The Start-Up Visa Program as it stood before its June 30, 2026 pause: designated organizations, the commitment certificate and letter of support, the closed work permit, and the replacement entrepreneur pilot IRCC said would follow.
Applies in: CA
Canada's Start-Up Visa Program targeted immigrant entrepreneurs with the skills and potential to build businesses in Canada, outside Quebec, that are innovative, can create jobs for Canadians, and can compete on a global scale. That description is the program's own statement of purpose. It is not a description of a route that can be started today.
As of June 30, 2026, the program is paused. IRCC stopped accepting commitment certificates from organizations after December 31, 2025. Applicants holding a valid 2025 commitment certificate had to apply by June 30, 2026. IRCC states that it will continue to process applications received before that date, and that it is not currently designating new organizations. The optional work permit for applicants closed to new applications on December 19, 2025, with an exception only for extensions by people already in Canada on a Start-Up Visa work permit.
This guide therefore does two things. It records, accurately and in the past tense where the program pages require it, how the program worked when it was open, so that a reader with an application already in the system, or a reader following the replacement pilot, can understand the documents and terms involved. And it states plainly that no new application can be started under this program now. A guide that presented the application steps as currently available would mislead every reader who followed them.
The first step was to pitch the business idea to a designated organization and convince it to support the start-up. The process for pitching varied for each designated organization, and the applicant had to contact the organization to learn what it required. Each organization developed its own process for receiving proposals and its own criteria for assessing them. It was up to the organization to find entrepreneurs it wished to support, and up to the entrepreneur to find an organization willing to consider the proposal.
Designated organizations fell into three types: venture capital funds, angel investor groups, and business incubators. IRCC maintained the list of designated organizations, and the program pages state that no new organizations are currently being designated. The list as it stood, and any future list, is an IRCC publication. No organization outside that list could provide the support the program required, and no pitch to an undesignated investor, however well funded, counted as designated-organization support.
This guide gives no advice on choosing an organization, shaping a pitch, valuing a business, or raising capital. Those decisions belonged to the entrepreneur and the organization, and the program pages describe only the immigration mechanics that followed a support decision.
When a designated organization decided to support a business, it sent a commitment certificate directly to IRCC and gave the entrepreneur a letter of support. The certificate had to be issued by one or more designated entities, be valid on the date the application was received by IRCC, be issued without the designated entity charging a fee to review and assess the business proposal or the business, include a term sheet or client agreement, and include information on each applicant. No more than 5 persons could be identified in a commitment to a single business proposal.
The certificate was sent as form IMM 5766, and the letter of support as form IMM 0211. A commitment certificate was valid for 6 months after the date it was issued, so the permanent residence application had to be submitted before the certificate expired. Where multiple designated entities acted in syndication, only one commitment certificate was issued containing the details and requirements of all participating entities, and the lead entity submitted it. If one syndicated entity was a designated venture capital fund, that fund had to act as lead and the $200,000 minimum total investment applied. Commitment certificates received as of April 30, 2024 had to carry a unique identifier number matching the letter of support, and officers verified the match.
The applicant never received the commitment certificate itself. The letter of support was the document the applicant held and included with the application. That split matters for anyone checking an old file: the absence of a certificate in the applicant's own papers is expected, and the letter of support is the document to look for.
If all eligibility criteria were met, the applicant submitted a completed permanent residence application that included the letter of support. The application had to be submitted before the commitment certificate expired. For the wind-down, the operative dates were a valid 2025 commitment certificate and an application by June 30, 2026. Applications received before that date continue to be processed, including under the prioritization criteria in the officer instructions. Applications outside that window are closed to the program.
The officer instructions describe the assessment in terms of the commitment certificate and letter of support, the business proposal, and the statutory requirements for the start-up business class. This guide does not reproduce the full eligibility assessment, because the program is paused and the detailed criteria that applied to a new application are no longer the operative question for a new reader. The frequently asked questions above state what was cut and why. Anyone with an application already submitted should follow the instructions in the application account and the requests from the processing office, rather than re-reading the historical eligibility pages as if they were current instructions.
When the program was open, an entrepreneur who wanted to come to Canada while the permanent residence application was processed could apply for a short-term work permit under the International Mobility Program. Eligibility required identification as an essential applicant on the commitment certificate and a letter of support. The work permit application could be made before or after the permanent residence application.
That route closed to new applicants on December 19, 2025. The only work permit applications still accepted under the program are extensions by people already in Canada applying to extend a current Start-Up Visa work permit. IRCC also states that it is prioritizing the permanent residence applications of people already in Canada holding a Start-Up Visa work permit, as levels-plan targets allow, alongside the existing prioritization criteria. A reader who holds such a work permit should check the extension instructions on the program page and act within the validity of the current permit. A reader who does not hold one has no Start-Up Visa work permit route to start.
