— IMMIGRANT INVESTOR VENTURE CAPITAL PILOT PROGRAM —
The application period for the Immigrant Investor Venture Capital (IIVC) Pilot Program is closed. The Department is not accepting applications at this time. If you are an international investor with the skills and abilities needed to contribute to our economy and integrate into Canadian society, you may be eligible to apply for permanent residence under the Immigrant Investor Venture Capital (IIVC) Pilot Program.
Eligibility – Immigrant Investor Venture Capital Pilot Program
You must meet all of the requirements listed below to be eligible to apply under the Immigrant Investor Venture Capital Pilot Program. You must also plan to live outside the province of Quebec.
Proof of personal net worth
CIC will require applicants whose applications can be considered for our second stage review to obtain a due diligence report at their expense from one of the following designated service providers:
- BDO USA, LLP
- Deloitte Forensic Inc.
- EY
- KPMG LLP
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) LLP
- Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Consulting Inc.
The due diligence report is an independent examination and validation of your past business or investment experience, source of funds and personal net worth.
The report will include the service provider’s opinion as to whether your wealth was acquired through lawful, private sector business or investment activities. Their report would also flag any potentially negative information for a CIC officer to consider.
Notes:
If you are asked to obtain a due diligence report, you will be responsible for selecting a designated service provider, submitting the required documents to them, and paying the required fees. You will need to submit this report to CIC within the specified timeframe.
You do not need to obtain a due diligence report when applying to the IIVC Pilot Program. CIC will ask you to obtain this report only if your application can be considered for our second stage review.
Non-guaranteed investment in a venture capital fund
You must be willing and able to make an at-risk investment (non-guaranteed) of CDN $2 million in the Immigrant Investor Venture Capital (IIVC) Fund.
If you are one of the immigrant investors approved under this program, you will be required to enter into an agreement with CIC committing a sum of CDN $2 million to the IIVC Fund for approximately 15 years. As with any venture capital investment, you could receive proceeds over time or at the end of the investment term. Proceeds will depend on the fund’s performance and will be based on its gains or losses, including expenses and fees incurred to manage it. However, this would be an at-risk investment. This means that there is no guarantee of a return and it is possible that you could lose some or all of your investment.
Find out more about how investments to the Immigrant Investor Venture Capital Fund will be managed.
Language skills
- prove your proficiency in English or French in all four language abilities (speaking, reading, listening and writing)
- take a language test approved by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC);
- meet the minimum language levels of Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 5 in either English or French for all four language abilities (you can use your test results to find your CLB level); and
- include the original language test results when you apply
- your language test results must be less than two years old on the day CIC receives your application.
If you do not provide original language test results that show you meet the minimum language levels when you apply, your application will not be considered for the next steps.
Education
You must have:
-
- a completed Canadian post-secondary degree, diploma or certificate of at least one year
or
- a foreign equivalent, as validated by an original Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) report from a CIC-designated organization. The ECA report must indicate that your completed foreign education credential is equal to a completed Canadian post-secondary education credential of at least one year.
The outcome stated in your ECA report must match one of the acceptable assessment outcomes for you to be eligible to apply.
An original ECA report is required from all applicants with a foreign education credential, and will be used to determine whether you meet the education requirement. If you do not submit the original ECA report when you apply, your application will not be considered for the next steps.
If you can demonstrate that you have a personal net worth of $50 million or more acquired through lawful, private sector business or investment activities, you can request an exemption from the education requirement when you apply, using the form provided by CIC.
Inadmissibility
Some people are inadmissible – they are not allowed to come to Canada. Many things can make you inadmissible, such as being involved in criminal activity, in human rights violations or in organized crime. You can also be inadmissible for security, health or financial reasons.
If you are inadmissible to Canada, you cannot apply under the Immigrant Investor Venture Capital Pilot Program as your application will be refused.