So if you are applying for Startup Visa program, this video is very important for you because on May 4,2024, or RCC announce some major changes in the Startup Visa program. These changes are going to impact the number of applications as well as the type of applications they are going to select under the Startup Visa program. So let me show you what those changes are. So as per the ministerial instructions, the designated entities which can support a business by giving a commitment certificates now has a limit on number of commitment certificates they can issue in a year. So these changes are for year 2024,25,26, and they can only give 10 commitment certificates every year since 2024 is already four months are gone. So these changes for 2024 started on May 4 till December 31st,2024. And the 2025 and 2026, there will be a full year for giving 10 commitment certificate. And most importantly, when any of these commitment certificates are issued to a group of applicants for them to be considered under this program, all applications for permanent residencies for all members of the group must be submitted for the application processing. This has now been a requirement since, I believe, mid 2023. But even that they have made it a part of these requirements and the applications are going to be processed on a first comfort serve basis. So if you have a letter of support and you have fulfilled all the requirements of the program, you should submit the applications right away.
The second major change was that the applications will be prioritized based on certain factors, which is that applications made a given a commitment certificate by venture capital firms or angel investor groups would be prioritized along with the applications from designated business incubators, which are supported by Canada’s tech network. So applications which does not meet these requirements, they will be processed after all the priority businesses have been processed for the startup visa program. So there is still a chance for non tech, non medical programs.
Now the next thing is to identify how would you know which business incubators or designated organisations are under the priority group. So if you go on to the list of designated organizations, you will see that they have marked three different types of designated organizations, which is venture capital funds, angel investors, and designated the organizations or business incubators. So priority applications are the ones which are supported by either venture capital, total funds with $200,000 in investment, angel investor groups by supported by $75,000 or business incubators, which are under the Canada Tech Network labels. So all of them would have priority processing green tab written next to it. So if you go along the page, all venture capital funds are listed as priority angel investors, all of the businesses are released as priority. And under the business incubator list, there are certain of them like Genesis, then in West Nova Scotia, then Innovation Factory, then Interactive Media Cluster, then in West Ottawa, then North Forge Technology Exchange, then Platform Calgary, then the DMZ, then Venture Lab Innovation Center, then Wire Tech and Waterloo Accelerated Center. So all of these business incubators are designated organizations, which has priority processing tab. Next to it. We’ll have priority based on these applications.
So now that you understand the changes in the startup visa program, that there is now going to be a limit on the number of applications, and there is going to be priority based on the designated organization, which, who is going to support you. I hope it’s going to be easier for you to identify which designated organization you want to choose for your application and what type of a business you want to choose for your application. And the only problem with this whole ministerial instructions is they have not really explained that would, what would be the limit on the number of applications they’re going to take? By looking at the material instruction, it looks like the limit would be based on the total number of designated organizations, time 10. I believe there are about 98, so about 980 applications. So they have not clearly identified it, but reading between the lines of slopes, like they’re only to take 900 applications a year. So be very careful in choosing what type of designated organizations you want to work with to do your startups application. Thank you.