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. This test gives you a fast, plain-language read on whether your profile fits the programme's core requirements before you commit time and money to an application. 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 an eligibility status, a requirements checklist, an indicative timeline and the logical next steps. 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, you get a partial result flagging that a minimum CLB 5 may require targeted preparation before you can apply.
• Gate 3 — a designated organisation. If you clear the first two gates but have not yet secured a letter of support, the tool returns a partial result identifying that letter as your pivotal first step — and explains the three types of designated organisation you can approach.
• Strong profile. If you report a strong business and a committed designated organisation, the tool returns a strong eligibility result confirming the core building blocks are in place. Any other combination returns a measured partial result.

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 “Key step: secure a designated organisation”. That is exactly the right message, because your own CAD 100,000 is not what unlocks the programme; a commitment certificate from a venture capital fund, angel investor group or incubator is. The result reframes your priority from “how much can I invest” to “how do I win investor backing”.

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 — indicatively from roughly CAD 14,690 for a single applicant to around CAD 38,875 for a household of seven — to show you can support yourself on arrival.
• Ownership and control. Each applicant must generally hold at least 10% of the 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 currently paused to new applications: IRCC stopped accepting new designated-organisation commitment certificates after 31 December 2025, and applicants holding a valid 2025 commitment certificate must file their permanent residence application by 30 June 2026. A replacement targeted entrepreneur pilot is expected to be announced during 2026. This tool deliberately reflects the historic SUV criteria, which remain the best available guide to what a successor programme is likely to reward — so use it to prepare, not to submit.

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 exactly where to focus — improving a language score or, most often, landing a designated organisation's letter of support. If your profile is strong, the practical next steps are to sharpen your business plan, approach designated organisations, and book your language test.

A successful application ultimately leads to permanent residence and, after three years of physical presence within a five-year window, the option to apply for one of the world's strongest passports — with dual citizenship permitted. Whatever your result, treat it as the start of a conversation. Our advisers can pressure-test your concept, help position you in front of the right designated organisations, and keep you informed as the replacement entrepreneur pilot takes shape.