unfortunately, the truth now is that refusal rates in high volume countries such as India, Pakistan, Africa, Middle East and Vietnam, and Hong Kong under the Startup Visa work permit program have now been hovering around the 50% due to IRCC’s internal new policies implemented in Q3 of 2022 which was never publicized.
More and more Federal court cases have come about since then for SUV work permit applications which were refused. There was even a case where 24 members of the SUV program who were refused work permits from a specific country combined their efforts and negotiated a deal with the Department of Justice for reconsideration – with a threat to take this to Federal court.
The moral of the story here is that there is power in numbers. When you file for judicial review on your own, it’s not as powerful as 20 or 30 or even more applicants filing together who have strong cases.
* In 2013, 18 of the Startup Visa groups from Empower were approved and 10 were refused for that entire year.
* For Spark innovation centre incubator in Ontario, 9 were approved and 4 refused in the same year.
* The highest approval rate came from Calgary Technologies Inc in 2019 with 19 approvals and zero refusals.
* In 2020 Empower in BC had more refusals than approvals (8 v. 6) and Spark had only 3 approvals and no refusals.
* The volume of Startup Visa applications that IRCC was processing in 2020 was very low due to COVID-19 however in 2021 they processed all the older files and therefore had some high approval rates for Empower in BC, Spark in Ontario and all the other incubators as well. The stats in 2022 are too incomplete to indicate any trends on approval or refusal on the Startup Visa program.
* As of April 2022, approx. 115 applications pending under the Angel Investor category to be processed by IRCC, 312 pending applications in the incubator category. In the Angel Investor category, Canadian International Angel Investors Ltd had the largest volume of applicants, and in the incubator category, York, Empower, Spark, and Biomedical Commercialization Canada Inc had the largest volume of applicants under the Startup Visa program. In the Venture Capital category, only 6 pending applicants are waiting in the IRCC backlog under the SUV program.
* Iran, India, and Hong Kong were the # 1 source countries for applicants under the Startup Visa program followed closely by China, and Vietnam. No wonder that during the months of March and April many designated organizations across Canada are visiting and hosting events in India, Vietnam, and Hong Kong to promote the Startup Visa program. That’s why we call it Startup Visa March Madness!
Considering all these statistics and of course the refusal/approval rate of the Startup Visa program being anywhere from 50-65%, one of the lowest out of all the business immigration programs in Canada, how can applicants protect themselves? Imagine trying to invest in a company in the public or private markets based on their financial statements from 2 years ago, not current ones or at least the ones from last financial year end. As the famous fund manager Sir John Templeton stated, "The four most dangerous words in investing are, it’s different this time". The key is to know that a Startup Visa can be your best friend if you know which designated organization to work with, which Startup group to join, and how to plan the 1.5 years processing time in terms of activities.
There are designated organizations who have blank Letters of Support ready to be printed on the spot. Or even issue groups Letters of Support without any business concept or idea, and then in reverse order make up a business concept for them. How can you get support from the designated organizations after the Letter of Support? Since this factor is a critical part of your successful application. It’s simple, you need to ‘pay to play’ – which means you will need to purchase add-ons after you receive the Letters of Support. Either you purchase these post-Letters of Support services through your designated organization or through a partner of the D/O.
Another important fact to consider is although work permit refusals under the Startup Visa program have successfully been challenged in Federal Court, as of this date, March 13th 2023, no SUV PR application refusal has been successful in the judicial review process. This means that selecting your Startup group and designated organization and its representatives, will be the key decision on whether your PR is approved or not.
Let’s review the latest processing times for the Startup Visa program PR applications; they are now coming closer to 1.5 years instead of the traditional 2.5 years from the start of COVID-19. IRCC is trying to catch up on all processing times, which also include Startup Visa applications in the economic immigration category. These are the facts you should know:
* The 3-year plan announced by the existing Canadian government for 2023 to 2025 has increased Startup Visa application processing limits from 1250 per year to 4000. Please keep in mind that these are the number of individual applicants in the SUV groups.
* Considering the above fact, we are now seeing multiple IRCC offices across Canada starting to review SUV applications. Previously it was all dedicated to Sydney Nova Scotia, but now IRCC has decided to balance the work across multiple processing centres in Canada. IRCC requests for review letters under the SUV program have been received from the Vancouver processing centre, Whitehorse in the Yukon Territories, Edmonton and so forth. We are confident these letters will be issued from every single processing centre as they are trying to squeeze every drop of processing capacity from inside Canada. This is why new Startup applicants should expect much faster processing times compared to applicants who submitted their applications in 2020 or later.
* Processing times for Startup Visa work permit applications have also improved. Although the approval rates have dropped, the processing times in Middle-East and SouthEast Asia such as India are now 1.5 to 3 months on average. We do see Africa and GCC still lagging. However certain countries in Latin America, all of Europe and the US of course are still the fastest processing times in terms of any work permit categories.
At INGWE we are EXPERTS in the Canada and UK 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 with us, fill out our form, click here.
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