The December 19, 2025 notice frames the pause as a transition. It states that the measures set the foundation for a new, targeted pilot program for immigrant entrepreneurs, that the pilot is intended to help address the large inventory of business-program applications, and that more information would be communicated in 2026. It also extends the pause on the Self-Employed Persons Program until further notice.
No terms for the pilot appear on the program pages. Until IRCC publishes them, there is nothing grounded to say about who the pilot will serve, what investment or support it will require, what language or funds tests it will set, or when it will open. The correct action for an entrepreneur interested in a future pilot is to watch the Start-Up Visa program page and the IRCC news notices, and to keep business records, incorporation documents, and any designated-organization correspondence in a form that can be produced if a future program asks for them. Do not pay for pilot preparation, pilot pre-registration, or pilot representation on the basis of an unpublished program.
This guide states no language-test level, no settlement-funds amount, and no ownership-percentage rule, because no applicant-facing Start-Up Visa page states those figures in current form, and the program is paused. It states no processing time, because IRCC publishes processing times through its processing-time tool and the paused program carries no current service standard on the program pages. It states no fee, because no fee figure for the program appears on the program pages. It states no outcome for any business, and no prediction about the replacement pilot. Where a figure was cut, the guide names the IRCC page that would own it if the program reopens or the pilot publishes terms.
No. The designated organizations page states that as of June 30, 2026, the Start-Up Visa Program is paused, that commitment certificates stopped being accepted after December 31, 2025, that applicants with a valid 2025 commitment certificate had to apply by June 30, 2026, and that IRCC continues to process applications received before that date. The program page states that the program is closed to all other applications and that no new organizations are being designated. Anyone planning around this program must re-check the program page for the current status, because the pause, not the application process, is the operative fact for a new applicant on November 2, 2026.
Not under the window described on the program pages. Applicants with a valid 2025 commitment certificate had to apply by June 30, 2026. That date has passed. If an application was submitted before the deadline, IRCC states that it will continue to process applications received before that date, and the applicant should follow the messages and instructions in the application account rather than starting a new application. If no application was submitted by June 30, 2026, the program pages give no route to file now. Do not pay anyone who promises to file a new Start-Up Visa application on the strength of a 2025 commitment, and check the program page directly for any change to the pause.
Not as a new applicant. As of December 19, 2025, IRCC stopped accepting applications for the optional work permit available to Start-Up Visa applicants, except for people already in Canada applying to extend a current Start-Up Visa work permit. The program page repeats the position: the work permit route is closed to new applicants, and a person who already holds a work permit under the program may be able to extend it while the permanent residence application is being processed. When the program was open, the work permit required the applicant to be identified as an essential applicant on the commitment certificate and to hold a letter of support. That route is not available to start now.
A designated organization is an organization designated by the Minister for its expertise and ability to assess the potential for, and assist in the success of, start-up business opportunities. The three types were designated venture capital funds, designated angel investor groups, and designated business incubators. The process was that the entrepreneur pitched the business idea to a designated organization, the organization decided whether to support it under its own process and criteria, the organization sent a commitment certificate, including a term sheet or client agreement, directly to IRCC, and gave the entrepreneur a letter of support. The letter of support had to be included with the permanent residence application. A commitment certificate was valid for 6 months after the date it was issued, and no more than 5 persons could be identified in a commitment to a single business proposal. Where several designated entities supported one proposal in syndication, only one commitment certificate was issued, and the lead entity submitted it.
The officer instructions for assessing Start-Up Visa applications state the minimum commitments that qualified an application for priority processing: a commitment by an authorized venture capital fund of at least $200,000, or a commitment by an authorized angel investor group of at least $75,000, or support from an authorized business incubator that is a member of Canada's Tech Network. Where a venture capital fund was one of several syndicated entities, that fund had to act as lead and the $200,000 minimum total investment applied. These figures are stated here as the priority-processing thresholds in the officer instructions, not as advice about how much to raise or what a business needs. This guide gives no investment advice and no view on whether any business idea would have attracted support. The pitch, the assessment, and the investment decision were for the designated organization under its own criteria.
IRCC has not published a replacement program on its program pages. The December 19, 2025 notice states that the measures set the foundation for a transition to a new, targeted pilot program for immigrant entrepreneurs, that more information about the new pilot would be communicated in 2026, and that the existing pause on the Self-Employed Persons Program would be extended until further notice. No eligibility criteria, investment thresholds, fees, or opening date for the new pilot appear in that notice. Do not plan a business, a move, or spending around the pilot until IRCC publishes its terms on the program pages. The honest position on November 2, 2026 is that the Start-Up Visa route is paused, applications received before June 30, 2026 continue to be processed, and the replacement pilot is announced but unpublished.
Figures that could not be verified on an official page were cut from this guide: language-test levels, settlement-funds amounts, ownership percentages, processing times, and fees. The program is paused and the replacement pilot is unpublished, so check the Start-Up Visa program page and IRCC news notices for current status before acting on any part of the historical process described here.