Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash
Almost every business immigration enquiry starts with the wrong question. People ask how much they need to invest. The programmes ask four questions, and the investment is only one. You have to be worth a certain amount, put a specific part of it into a specific business, own a minimum share, and create work for Canadians. Fail one and the other three are irrelevant. Everything below is a government-set threshold, taken from the government that sets it.
Net worth, investment and liquidity are three different tests
Net worth is what you are worth in total, assets minus liabilities, usually including your spouse or partner. It proves you can absorb the risk of moving countries and starting a business. Most people meet this on paper with property.
Investment is the part of that money that goes into the Canadian business, and it is normally required to be your own equity rather than borrowed. Meeting a net worth test with a house you cannot sell does not produce investable capital.
Liquidity is the test nobody prepares for, and it is where paper-rich applicants fail. IRCC's description of what provinces assess includes capital readily available or easily liquidated within the first four months of arrival. Yukon makes the same point in its numbers, requiring part of the net worth in liquid assets. A net worth locked in illiquid holdings is not a business immigration case.
The federal routes, and a widely repeated error
The federal Start-up Visa was paused on 30 June 2026. Its thresholds are worth stating anyway, because they are misquoted constantly and they show what a federal programme looks like next to a provincial one.
The Start-up Visa never set a minimum personal investment for the applicant. The published figures belonged to the designated organisation: a venture capital fund had to agree to invest at least $200,000, and investors connected to an angel group at least $75,000. A business incubator simply had to accept you. IRCC prioritised applications backed by venture capital funds, angel groups, incubators with committed capital of $75,000, and Canada's Tech Network.
Instead of an investment test, the Start-up Visa set an ownership test and a funds test. Each applicant had to hold at least 10 per cent of the total voting rights, and the applicants plus the designated organisation more than 50 per cent. Applicants also had to show settlement funds, which cannot be borrowed.
| Family members | Start-up Visa settlement funds (CAD) |
|---|---|
| 1 | $15,263 |
| 2 | $19,001 |
| 3 | $23,360 |
| 4 | $28,362 |
| 5 | $32,168 |
| 6 | $36,280 |
| 7 | $40,392 |
| Each additional person | add $4,112 |
The Self-employed Persons Program publishes no net worth or investment threshold, because it is a cultural and athletic route. IRCC stopped accepting applications for it on 30 April 2024 and extended that pause until further notice in December 2025.
The C11 work permit for business owners is the one federal route still open, and publishes no minimum investment either. IRCC tells its officers that what matters is not the type of business or how much is spent, but how the owner's work benefits Canadians. It does require two separate pots of money: support funds equal to the low income cut-off for your family size for at least 18 months, and business funds held separately. It also requires control of at least 51 per cent.
Minimum net worth and investment, province by province
These are the published minimums for streams running when we checked. Where a jurisdiction sets a lower figure outside its main city, both are shown. A minimum is a floor, and clearing it does not earn an invitation.
| Stream | Minimum net worth | Minimum investment |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta, Rural Entrepreneur | $300,000 | $100,000 of your own equity |
| Alberta, Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur | None published | $100,000 urban, $50,000 regional |
| Alberta, Graduate Entrepreneur | None published | No mandatory minimum, scored by amount |
| Alberta, Farm | $500,000 | $500,000 equity in a primary production farm |
| British Columbia, Entrepreneur Base | $600,000 | $200,000 |
| British Columbia, Entrepreneur Regional | $300,000 | $100,000 |
| Manitoba, Entrepreneur Pathway | $500,000 | $250,000 in the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region, $150,000 outside |
| Manitoba, Farm Investor Pathway | $500,000 | $300,000 in eligible farm assets |
| Manitoba, International Student Entrepreneur Pilot | No minimum published | None published |
| New Brunswick, Business Immigration | $500,000, or $300,000 for agriculture | $150,000 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador, International Entrepreneur | $600,000 | $200,000, or $1,000,000 in equity |
| Northwest Territories, Business Stream | $500,000 in Yellowknife, $250,000 outside | $200,000 in Yellowknife, $100,000 outside |
| Nova Scotia, Entrepreneur | $600,000, or $400,000 outside Halifax | $150,000, or $100,000 outside Halifax |
| Prince Edward Island, Business Impact | $600,000 | $150,000 within 12 months of landing |
| Yukon Business Nominee Program | $500,000, including $300,000 in liquid assets | $300,000 within the first two years |
| Quebec, Investor Program | $2,000,000 | Made through a financial intermediary under an investment agreement |
Ownership percentages, and why they are lower than people expect
Most provincial streams do not require a majority. The common floor is one third, which allows for partnerships and outside investors. The federal work permit route is the outlier, which catches people who assume the rules are consistent.
