The Start-up Visa in Canada

The Start-up Visa in Canada is closed to new applications, and has been since the last narrow window shut on 30 June 2026. Applications already in the queue are still being processed, which is the distinction that matters most to anyone reading this.

About this work

What does the closure actually mean for you?

It depends entirely on whether you have a file in the queue. If you do, nothing has been taken away: the application is still being processed, the priority rules still apply to it, and the open work permit attached to it is still available if you qualify. If you do not, there is at present no way to start one.

That distinction gets blurred constantly, and it is worth being precise about because the two situations call for opposite advice. Somebody already in the inventory should be making sure the work permit is in hand and the business is progressing in a way the eventual decision can be based on. Somebody who was planning to apply needs a different route entirely.

The programme has not been repealed. It remains in the regulations and the designated organisations remain designated. What stopped is intake, and intake is an administrative decision that can be reversed. We watch the departmental notices rather than the commentary about them, and we do not guess at dates.

What we will not do is prepare a Start-up Visa application on the basis that the programme is about to reopen. There is no published basis for that, and preparing an application that cannot be filed costs real money.

Written by the firm. Pending review by Kapil Rathod, Barrister and Solicitor, Law Society of Ontario licence 77122E.

Where it stands

Closed to new applications, open on the existing inventory

This is the part worth reading before anybody pays a retainer. The programme was not cancelled; it stopped accepting new applicants. A good deal of the material still circulating describes it as though it were taking applications.

  1. The last intake window has closed

    The department accepted applications only from people holding a valid 2025 commitment certificate, and only until 30 June 2026. That date has passed. The department's own page reads that the programme is closed to all other applications.

  2. Applications already filed are still being decided

    The closure stopped new intake; it did not cancel the queue. Applications accepted before the cut off are worked through in the ordinary way, and the priority given to start-ups backed by Canadian capital or supported by an incubator in Canada's Tech Network still applies to that inventory.

  3. The work permit that goes with it is unaffected

    The optional open work permit attached to a Start-up Visa application remains available to people who already qualify for it. That permit is what lets a founder work on the business here while the residence application is decided, and it is worth checking rather than waiting on the main application.

  4. Designated organisations still exist

    Incubators, angel investor groups and venture capital funds remain designated, and they can continue supporting entrepreneurs. What they cannot currently do is produce a commitment certificate that opens a new application, so a designation is not by itself a route in.

The route

How does the process run?

4 stages, each with its own clock

The status below is taken from the department's own pages rather than from any summary of them, and was checked on 2 September 2026. This changes, and a reopening would matter more than anything else on this page.

01

The programme is closed to new applications

Closed

The last applications accepted were from holders of a valid 2025 commitment certificate, filed by 30 June 2026. Nobody outside the department knows whether or when intake resumes, and any date offered to you is a guess rather than a published fact.

02

The existing inventory is still being processed

In progress

Applications accepted before the cut off continue through the ordinary process. A file already in the queue has not been cancelled and does not need to be refiled.

03

Priority processing still applies inside that inventory

Unchanged

Start-ups with committed capital from a designated Canadian venture capital fund or angel investor group, and those supported by a business incubator that is a member of Canada's Tech Network, keep the priority treatment on the applications already filed.

04

The open work permit remains available to those who qualify

Available

It is optional, it is tied to the application rather than granted with residence, and for a founder who is waiting it is usually the more urgent of the two things to sort out.

Before the meeting

What to bring to the first meeting

6 things to bring

Bring what you have and say what is missing. A meeting with the papers in front of it settles in one sitting what two telephone calls will not.

  • ✓Any commitment certificate or letter of support, and its date
  • ✓The application you filed, if you filed one, and the acknowledgement
  • ✓Every refusal letter, and the officer's notes if you have ordered them
  • ✓The corporate documents for the venture, and its ownership
  • ✓Any open work permit already issued, or the application for one
  • ✓Your own work history, education and any language test results

Our approach

A clear path forward

The same four steps on every matter, whether it is a refusal at the Federal Court or a ticket at the Provincial Offences court.

Book a consultation
01

Understand

We take the full history and read the documents before offering an opinion. Most bad advice comes from acting on half the facts.

02

Assess

You get a candid read on strength, timeline and cost, including when the honest answer is that you do not need to hire anyone.

03

Act

We prepare the application, the defence or the appeal properly the first time, because fixing a weak record later is harder and dearer.

