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Ask HN: Has anyone had success with Canada's startup visa?

66 points by arash_milani ↗ HN
I wanted to know if anyone here has success with "Canada Start-up visa" program: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/business/start-up/index.asp

And if so can you share your experience here? they time it took or any info that you think it is useful for others interested in this program?

Thanks

32 comments

[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 89.8 ms ] thread
MichaelCrawford
If you'd like to immigrate to Canada for any reason whatsoever, I cannot possibly recommend my own immigration attorney M. Lee Cohen highly enough:

http://www.mleecohen.com/

His main focus is human rights work (political asylum and refugees) however he finances that by charging completely reasonable fees for regular immigration applicants such as myself.

Real nice guy and he knows his stuff.

deepsun
Political asylum is pretty profitable as well. In US attorneys ask around $7000 for the process (usually pursued by people who came to US on a visa and want to legally reside forever, but don't have any real reasons for asylum).
sraquo
Thanks! I myself could use a recommendation for Vancouver area.
hackerboos
I don't see why the startup capital should be limited to Canadian investors.

I thought about it, but noticed that I had enough points to qualify for the Federal Skilled Worker program, so went for that prior to the revamp.

The stability offered by Canadian PR visas are much better than almost any other visa I have read about.

nojvek
The visa just got started recently but last I heard they are still working out the details.

I applied for CEC (Canada Experience Class), paid >$4k for lawyer fees but application got rejected saying quota is fulfilled even though the website notes that its less than half filled.

Trying now on express entry but I doubt I'll get anywhere. I feel its a broken system which caters to very expensive lawyers as they know the hacks.

grecy
> I applied for CEC (Canada Experience Class), paid >$4k for lawyer fees but application got rejected saying quota is fulfilled

Wow, that's interesting. I didn't know the CEC had a quota.

I applied for (and got) a provincial nominee PR because my company (telco) sponsored me.

Did you meet all the requirements for the CEC? I personally didn't bother with a lawyer, and it wasn't needed in my case.

raquo
Canadian immigration rules are changing multiple times a year nowadays, and they're doing so without much regard for anyone currently in the process. While the rules themselves are on par with Australia / NZ (= much easier than US), the transition is not well thought out. CIC's CEC quota screwup of late 2014 is just one of many examples. Students, PNP nominees, TFWs have all been screwed in different ways in 2014. While CIC touts shorter processing times for select categories, they're often using MagicMath. For many categories of applicants processing times doubled to quadrupled last year.
[dead] spicyspike
Yet another kumar looking to immigrate ? For real ? Get lost paki
[dead] spicyspike
Ok i read you are not kumar. You are allowed to go!
AlexBlom
Feel free to shoot me an email (on profile) and I can share details / connect you with some involved.

I'm an Australian who has been in Canada since 2009. The current iteration of the startup visa has some odd restrictions on Canadian capital imo.

You are generally better doing WHP to FSW

Disclaimer: ianal

xbeta
My question is why not go to SV if you are going to leave your home country for startup anyway.
techaddict009
SV is turning out a bit costly. Various people here on HN recommend not to start from there.
espinchi
Because U.S. immigration is not exactly easy
dataker
Generally, he would have to either:

1)Invest 1M+ of his own money

2)Be a superstar with hundreds of publications and experience

3)Come as a tourist and pray everything works fine in 3 months

4)Fall in love and get married(...in the Valley?)

Finbarr
5) work for a company until you get a green card.
dataker
I thought we were talking about the Startup Visa.

In that case, it's very difficult to sponsor yourself or your co-founders for an H1-B

anonbanker
1) there's money in Canada going to less people.

2) once the SV bubble pops, the global silicon valleys will start to thrive.

a3camero
Very, very few people have been awarded visas under this program. This article from two months ago says that in the 21 months the program had been running only five people were accepted: http://www.techvibes.com/blog/canadas-startup-visa-program-2....

Here's another article from the summer in which the government trumpeted their acceptance of a total of two people in the first sixteen months of the program: http://metronews.ca/news/canada/1098581/immigration-minister....

gordjw
If they're promoting such small numbers, I wonder if it's lack of interest rather than process issues.
bstar77
Can anyone say if there's a benefit to moving my startup to BC? I'm currently registered in Delaware, but I plan to move to BC within a year (my wife is Canadian and sponsoring me).

The tax situation looks better, but I'm wondering if someone with actual experience running a business in both countries could give me some insight.

throwaway88640
I'm a dual-citizen who has done software startups in both countries.

The advantages of Canada are:

- free health care, especially important for self-employed

- retirement plan easier to contribute for self-employed

- easier tax preparation (no AMT, no IRS 20 rules, etc.) resulting in lower overall taxes for self-employed with deductions

- cheaper to hire educated people

- no federal deficit, so no looming financial crisis

- virtually no police shootings, SWATing, executions

- French/English divide is not an issue outside of Quebec

- good to excellent public schools, few discipline problems

- no global income reporting.

- no Selective Service for you or your kids

- Toronto is an interesting combination of finance/software/mfg, great place for robotics, makers, etc.

- Canadian Tire money can really add up!

- if you're middle class, it's good to be the king!

Advantages of USA are:

- much easier/possible to get venture investment

- Silicon Valley

- often the dollar is higher, though I'm not sure why

- if you like guns or are far rightwing, welcome home

- good place to practise trauma medicine/prosthetics

- if you're the 1%, it's good to be the king.

Same in both countries:

- 401k and RRSP are very similar

- same ACH network

- same timezones.

- same urban housing prices

- same culture, but the USA has guns and Canada has politeness.

hnnewguy
no federal deficit, so no looming financial crisis

Huh? Canada's debt-to-GDP is as bad as the US.

latch
It isn't uncommon for Canada to quote a debt-to-GDP ratio based solely on federal debt. It isn't how most countries calculate their debt. Depending on exactly what you do include, Canada's debt-to-GDP is anywhere from 80% to a little over 100%.

Also, Canada has much higher household debt. It's well past 150% now.

akg_67
Depend on your startup's industry and where you customers are going to be. BC may be a good place for media and entertainment startup as there are lot of such companies, small and large, in BC.

Overall, I don't believe Canada offers anything positive w.r.t. to startup and business. The local market is too small and your primary market and customers most likely will be in USA. Though salaries are lower in Canada, the regulatory and taxation cost is very high specially if you are going to have employees and office.

Most Canadian companies, based on my experience in Eastern Canada, form a US subsidiary with mailing address typically in New Hampshire. Most of the investors in early stage companies are "old" money so the threshold to raise any angel/seed money will be much higher specially for businesses investors may not understand and there is too much focus on financials rather than opportunity. There is scarcity of tech-success founders supporting the local startup scenes, I saw more of them in Bay area instead of Toronto/Ottawa.

I don't know how things have changed in last 10 years in Canada, may be a tech bubble is bubbling there too right now. But when I last tried to start a company in Toronto, 12 years ago, I didn't have any positive experience, in the end I landed up moving to US permanently.