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The Government of Quebec is proposing a series of updates to its Entrepreneur immigration category.
The changes would revise the two components through which entrepreneurs will be selected into one focused on startups supported by a business incubator/accelerator or university and the other on owner-funded and operated businesses.
Under the first component, Quebec’s Immigration Ministry, the Ministère de l’Immigration, et de la Diversité et de l’Inclusion (MIDI), would select entrepreneurs who:
- Have a passing score under Quebec’s Economic Class selection grid.
- Settle in Québec to operate an enterprise that the entrepreneur creates, alone or with other persons, and that has received an offer of service from an enterprise accelerator, an enterprise incubator or a university entrepreneurship centre.
The second component concerns the operation in Québec of an enterprise that the foreign entrepreneur creates or acquires. Under this component, MIDI will select a foreign entrepreneur based on the following criteria:
- Holds and controls, alone or with the accompanying spouse or de facto spouse, at least 25% of the equity of the enterprise he or she creates or at least 51% of the equity of the enterprise he or she acquires. The value of that participation must be equal to or greater than the amount that must serve to start up the business project;
- Manages the enterprise himself or herself or participates actively as an associate in the management and daily operations of the enterprise;
- The enterprise does not carry out a restricted economic activity;
- Provides a start-up deposit and performance guarantee security deposit; and
- Obtains a passing score under the Entrepreneur program selection grid.
A key change between this last component and the current Acquisition of a business in Quebec component is candidates would now have to pay a performance guarantee deposit that is refundable if certain conditions are met.
Quebec has not yet detailed the financial requirements, such as the deposit or net worth required of applicants to the Entrepreneur program.
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