How to live, invest and have a business in Canada?

The possibility of investing, living, creating a business, or taking your company to Canada could be thought to be something utopian; however, this is possible thanks to the different agreements that exist in the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC).

exist three ways to invest in Canada: running a subsidiary of your business, starting a new company or paying for the transfer of a business that is already established, says Nort Horizon Immigration Consulting, an organization specializing in Canadian immigration.

“There are many facilities at the institutional level, through the treaty we already have that path to implement the subsidiary of a Mexican company in Canada no matter the spin or what it producesor they can start a new business, totally different from what they did in Mexico and they can buy a business that already exists, for example: if there is a store that will disappear because the owners want to retire, a Mexican can buy it and continue operating ” said Rita Benkhalti, a migration consultant.

Investment requirements and amounts

Canada and the T-MEC guidelines ask that interested businessmen have at least a three-year career as director of a company or manager with a team and a budget under their charge.

The migration specialist commented that the youngest entrepreneurs who meet these requirements have 27 years old and that the program has no age limit. Likewise, the language is not a limitation, the Canadian government does not require it.

There are cases of entrepreneurs who started their business with almost zero knowledge of the language and learned it in Canada with English classes and getting involved with the community; however, if you want to obtain nationality, it will be a requirement to have an advanced level.

The investment amounts vary depending on what the entrepreneur is looking for, if he will open a subsidiary of his business that operates in Mexico, a minimum of 35,000 Canadian dollars in a bank account generated in Canada.

Rita recommends looking at a figure closer to C$80,000 to give yourself more room for maneuver. In the same way, she specified that in case of opening a new business or buying an existing one, the figures go from 150,000 Canadian dollars and up.

Trial and error margin

There are many factors that can determine the success of a company abroad. The fact that the business or service model works in Mexico does not mean that it goes with the same fluidity in Canada. In North Horizon they have cases where the entrepreneur comes up with an idea of business and after a certain time his product did not have the impact in the market; however, the government and the agreements in the T-MEC will help them change course or apply improvements to remain in the country.

“We have clients who go to Canada with the idea of ​​selling a service and months later they realize that they are not penetrating the market and it does not mean that the government is going to return it, the Mexican investor has the opportunity to make a change in your strategy, a change in your service or your product to better adapt to the Canadian market and even if you have to modify your line of business, your work permit is still valid”, Rita pointed out.

The T-MEC contemplates that these benefits apply to the entire Canadian territory, but it is considered Business-friendly a British Columbia for the institutional and tax facilities that it grants for a foreigner to have his business there.

family and migration

According to Rita, the USMCA not only provides the necessary facilities to obtain a work visa and be able to operate your business, it will facilitate the possibility that your family can reside there and gradually obtain permanent residence.

“The T-MEC offers a work permit for the investor, whether male or female, and a work permit for their partner, they can be married and if they are not, they only have to prove that they have been living together for more than a year. The children receive permission to study until their last day of the age of 21, from then on, they are considered independent,” said the consultant.