Over the years, I have helped many people to get their permanent resident visa through the investor visa program. This is a program which effectively allows you to buy your visa to come to Canada because you are not required to work in Canada or to run a business in Canada in order to get permanent residence.
There are three main requirements for the Visa. You are not required to have any language tests done for this type of visa.
The first requirement is that you must have at least two years of business management experience within the past five years.
The second requirement is that you must have at least a CAD$1,600,000 net worth. Net worth is defined as your worldwide total assets including your home, investments or business minus all of your debts. This includes the assets and debts of your spouse if you have a spouse or partner. You are not required to sell or move any funds or assets in order to get the visa.
The third and final main requirement is that you must loan the government CAD$800,000 for 5 years. The government guarantees that they will return your funds without any interest after 5 years. It is very important for you to know that you do not need to take CAD$800,000 out of your pocket or out of your assets in order to make the loan to the government. Rather you may borrow the money from any lender anywhere in the world. However, if you borrow the money from a Canadian Bank then you do not need to put up any security for the loan since the Canadian lenders know that the government guarantees the return of the funds. So you are allowed to pay the bank at a one-time payment which includes all administrative costs and the interest. This is effectively the purchase price for your Visa. It is usually around CAD$170,000 to CAD$225,000.
This program has a very small window of time for applying every year because the spots are all taken up very quickly after the program opens usually in April or May of each year. In 2017 it is expected that all the spots will go within a few weeks after the program reopens in April or May.
This program is run through the Quebec government and you are given full Canadian permanent residence status if approved.
If you are at all interested in this program please contact my office and I would be happy to have a free consultation to see if you qualify for the program. It is really within the next month or two that your application must be prepared because there is a large amount of documentation required for this type of application.