On November 18, Citizenship and Immigration Canada released Operational Bulletin 360: Entrepreneur Terms and Conditions. Coming off the heels of the government’s decision to temporarily suspend accepting new applications in the Entrepreneur Program, the Operational Bulletin makes life easier for those Entrepreneurs already in Canada.
Section 98 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations provides that Entrepreneurs must:
- Control a percentage of the equity of a qualifying Canadian business equal to or greater than 33 1/3 per cent;
- Provide active and ongoing management of the qualifying Canadian business; and
- Create at least one incremental full-time job equivalent in the qualifying Canadian business for Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
As of February 1, 2012, active monitoring of terms and conditions for entrepreneurs will cease. However, Entrepreneurs will still be expected to comply with their conditions.
Accordingly, on December 1, 2011 Citizenship and Immigration Canada will counsel approved entrepreneur class permanent residence applicants to meet the conditions. However, they will also be informed that they will only need to provide evidence showing that they met their conditions if specifically requested to do so by a Citizenship and Immigration Canada official. They will only be requested to do so if officers have a reason to believe that there has been non-compliance.
Citizenship applications will also not be delayed due to outstanding terms and conditions, provided the Citizenship Officer does not have reason to believe that the terms and conditions have been breached.
While this change does not affect a lot of people, it will significantly reduce the burden on those Entrepreneurs in Canada.