An immigration business plan is an argument made in numbers
An officer is testing two things: whether the business is real, and whether the benefit to Canada can be counted. Jobs, capital actually deployed, a market served that was not being served. We build the plan and the financial model that answer both – working alongside your own immigration lawyer or regulated consultant, never instead of them.
Two questions, and both are answered with figures
A business, not a document
A lease or a signed offer, supplier quotes, committed capital, a hiring schedule with dates and wages, a pro-forma profit and loss. The file is read for whether these agree with each other. Round numbers with nothing underneath are what an experienced officer is trained to find.
A benefit that can be counted
Net new jobs for Canadians and permanent residents, capital actually deployed rather than promised, specialised knowledge or technology brought in, a market or a region served that was not being served. Each one is a number, and each number has to survive the forecast it came from.
Commitments that outlive the application
Provincial entrepreneur streams put investment and job creation into a performance agreement, and the nomination depends on meeting it. The plan you file becomes the thing you are measured against, which is why it should be a plan you can actually run on.
Which routes still take a business plan
Checked September 2026. Programmes open and close, and this is general information, not advice about your situation.
C11 owner-operator work permit
The business plan is the central document of the file. Significant benefit to Canada, at least 51% ownership, and active operation rather than passive investment. Officers look for a hiring schedule, a pro-forma P&L, a lease, committed capital and supplier quotes.
OpenBC Entrepreneur Immigration
Open through its Base, Regional and Strategic Projects routes. Commercial viability is assessed on market research, the competitive landscape and the financial projections. Base and Regional carry different net worth, investment and ownership thresholds; your counsel will tell you which applies to you.
OpenOther provincial entrepreneur streams
Eleven provincial and territorial entrepreneur programmes were active across Canada in 2026, with British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba the most active. Requirements differ by province and change often. Manitoba runs an entrepreneur pathway and a separate farm investor pathway.
OpenFederal Start-up Visa
Closed to new applicants on 31 December 2025. Designated organisations remain capped at ten start-ups a year, and IRCC has indicated a replacement entrepreneur pilot would be described during 2026. We will not sell you a plan for a route that is not accepting anyone.
ClosedOntario OINP Entrepreneur Stream
Closed since November 2024, with no reopening date or replacement announced as of mid-2026. If Ontario is where you want to be, that is a conversation for your counsel before it is a conversation about a business plan.
ClosedWhy a page that sells business plans tells you a door is shut. Because you will find out either way, and the cheap moment to find out is now. The same instinct runs through everything else here: we are not paid to produce a yes, and a plan written for a route that cannot accept it is worth nothing to anybody.
We are not immigration consultants, and will not act as any
Under section 91 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, only a lawyer, a Quebec notary, a regulated Ontario paralegal or a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant may advise or represent someone on an immigration application for a fee. We are none of those, and nothing here is immigration advice.
What we build
- The business plan: market, competitors, operations, staffing, the offering and its pricing
- The financial model: revenue built from the unit up, costs, capital expenditure, working capital, five years with the first year month by month
- The hiring schedule with dates, roles and wages, costed into the forecast rather than asserted beside it
- Capital deployment: what is spent, when, and on what, with quotes behind the equipment lines
- Scenarios and the breaking point, so a reader can see what the business survives
- A written walkthrough of every assumption, so you can answer for the numbers yourself
What your counsel does
- Which route you should apply under, and whether you are eligible for it
- Any assessment of your chances
- Forms, submissions, correspondence with IRCC or a province
- What the current thresholds and rules are on the day you file
- How the plan should be positioned for the route they have chosen
- Everything that happens after the file is submitted
If you do not have counsel yet, get counsel first. A plan is written to a route, and choosing the route is their work, not ours. We are happy to be introduced by your lawyer or consultant and to work to their brief – most of this work reaches us that way.
One fixed price, agreed in writing before we start
Business Plan + Live Model
The written plan with its full financial section, and the editable Excel model behind it. The model matters here more than in a loan file: the commitments in the plan usually become a performance agreement, and a model you enter actuals into each month is how you know you are meeting it in time to act.
Plan Check, if you already have a draft
A written report on what would not survive scrutiny: numbers that disagree with each other, a benefit asserted rather than counted, a hiring schedule that the forecast cannot pay for. Credited in full against any engagement in the firm within sixty days.
How it runs
A written intake, then the drivers are set from your data and you sign them off before any text is written, then the build. Two rounds of revisions within thirty days. If your counsel asks for changes to the plan on this application, they are covered.
Scope varies more here than in a loan file, because routes do. Tell us the route your counsel has chosen and what they need from the plan, and we will quote one fixed price against it. Ask for a scope.
Questions
Are you immigration consultants?
No, and we will not act as one. Under section 91 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, only a lawyer, a Quebec notary, a regulated Ontario paralegal or a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant may advise or represent someone on an immigration application for a fee. We are none of those. We build the business plan and the financial model, and your counsel decides how they are used. If you do not have counsel yet, get counsel first: the plan is written to a route, and choosing the route is their work.
What does an officer actually test in a business plan?
Whether the business is real and whether the benefit to Canada is countable. For a C11 owner-operator work permit the test is significant benefit, and officers look for concrete outcomes: net new jobs for Canadians and permanent residents, capital actually deployed, knowledge or technology transferred, an under-served market or region developed. For provincial entrepreneur streams the test is commercial viability, assessed on market research, the competitive landscape and the financial projections. Both are arguments made with numbers, which is the part most plans leave thin.
Which routes still need a business plan in 2026?
The C11 owner-operator work permit, where the plan is the central document of the file, and the provincial entrepreneur streams that remain open – eleven across the provinces and territories in 2026, with British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba the most active. Two routes that used to carry much of this demand are not available: the federal Start-up Visa closed to new applicants on 31 December 2025, and Ontario's OINP Entrepreneur Stream has been closed since November 2024 with no reopening announced. Programme status changes, so confirm the current position with your own counsel before commissioning anything.
Why does the plan need a live financial model?
Because the commitments in the plan usually outlive the application. Provincial entrepreneur streams put the investment and the job creation into a performance agreement, and the nomination depends on meeting it. A model you can enter actuals into each month is how you know whether you are meeting it in time to do something about it, rather than finding out at the review.
Will you write projections that match what the officer wants to see?
No. We will not move a figure because it came out unwelcome, on this page or any other. A plan written to fit a threshold rather than a business is exactly what an experienced officer is trained to find, and the consequences of being disbelieved in an immigration file are heavier than in a loan file. If the business as described does not reach the numbers the route needs, we say so while it is still cheap to hear.
Do you work directly with my lawyer or consultant?
Yes, and it is the arrangement we prefer. They tell us the route and what the plan has to carry; we build to that brief and deal with them on revisions. You are the client and the work is yours either way – we simply take direction on the immigration side from the person qualified to give it.
Can you guarantee the application succeeds?
No, and anyone who does is telling you something they cannot know. An officer weighs the whole file, and most of it is not the business plan. What we are answerable for is the work itself: if the plan and the model are not what was agreed in your intake brief, we fix them or refund the engagement. A decision by an officer is expressly not covered by that – the same way a lender's decision is not, on any other page here.
Bring us the route. We will build the numbers under it
Your counsel chooses the door. The plan and the model that go through it are ours – built personally, from your figures, and written so you can answer for every one of them.