- One third: British Columbia Base, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and the Northwest Territories, which allows less where your personal equity investment is at least $1,000,000.
- 34 per cent: Alberta's Graduate Entrepreneur stream, and its Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur stream in urban areas.
- 51 per cent: British Columbia Regional, Manitoba's International Student Entrepreneur Pilot, and Alberta's Rural Entrepreneur and Foreign Graduate Entrepreneur streams outside the cities.
- 100 per cent: Alberta's Rural Entrepreneur stream where you take over an existing business.
- At least 51 per cent control: the federal C11 work permit. Below that, IRCC treats you as an employee and the exemption does not apply.
- 10 per cent each, with more than 50 per cent held by the applicants and the designated organisation: the paused Start-up Visa.
Job creation: usually one, and it has to be real
The job creation requirement is modest on paper and strict in substance. British Columbia requires at least one full-time equivalent job for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. New Brunswick requires one for a citizen or permanent resident living in the province. Newfoundland and Labrador and Manitoba's Entrepreneur Pathway both require at least one, as does Alberta's Rural Entrepreneur stream for a new business.
Read the exclusions. Manitoba excludes owners and their close relatives. Alberta excludes relatives. A job created for your own family member is not a job created for the local labour market, which is the entire point. The province is not looking for scale, but for a business that is genuinely trading and genuinely rooted where it said it would be.
Residency and active management, the obligation with no number
No threshold on this page matters if you are not there running the business. Newfoundland and Labrador requires you to actively manage it every day and run it for a full year. Manitoba's Farm Investor Pathway requires you to live on the farm. Prince Edward Island requires active day-to-day management. Manitoba's International Student Entrepreneur Pilot requires daily operation for six months before nomination.
IRCC applies the same logic federally. The Start-up Visa required active and ongoing management from inside Canada. Passive investment is not what these programmes are buying. Hiring a manager and visiting twice a year is a breach of the agreement, not a clever structure.
How your net worth actually gets verified
You do not self-declare a number. Provinces use designated third-party verifiers, usually accounting firms, and the process is deliberately outside your control. Newfoundland and Labrador requires you to choose a verifier from its official list, submit your financial documents, and give written permission for the verifier to send the report to the government directly. Only reports sent that way are accepted, and you pay for the verification.
What the verifier is really testing is not the total. It is the story behind it. IRCC's description of provincial assessment refers to the provenance of funds, cash flow statements showing the source of revenue, and net worth verified with financial institutions or a third-party professional service.
- Does my spouse's net worth count toward the threshold?
- Usually yes, where the spouse or partner is included in the application, though each programme sets its own rule. Quebec's Investor Program says you may share the required net worth with a partner included in the application, and requires both of you to demonstrate the lawful origin of your assets.
- Can I borrow the investment money?
- The investment is normally required to be your own equity, and provinces examine the provenance of funds specifically to catch borrowed capital presented as equity.
- Is the money paid to the government?
- No. The investment goes into your own business and you carry the commercial risk. Some jurisdictions take a refundable deposit as security against the performance agreement, which is a different thing.
- Which route has the lowest thresholds?
- The graduate entrepreneur streams, because they substitute a credential for capital. They have their own gates instead, typically Canadian Language Benchmark 7 and a requirement that you already hold a post-graduation work permit, so they suit few applicants abroad.
- Do these numbers change?
- Yes, and without notice. IRCC updates settlement funds annually, provinces revise thresholds when they restructure streams, and whole programmes close. Every figure here carries the date we checked it.
- If I meet every threshold, am I approved?
- No. Meeting the minimums makes you eligible to be considered. Most streams then score you, invite selectively from a pool, and assess the business plan on its merits.
If you want to know which of these thresholds you clear, and which route your money and experience genuinely fit, bring us the numbers. Book a consultation
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