Business people with significant assets can immigrate to Canada under the investor immigration category. This is a fast way to obtain permanent residence both for the business applicant and his or her family, including any spouse and children under the age of 22.
Investor Immigration: Basic Criteria
Persons with business ownership or management experience may apply for Canadian permanent residence under the Investor category. In addition, to qualify as an Investor, the applicant should have a net worth of at least $1.6 million Canadian dollars. The applicant is required to make an investment of $800,000 which will be placed into a Canadian government fund. The money will be kept by the Canadian government for 5 years after which it will be returned in full to the investor, interest free. All the money paid by the investor into the investment fund is guaranteed by the Canadian government so there is no chance of the investment being lost.
Financing the Investment
The investment amount of $800,000 can be financed through a bank fund so that the actual amount of investment is as little as $190,000, but in this case the money is non-refundable, as it is used to pay the interest and fees associated with the financing. By financing the investment, an investor applicant is essentially buying permanent residence for him or herself and any immediate family, without the need to tie up the entire amount of $800,000 for 5 years or be concerned about getting the money back from the government at the end of the 5 year term. Financing is therefore a good option to make the investor application as simple and worry free as possible.
Investor Immigration: Details of the Application Process
An Investor application is a type of application for Canadian permanent residence. These applications are processed at the Canadian visa office that serves the country of nationality of the applicant. As part of the application it will be necessary to provide various supporting documents, including details of the investor’s business ownership or management experience, and details of the investor’s assets, including both cash and property, and the source of these funds. Other standard requirements include that the investor and his or her family members should pass criminal and medical checks. Altogether the processing of the Investor application will take approximately one year from the time the application is filed to the time the visa is issued. Once the investor obtains permanent residence in Canada, he or she and any family can live, work and study in Canada permanently, and can obtain Canadian citizenship after living in the country for 3 years. There is no requirement for an investor to make further investments in Canada once they obtain permanent residence, the $800,000 investment is a one-time requirement and there are no further financial obligations after permanent residence is obtained.
How We Can Help?
The law office of Matthew Jeffery, Barrister & Solicitor, has over a decade of experience successfully assisting Investor applicants and their families to obtain permanent residence in Canada. We can assess your qualifications to ensure that you will qualify prior to beginning the process. Once it is clear that you can apply, we will assist you to prepare all necessary forms and documents to ensure that your case has the proper information needed by the immigration authorities. We will then file the application for you, and process it including dealing with all correspondence from the visa office. We will also help you to get ready for any interview that may be conducted in your case. Our goal is to make the application process as efficient and worry-free as possible, so that you obtain permanent residence quickly and smoothly.
If you are interested in making an Investor application, please Contact Us for further details of the process and our law firm’s services.