Business Immigration costs to increase in July?

Canada’s Immigrant Investor program allows foreign businesspeople with at least 2 years of business experience in the past 5 years and a net worth of at least $800,000 CDN to immigrate to Canada, by investing $400,000 CDN into government guaranteed securities for 5 years with no interest. There is virtually no risk for the immigrant, and since 1986, tens of thousands of businesspeople have immigrated to Canada under this program.
In fact, most immigrants don’t even invest the full $400,000, because some banks will lend up to 70% of the amount, so that immigrants only need put up a down payment of $120,000.

Compared to a program like the US EB5, where the investor must put up $500,000 to $1 million USD into a business with no guarantees, and create 10 jobs, Canada’s Immigrant Investor program looks very inexpensive. And it has been at the same levels since April 1999. But that’s likely to change…fast.

Since the beginning of this year, there has been rampant speculation that the Canadian government will increase the Investor Immigrant amount from $400,000 to $800,000; banks have indicated that this would likely increase the down payment from $120,000 to about $200,000. In addition, the net worth requirement is likely to increase from $800,000 to $1.6 million; this will also exclude some people from qualifying.

The upshot is that if you’re a businessperson and have been considering immigrating to Canada, it would be a good idea to talk to an immigration lawyer. More information: www.canadavisalaw.com/business_immigrants_investor_federal.htm

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