FEDERAL INVESTOR IMMIGRATION CASES GET PRIORITY FASTER PROCESSING
If you are a successful businessman who wishes to immigrate to Canada you should consider the Federal Investor immigration category. If you are a Canadian Landed Immigrant or Canadian citizen who is thinking about sponsoring your parents you should also consider having your parents immigrate to Canada using the Federal Investor Immigration Category.

Federal Investor Immigration cases will receive priority faster processing service. Depending on where the investor case is filed the case may be processed within one year of filing. This is a significant improvement over the past times of 2-5 years in many offices of these types of cases.

The Federal government has put less emphasis on the sponsorship of parent category. The time for processing of the sponsorship of parent cases has gotten considerably longer and in some cases is now approximately 5 years. This is significantly slower to the previous 12-18 months processing times.

In order to be eligible for the Federal Investor Immigration program there are a number of basic requirements: $800,000 net worth of immigrant and spouse/common law partner; invest $400,000 in a federal approved fund; and have business experience.

There are two options concerning having business experience. Option one is the management of at least 5 full time job equivalent employees for two years within the 5 year period before the date of the filing of the application and ending on the date the determination is made in respect of the application. Option two is the management and control of a qualifying business for two years within the 5 year period before the date of the filing  of the application and ending on the date the determination is made in respect of the application.

The business must meet certain criteria to be a qualifying business and be eligible. There are four areas  of consideration. These are number of employees, sales, net income and assets. There is a formula used that depends on the amount of ownership in the business.

The $400,000 that is invested must be left in the federal approved fund for a period of five  years. At the end of five years the capital will be returned.

There are  also financing options available with various Canadian financial institution. In these cases the applicant pays the Canadian financial institution an amount (at present approximately $120,000). The bank lends the applicant the balance (approximately $280,000) required to invest the required total of $400,000. At the end of the five year period the applicant does not receive back any money. The $120,000 has been used to pay for the borrowing and administrative charges of the bank.

The priority service for the Federal Investor Immigration Program has been created to allow the federal investor program to compete with the Quebec Investor Immigration Program. The Quebec program has traditionally had a significantly faster processing time with similar eligibility requirements. With a similar processing time the main difference will now be under the federal program the applicant can live any where in Canada. Under the Quebec program the applicant must convince a Quebec office in an interview the applicant wishes to settle in Quebec.

With the priority given to the Investor application and the much faster processing times, and with the reduction in emphasis on the sponsorship of parents category and the much slower processing times, applicants that can qualify and wish to immigrate to Canada quickly should consider the investor class.