Conditions for immigrating to Québec as an entrepreneur – Starting and operating an innovative business

You must settle in Québec to start and operate an innovative business.

To do so, you must have obtained a service offer from a support organization, such as:

• A business accelerator
• A business incubator

or

• A university entrepreneurship centre

The organization that wishes to support you in your project must fall under one of the following definitions:

• Business accelerator: an organization with an establishment in Québec that offers support services to individuals whose business projects are designed to grow innovative businesses. In particular, it must provide a service for seeking financing.
• Business incubator: an organization with an establishment in Québec that offers coaching services to people whose business projects are designed to start innovative businesses.
• University entrepreneurship centre: an organization managed by an institution of higher learning incorporated under the laws of Québec or another province of Canada. It may also be an organization affiliated with such an institution that offers coaching services to entrepreneurs.

The organization must be able to demonstrate that it can support you in your business project. To do so, the organization must draw up a service offer that describes the services it intends to offer you for carrying out your project. The service offer makes it possible to assess the fit between your business project and the capacity of the organization to support you in carrying it out. The resources used by the support organization must be sufficient and also adapted to the needs related to carrying out your project.

The service offer must include:

• The proposed support plan: this plan must include a list and description of the services that the organization plans to offer you to carry out your project.
• The operational plan: this plan must contain a detailed budget and a schedule for carrying out the support activities offered to you.
• A description of the support organization’s expertise: the service proposal must demonstrate the organization’s skills and achievements related to your project. The organization must adhere to the Service offer writing guide for the component 1 of the Entrepreneur Program (PDF 282 Kb) (in French only). You will need to include the service offer of the support organization and the supporting documents, if any, when you submit your application for permanent residence.

For information purposes, you can consult  a list of projects of support organizations supported by the Ministère de l’Économie et de l’Innovation .

You will need to submit your business plan with your immigration application. This will be the focus of your application review.

Your business project must be in the form of a business plan.

For instructions on how to draw up your business plan, please refer to the following document:

Business plan writing Guide – Entrepreneur Program – component 1 (PDF 303 Kb) (in French only)

Your application is reviewed according to the program's selection conditions, including the program’s selection grid . You are awarded points for each factor and criterion on the grid. You must score at least 41 out of 85 points on the grid to meet the cut-off for factors and criteria that have an elimination threshold.

When your file is opened, you will receive a request to obtain an attestation of learning about democratic values and Québec values.

You must obtain your attestation within a maximum of 60 days after receiving this request.

Members of your family who are accompanying you will also need to obtain it, including your spouse aged 16 years or older and your dependent children aged 18 years or older.

You will not receive this request if you and your family have already received your attestation.