BRITISH COLUMBIA ENTREPRENEUR PROGRAM

Applications are assessed on a number of factors, including:

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• Business and/or work experience;

• Personal net worth and source of funds;

• Adaptability; and

• A business proposal, which includes the proposed investment and job creation in B.C.

 

Entrepreneur Immigration Requirements:

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• Active and ongoing management of the day-to-day business operations;

• Demonstrated residence in B.C (once the application has been approved); and

• Admissibility to Canada.

 

Personal Requirements:

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• The personal net worth of at least $600,000 (including cash, assets in bank accounts, fixed deposits, real properties, investments, etc) under the candidate's name or candidate's spouse's name. The net worth must be legally obtained and verifiable;

• A minimum of two years of post-secondary education or experience as an active business owner-manager with 100 percent ownership of the business for at least three of the past five years; and

• Work experience — the candidate must demonstrate that he or she has sufficient knowledge and experience to successfully establish his or her business in B.C. The candidate must have a minimum of:

  • more than three years of experience as an active business owner-manager, or

  • more than four years of experience as a senior manager, or

  • a combination of at least one year of experience as an active business owner-manager and at least two years of experience as a senior manager.

 

Business requirements:

The registration must include a short business concept that will be assigned points based on proposed commercial viability, transferability of the candidate’s skills, and economic benefits. If the candidate is subsequently invited to apply, he or she will be required to submit a comprehensive business plan. The BC PNP will consider registrations to establish a new business, purchase of an existing business, form a partnership with an existing business, and partner with a local or foreign entrepreneur to establish a new business.

Investment requirements:

 

In order to register, the candidate must demonstrate that he or she will make an eligible personal investment of at least $200,000 CAD in the proposed business. If the candidate is proposing a Key Staff Member and wishes for that person to also work for the business in B.C,, he or she must demonstrate that he or she will make an eligible personal investment of $400,000 CAD.

 

Job requirements:

Candidates must demonstrate that they will create at least one permanent new full-time equivalent job for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident in the proposed business. Job creation requirements differ for candidates who proposed to include a Key Staff member on their application.

 

An Entrepreneur Immigration Registration is not an application to the Entrepreneur Immigration stream or a guarantee that a candidate will be invited to apply.

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If a candidate is invited to apply, he or she will have four months to submit a complete application. If the application is approved, he or she will sign a Performance Agreement and will have up to 20 months to implement a business proposal in B.C.

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New Changes in Eligibility Requirements for British Columbia Entrepreneurial PNP Stream - 2020:

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New Language Requirement: 
 

Significant development and changes have been seen to the Entrepreneur Immigration Base Category. These changes came into effect on January 29, and do not affect applications already in processing.
 

B.C. introduced a minimum Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) requirement of level 4 or higher in order to qualify.

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“The level of language we are introducing is CLB level 4 and is quite basic, ensuring the ability to communicate basic needs, follow simple conversations or read simple instructions,” a B.C. government document said.

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Key Staff Requirement has been withdrawn:

Prospective Entrepreneur Immigration Base Category candidates will no longer have the ability to propose key staff in their applications.

Before the changes, entrepreneurs could include key staff members on their applications who had expertise essential to the success of their proposed business.

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Source: CIC News