Investment Immigration to Canada: A Global Industry

In 1986 Canada became the very first country to offer a residency program through approved immigration investments.  Since that time, the Canadian model experienced many transformations while providing more than 100,000 families with Canadian permanent residence. 

The current program since  2012 has since become considerably scaled down by the Canadian government which is known for its distaste of investment based immigration programs.

Over the years, more than 20 countries have recognized the success realized by Canada as they introduced a variety of residence based immigration programs.  Some programs provide citizenship without any period of permanent residence.

Below is a summary of the current global immigration residence based programs which provide residence or citizenship through approved investment schemes.

Investment Immigration: Canada Residence Investor Programme

Residence Investor Programme

Canada is a popular choice for residence for people who want to live, work and spend quality time with their families. For investors and business entrepreneurs, Canada offers an official “investor immigration programme”, which allows people from outside Canada to substantially invest in the Canadian economy and development and create new jobs and business opportunities. A permanent residence in Canada can be obtained by investors under this programme.

Benefits of Canada’s Residence Investor Programme:

• Excellent health care and education systems
• Affordable cost of living
• One of the best living standards in North America
• One can qualify for citizenship after just three years of residence
• Dual citizenship is allowed

Canada has abolished its Federal Immigrant Investor and Entrepreneur Programme; however the province of Quebec is not affected by this decision. Investors and business entrepreneurs who want to migrate to Quebec can apply under its Immigrant Investor Programme and Immigration Entrepreneur Programme.

Quebec is one of the ten provinces in Canada and is a part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Quebec offers access to a market of about 460 million consumers and also provides convenient access to big cities like Toronto, New York, Boston, and Chicago. It has a pluralistic and secular society and also offers a safe and prosperous community with good quality education systems, affordable housing, and a well-established network of excellent universities, a state-administered universal healthcare system and a rich and varied culture. For investors and businessmen, Quebec offers a wide range of opportunities for investment in different industries and manufacturing sectors and also provides access to domestic and foreign markets.

To apply for investor immigration to Canada, the following steps need to be followed:

• Meet the selection requirements of the Gouvernement du Québec and the admission requirements of the Government of Canada
• Meet the investment requirements of the Immigration Investor Programme
• Submit the application form along with all supporting documents
• Comply with all other selection requirements

The processing time for the Selection Certificate and the Permanent Resident Visa varies, depending on the applicant’s country of residence.

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