04

Report

You hear from us at each stage, and you hear what a wait actually means rather than a date chosen to sound better.

Reported decisions

What has this work produced?

7 allowed of 22 reported since 2023

Public judgments of the Federal Court with Kapil Rathod as counsel of record, each checkable by citation on the court's own site. The rest were dismissed and are listed with these ones.

All case outcomes, including the client accounts

Updates

What has changed for Start-up Visa?

1 note

Dated notes on the rule changes that reach this work. Each records what moved and when it took effect; this page carries the position now.

SUV work permit closed, no pilot announced

In force 19 December 2025

IRCC shut the Start-up Visa work permit, then the programme itself, and promised a replacement pilot in 2026. Nine months into 2026 it has not published one.

Where to go next

The Start-up Visa in Canada is closed to new applications and open on the files already in it, and those two facts call for opposite advice.

Nobody outside the department knows whether intake resumes, so the useful question is what is open now.

Entrepreneur work permitsBusiness immigrationBook a consultation

Common questions

What do people ask about Start-up Visa?

7 answered here

Written to be read once and acted on rather than to be rung about. Each answer is complete where the law allows a complete answer.

If an application was refused, what then?

The routes out are the same as for any refusal, and the first step is the same too: get the officer's notes and find out what was actually decided. A refusal on the genuineness of the business is a different problem from a refusal on the applicant's own admissibility, and they do not have the same answer.

Where the concern was the business itself, whether the essential person requirement was met, whether the commitment was genuine, whether the venture was real, the analysis is about evidence and about whether the decision was reasonable on the material that was before the officer.

Where the concern was the applicant, it is an admissibility question and belongs on a different track altogether. The two get conflated in refusal letters more often than they should.

Judicial review at the Federal Court is available for a refusal, on the ordinary deadlines: 15 days for a decision made inside Canada and 60 days for one made outside. Those are short, and they run from notification rather than from the day you decide what to do about it.

What is left if you were planning to apply?

Temporary first, residence second, which is the shape of nearly all business immigration to Canada right now. There is no federal programme that takes a business founder directly to permanent residence while the Start-up Visa is closed and the Self-Employed Persons Program remains paused.

An intra-company transfer is the most reliable route where there is already a foreign company employing the applicant, since it needs no labour market assessment. It requires a genuine corporate relationship and a year of full time employment abroad inside the previous three, so it does not fit a first-time founder.

An entrepreneur work permit under code C11 fits somebody who will own and run a business here, controls at least 51 per cent of it, and can evidence a real benefit to Canada. It is discretionary and normally runs 18 months at first.

The provincial entrepreneur streams are the other door, and they are the ones that lead to residence, since a provincial nomination is worth 600 points. They are slow, conditional, and different in every province, and in most of them the investment is spent before the status is secure.

Is the Start-up Visa coming back?

Nobody outside the department knows, and anyone offering you a date is guessing. What is published is that the programme is closed to applications other than those from holders of a valid 2025 commitment certificate filed by 30 June 2026, and that the existing inventory is still being processed. We watch the departmental notices rather than the commentary.

I already filed. Has my application been cancelled?

No. The closure stopped new intake and did not cancel the queue. Applications accepted before the cut off continue through the ordinary process, and the priority given to start-ups backed by a designated Canadian fund or supported by an incubator in Canada's Tech Network still applies to those files.

Can I still get the open work permit?

It remains available to people who already qualify for it. It is optional and tied to the residence application rather than granted alongside it, and for a founder waiting on a decision it is usually the more urgent thing to deal with, because it is what allows work on the business in the meantime.

A designated incubator has offered to support me. Does that get me in?

Not at present. Designated organisations remain designated and can keep working with founders, but a letter of support or a commitment from one does not open an application while intake is closed. Before any money changes hands, the question to ask is what application, precisely, the support is meant to accompany.

What is the closest thing still open?

For somebody with an existing foreign company employing them, an intra-company transfer. For somebody buying or building a business here and controlling at least 51 per cent of it, an entrepreneur work permit under C11. For a route that actually reaches permanent residence, a provincial entrepreneur stream, which is slower and conditional.

Speak to someone this week

Bring any commitment certificate and the application you filed. Whether the Start-up Visa in Canada is still relevant to you depends on whether there is a file in the queue.

Book a consultation Call +1 (647) 372-1983
Law Society of Ontario licensedFederal Court filingsEnglish, Hindi, Gujarati and PunjabiFee quoted before you commit