While Canada is renowned for inviting immigrants from across the globe, not many options for acquiring the Canadian Permanent Residency and Citizenship are available for people who are in their late 30s and above.
To understand these options, it is imperative to first understand the immigration framework of Canada.
Unlike the USA, where all the immigration programs are controlled by the Federal Government, the Canadian immigration structure is divided between – the federal & provinces governments. With this, each province has its own immigration program- known as Provincial Nomination Program(PNP).
The popular categories under these PNPs include skilled-based programs and entrepreneur programs. While the skill-based programs are suitable for young applicants, entrepreneur programs are more apt for middle-age-group applicants as these programs generally have minimum experience & investment requirements ranging from CAD 200,000 – to 500,000. It must however be noted that the entrepreneur programs do not give the opportunity to apply for Permanent Residency directly and would generally be contingent on the success of the business in the first two years.
On the Federal side, the know programs are Express Entry- a point-based program suitable for young applicants, Inter-Company Transfer (ICT)- a work visa program suitable for Senior Management Executives with their employer being present in Canada and LMIA-a work visa program where the applicant has a job offer from Canadian Company with a requirement to prove that no Canadian worker or permanent resident is available to do the job. Both ICT and LMIA would require the applicants to shift to Canada and be employed till they qualify under the Express Entry as working in Canada generally boosts the points and cover the age bar.
Notably, there is another federal category that has recently acquired the interest of the Senior Executives i.e. Canada Start-up Visa. The start-up program was made permanent by the Canadian Government in 2018 and lately has become the preferred choice for senior executives owing to various benefits.
It provides for direct Permanent Residency with an option to shift on Interim Work Permit while the Permanent Residency Application is pending. Canada Permanent Residency for senior executives under this program comes with various benefits including the opportunity to become part of an innovative start-up team by using the existing senior management experience.
The key requirements of the start-up program include a minimum ten percent stake as a co-founder, a minimum IELTS score of 5, obtaining a Letter of Support from a Government Designated Organization, and having sufficient funds to sustain itself in Canada.