Canada Start-up Visa Eligibility Test

What the Canada Start-up Visa eligibility test does

The Canada Start-up Visa (SUV) is a route to permanent residence for entrepreneurs who can build an innovative business in Canada with the backing of a Canadian investor. The route is currently paused, so this test is not a gateway to an application: it gives you a fast, plain-language read on how your profile sits against the criteria the programme applied, which is the best available preparation for whatever replaces it. You answer five multiple-choice questions — the strength of your business concept, your English or French language level, whether you have secured support from a designated organisation, your available proof of funds, and your underlying goal (permanent residence for family, a business base, or both). In return it shows where your profile is strong and where it is not, a requirements checklist, the timeline that applied to applications already in the queue, and what is actually worth doing while the route is shut. It is aimed at founders and internationally mobile business owners who are weighing Canada against other routes, and it sits alongside the rest of our tools and our wider citizenship and residency resources.

How the eligibility test works

The tool is not a points score. It is a set of hard knock-out gates applied in priority order — a waterfall that surfaces the single most important obstacle in your profile first, because that is the thing you need to fix before anything else matters. Understanding that logic helps you read your result correctly.

• Gate 1 — a genuine business. If you indicate that you are looking for pure investment residency rather than running a business, the tool returns an ineligible result, because the SUV is an entrepreneur programme, not a passive investment scheme. It then points you towards routes that are built for capital investors, such as the Caribbean citizenship-by-investment or Portugal Golden Visa programmes.
• Gate 2 — language. If your business concept qualifies but you report only a basic language level, the tool flags that the minimum CLB 5 would require targeted preparation. A test result is portable across Canadian economic routes, so this is worth closing whatever replaces the SUV.
• Gate 3 — a designated organisation. If you clear the first two gates but have not secured a letter of support, the tool identifies that letter as the pivotal requirement — and explains the three types of designated organisation. Note that none are issuing new commitment certificates while the programme is paused, so this is not a gap that can be closed today.
• Strong profile. If you report a strong business and a committed designated organisation, the tool says so — but it does not call that eligibility, because no route is open to be eligible for. Any other combination returns a measured, partial read.

A worked example

Suppose you have a strong software concept, business-level English, no designated organisation yet, around CAD 100,000 of your own funds, and your goal is permanent residence for your family. The tool works down the gates: your business passes, your language passes, but the designated-organisation gate stops the waterfall — so your result is “You have no designated-organisation backing”. That is the right message, because your own CAD 100,000 is not what unlocked the programme; a commitment certificate from a venture capital fund, angel investor group or incubator was. The result reframes your priority from “how much can I invest” to “how do I win investor backing” — a question worth answering even now, though no certificate can be issued while the programme is paused.

The requirements it checks against

Behind the five questions sit the programme's established eligibility criteria, which are worth understanding in full:

• A designated organisation's support. A venture capital fund must invest a minimum of CAD 200,000, an angel investor group a minimum of CAD 75,000, and a business incubator must accept you into its programme (no minimum investment). This letter of support is the linchpin of the whole application.
• Language. CLB 5 or above in all four skills, in English or French, evidenced by an approved test.
• Settlement funds. Unencumbered funds that scale with family size — on IRCC's table updated 29 July 2025, CAD 15,263 for a single applicant rising to CAD 40,392 for a household of seven, with CAD 4,112 for each additional member — to show you can support yourself on arrival. The money cannot be borrowed from another person.
• Ownership and control. Each applicant must hold at least 10% of the total voting rights in the business, and the applicants together with the designated organisation must hold more than 50% — so the venture is genuinely founder-led rather than a shell.

Up to five people can be treated as essential to a single qualifying business. For the complete picture, including how the pieces fit together in practice, read our Canada Start-Up Visa Programme guide.

Assumptions and limitations — including the current pause

The most important limitation is one of timing. The Start-up Visa is paused and accepting no new applications: IRCC stopped accepting new applications after 31 December 2025, and the final window for applicants holding a valid 2025 commitment certificate closed on 30 June 2026 — a date now past. Applications accepted before then are still being processed, but designated organisations are not issuing new commitment certificates, and the associated work-permit stream is closed to new applicants. IRCC's 2026–27 Departmental Plan signals a replacement “high impact” pilot, but nothing has been published about when it opens or what it will require, and it may reward a different profile entirely. This tool deliberately reflects the historic SUV criteria as the best available proxy — so use it to prepare, not to submit, and do not read any result as eligibility for anything.

Beyond timing, the test is an indication only. It reads solely from the options you pick, so it cannot verify your documents, assess the true quality of your business plan, or confirm that funds are genuinely available and lawfully sourced. Investment thresholds and settlement-fund figures are set by the Government of Canada and change from time to time. And clearing the tool's gates does not secure you a designated organisation's backing — that remains a separate, competitive process. It is not immigration or legal advice.

Why it matters and what to do next

The value of the test is that it tells you two things quickly: whether the Start-up Visa is even the right shape for your goal, and — if it is — what your single biggest obstacle currently is. If your result is ineligible because you are really a passive investor, the honest answer is to compare investment-led routes instead; our citizenship-versus-residency guide and tools such as the UAE Golden Visa checker are better starting points. If your result is partial, you now know where the gaps are — a language score or, most often, investor backing. If your profile is strong, that is worth knowing, but it does not open a route: with the programme paused, the practical steps are to sharpen your business plan, book a language test, and keep investor relationships warm, while accepting that no commitment certificate can be issued and no application can be filed under this route today.

While it was open, a successful application led to permanent residence and, after three years of physical presence within a five-year window, the option to apply for Canadian citizenship — with dual citizenship permitted. That destination is unchanged; the route to it is currently closed. Whatever your result, treat it as the start of a conversation rather than a step in an application. Our advisers can pressure-test your concept, talk through how investor backing is won, and keep you informed if and when the replacement entrepreneur pilot is published — at which point its criteria, not these, will be what counts.