Canada’s provinces are urgently seeking immigration solutions to growing labor shortages, as evident from the recent Premiers’ meeting held in Winnipeg lately. In fact, the new rules of the Start-up Visa can be one of the solutions to solve this issue.
The expanded 3-year open work permit is available to Start-up Visa applicants and families. Under the enhanced rules, Start-up Visa applicants can develop their ventures in Canada while working flexible jobs to earn income. Spouses also gain 3-year work rights, allowing full households to contribute economically.
With the work permit extended from just 1 year previously, immigrants have longer to establish themselves before needing to switch to permanent residence. This provides a greater opportunity to plug skills gaps. To the provinces, this is a win-win step.
On the other hand, the Premiers specifically identified healthcare as a priority field requiring personnel. If the startups have business ideas for health tech, they can get a better chance to convince investors (Venture capital fund or Angel investor group) to invest in their companies.
The most important is when startups have investments by Venture capital funds or Angel investor groups, the applications can be considered to speed up the processing. This promises health tech founders accelerated entry to begin targeting healthcare development in Canada.
The longer and more flexible work rights are perfectly suited to Canada’s needs. Start-up immigrants can drive growth in undersupplied sectors like healthcare while earning income to support families and ventures. Rather than awaiting permanent residence, the 3-year permit puts applicants to better develop their businesses. With quotas tripled too, Canada is redoubling Start-up Visa efforts to attract essential tech skills, like health tech.
The provinces want action to fill gaps and power economies. The expanded open work permits offer Start-up Visa applicants the immediate opportunity to do just that across Canada.
