If you are currently working in Canada as a self-employed business owner, you may be eligible to apply for permanent residence after accumulating 12 months of self-employed work experience in Canada. This case study is about our client from Pakistan who arrived in Canada in July 2022 as a self-employed professional to establish & operate her food manufacturing business.
Background Information
Our client is a successful professional from Pakistan. Before coming to Canada, she resided in the UAE and was employed as a senior medical manager at a prominent pharmaceutical company. She approached us in 2022 to assist her with her business immigration application to come to Canada as an entrepreneur. She envisioned establishing her own food manufacturing & trading company in Canada. Our law firm successfully represented the client in her work permit application under the C11-Entrepreneur category, which was approved in May 2022. In July of 2022, the client and her family arrived in Canada, and she immediately started working on her business.
In 2023, our client retained us again to assist her in her application for permanent residence in Canada under the Express Entry Program.
Application Strategy: Our client was a highly educated, experienced professional with strong language skills. However, she lost 100 CRS points due to her age and was disadvantaged in the Express Entry pool. However, since she has worked in Canada for 12 months on a closed work permit for her own company, she could claim additional points for arranged employment in Canada. To successfully apply for permanent residence in Canada, our client had to demonstrate that she had received a valid job offer in the NOC category 00 (Senior Managers). For a job offer to be valid, our client had to provide evidence to the IRCC regarding the establishment of her business operations in Canada and demonstrate that she would be operating her business through middle managers.
Problem: Unfortunately, in this case, our client's business did not generate any revenue in the past 1 year due to the investment in research and development activities for the business in the past 12 months. In addition, given the stage of her company's growth, there were no other employees on the company's payroll except our client. Our client predominantly relied on third-party independent companies to run her business and invested heavily in the research & development activities in Canada.
Solution: Our team focused on the most critical aspects of our client's application, highlighting positive aspects of the business growth and explaining all potential issues in her application. Specifically, we argued that the business establishment in Canada should not be merely judged by the revenue generated, as many companies spend considerable resources for years before seeing any revenues. Given the specific nature of this business, the company's revenue was not a good indicator of the validity of the job offer. In addition, our client relied on many professional companies and their teams when building and managing her company in Canada; thus, the absence of employees on payroll should not be a prerequisite for her ability to claim points for arranged employment in Canada.
Outcome: IRCC accepted our position and approved our client's application for Permanent Residence in Canada. We thank IRCC for being reasonable and flexible in this case.
Congratulations to our client! We wish them tremendous success in Canada!
- Original date of arrival to Canada: July 2022.
- Immigration Program: C11 Work Permit for 2 years.
- Annual business revenue in Canada: Nil
- Employment opportunities for Canadians: 0 positions.
- Immigration application submitted: September 2023.
- CRS Score: 527 (with 200 points for "arranged employment").
- Time to get a decision: 4 months.
- Outcome: permanent residence in Canada for the client and her family.
- Total time from "no status in Canada" to PR: 18 months.
If you are a foreign national and want to become a self-employed entrepreneur in Canada, we are here to help, no matter how complex your case may be. Our team is trained to take on complex topics and highlight the most important aspects of a case in a way that is detailed and easy to understand for the IRCC Officers. With us, your application will have the best shot at success.
Everyone deserves a competent, honest, and caring immigration service! Talk to us today.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
