A business incubator, a business accelerator or university entrepreneurship centre that wants to support an entrepreneur applicant and his/her project must meet the appropriate definition:

• A “business accelerator” is an organization with an establishment in Québec that offers support services, particularly for finding financing, to people whose business projects are aimed at the growth of innovative companies;
• A “university entrepreneurship centre” is an organization managed by an academic institution referred to in Section 1 of the Act Respecting Educational Institutions at the University Level (chapter E-14.1), or an organization affiliated with such an institution and that provides mentoring services to entrepreneurs;
• A “business incubator” is an organization with an establishment in Québec that offers mentoring services, including hosting, to, people whose business projects are aimed at the creation of innovative businesses.

Each organization has particular requirements when selecting would-be business project applicants and prior to the issuance of a service of offer. As example:

– The proposed business project industry sector
– The business project underlying business idea’s development stage
– Proposed business project founders’ academic and professional experiences
– Business model feasibility

The purpose of the service offer is to assess the adequacy between the business project presented by the immigration applicant and the organization’s ability to support its implementation. The resources deployed by the support organization must be sufficient and adapted to meet the needs related to carrying out the entrepreneur’s project.

Yes. Some organizations accept to support business ideas at early stage in order to issue the service offer for the business project.

Since every business plan is adapted to the foreign entrepreneur’s background and business idea, there is no a fixed amount of investment required. The applicant’s active and on-going participation in the development of the business idea in Québec and the reaching of milestones are key and will determined how much money should be invested.

As of October 2020, the applicant must obtain a minimum of 41 points according to the Regulation respecting the weighting applicable to the selection of foreign nationals, Schedule C.

The immigrant investor can reach 41 points according to different factors:

The language test result must be provided at the initial file submission in order to have language points recognized.

The immigrant investor can apply with his spouse and dependent children under the age of 22 years old.

There is an exception for a child of 22 years and older depending substantially on the financial support of the parent since before the age of 22 and being unable to be financially self-supporting due to a physical or mental condition.

The age of the dependent child is locked-in at the date of receipt of the application by the Quebec government (OP 1, 5.24).

While the federal government will usually focus on admissibility considerations (such as security background and medical condition), it has the competence to review every program eligibility conditions until the applicant’s landing in Canada.

One of the most important conditions of the program is for the applicant to settle his business, himself and his family in the province of Quebec after the granting of the permanent residency status.

From November 1st, 2020 to September 30, 2021 the Entrepreneur Program Stream 1 can accepted 25 applications. Applicants who have taken an approved language test showing French-language proficiency at an advanced intermediate level are exempt from this intake threshold and may submit an application at any time during this period.