Businessmen, investors, high net worth individuals, entrepreneurs and senior executives who have crossed certain age limits, often and in fact have no option but to apply for an Canada immigration visa under the business and investment categories offered by citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Majority of business and investor visa applications have conditions attached to the visa, the only exception being Canada Immigrant Investor program.

Conditions means that the while the visa holder is permitted to enter and start living in Canada, he must meet some conditions – within stipulated time frames- before conditions attached to his resident visa are waived off and his status is converted and confirmed into a permanent resident visa.

Following are some areas where conditions are attached to business visa options like Entrepreneur and provincial nominee visa programs for businessmen investor and high net worth individuals:

The Visa holder may be required to live in some designated provincial areas for a specified duration. Mostly this may be two years or more. This means that the Immigrant cannot just stay and start business anywhere in Canada. He is required to do it in the province that nominated or selected him for the visa under the provincial nominee category. Most of such provinces and states are often lowly populated and have extreme weather conditions. Visa applicants often have there blood relations and friends in Canada. They form their life support system during the interim settlement phase for the new Immigrant. Going under the provincial nominee program may imply that they might be landing in the province where they do not have such support system. Also these states may offer limited small local consumer market and thus may have small market to consume the products and services offered by the Immigrants business. The business and investment visa holders are only permitted to do business under designated and preferred business areas that will contribute to the economic activity of the province. He is not permitted to do or invest in businesses in any business of his liking. Majority of business and investment visa programs require the applicant to employ some minimum number of local citizens and residents. Such conditions increase the cost of starting and doing business for the new Immigrant Visa holder. Hired family members are not included while counting the minimum numbers of local employment. Such visa options for high net worth individuals and businessmen do not permit them to live and stay against passive investments. They must be engaged on running and managing an active business. They could be investing in real estate or in financial markets and could be getting rent or income such as dividend or interest against financial instruments. But such investment will not meet the conditions against which such visas are issued in the first place. This implies that they should start and invest in a business in which they are actively involved. Majority of provincial nominee program require the visa holders to give non- interest bearing refundable security deposit towards an undertaking that they will stay and start business in the province. This deposit is forfeited if the applicant does not meet this condition and makes another province his residence and place of business and investment activity. The visa holder is not permitted to take up a job when he takes up a visa under provincial nominee program or Entrepreneur category. The business started by the entrepreneur category visa holders must also meet some additional minimum requirements such as turnover, net profit and net assets.

Canada Immigrant Investor program is unconditional in all these aspects and therefore preferred visa category for Businessmen, investors, high net worth individuals, entrepreneurs and senior executives who have crossed certain age limits. They can live anywhere in Canada; can live off passive investment; can take up a job in Canada; need not start and manage an active business; need not hire any local citizens or residents; they can do business in any legitimate area of business activity whether or not it is in the preferred business areas of the province of their stay; are not required to offer a conditional security deposit that compels him to stay in a particular province and finally the Canadian business they start need not meet any minimum conditions such as turnover, net profit and net assets. Being unconditional, the visa holder and his family can claim all benefits that a permanent resident visa holder is entitled to and can claim.

Having an unconditional visa means that he is a permanent resident from Day one of his landing. He can plan his and his family life and business and investments- within and outside Canada – in a manner of his liking. The features of this immigrant visa program have made it extremely popular. But being unconditional also means that the program has some stringent requirements that the applicant and his family must meet. This includes documentation, application and interview areas. The stakes are high and it is best to take help of an experienced Immigration advisor for this highly demanding immigrant investor program to Canada.