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Canada's Start-up Visa

cic.gc.ca

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Re: Canada's Start-up Visa

#201

Post by guiomie »

purephase wrote: post #181
guiomie wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, why is Ottawa poised to bounce back, and KW poised to decline ?

KW has been/is largely fuelled by RIM/BlackBerry and the University of Waterloo. If the situation gets any worse for BlackBerry, you'll see an enormous brain drain and capital leave the area. Ottawa is the country's capital and some tech companies there are doing quite well (Shopify in particular).

I agree with Shopify, but what else ? I thought Toronto and KW were the only cities with a good startup ecosystem.

As far as I am concern, Washington DC isnt the startup capital of the US, so why would Ottawa be? In my opinion government shouldn't be a driver of capital in startups, nor is it ... ?

Re: Canada's Start-up Visa

#202

Post by speeder »

scott_karana wrote: post #86
Achshar wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually want to set up a startup. But undecided on location, my current location will not do. I really want to go to valley, ideally get into YC itself, but the barrier to entry is high. How would you say is the startup culture over there in canada? How does it stack up against places like valley, london or NYC? Other and more accessible option for me is Banglore, no visa required (I am from India).

Ask yourself this: if you've never heard of startup culture in Canada, what is that indicative of? :) (Saying this sadly, as I'm a Canadian)

You people forgot the games industry in Canada...

Beside canadians participating in some large game jams and having cool events there, Quebec state is the second largest games producer in the world (behind US, and above the entire Japan)

Re: Canada's Start-up Visa

#203

Post by barry-cotter »

cperciva wrote: post #185
enraged_camel wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was excited about this, until I heard the Canadian VC/angel requirement. If they really want to encourage foreigners to found startups, they should allow private investors to become angels, even if the investor in question is of foreign status. Think about it: you have a bunch of rich people injecting large amounts of money into your economy, and the only thing you have to do is give one person permanent residency…

They probably want to avoid the "fictitious investor" problem -- without the "Canadian" requirement, Canada would get lots of people jumping the immigration queue by having their friends and family "invest" in their "startup". (There's already a way for rich people to buy their way into Canada, but it takes around a million dollars instead of a hundred thousand.)

A million dollars and an opaque amount of waiting time. Just having the money and fulfilling the stated requirements doesn't reliably get Chinese people into Canada. May differ for other nationalities.

Re: Canada's Start-up Visa

#204

Post by xordon »

splicer wrote: post #195
joshaidan wrote: post #151

There are a lot of smaller cities in Canada, i.e. cities that are not Vancouver, Toronto, Waterloo, Ottawa, etc. that are trying very hard to build their own start-up communities. You may want to consider these places if it suits your idea. For example, I live in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and there are a lot of grants specific to our region because we're considered a northern community. Since we're smaller, there's less…

Thunder Bay and Waterloo have pretty much the same population (~100K). That said, both are giant cities compared to Zeballos (population of 125): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeballos,_British_Columbia

Visiting Zeballos is a surreal experience. If you didn't know better you would assume you were in a 3rd world country, it is eye-opening for sure.

Re: Canada's Start-up Visa

#205

Post by tlb »

guiomie wrote: post #201
purephase wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

KW has been/is largely fuelled by RIM/BlackBerry and the University of Waterloo. If the situation gets any worse for BlackBerry, you'll see an enormous brain drain and capital leave the area. Ottawa is the country's capital and some tech companies there are doing quite well (Shopify in particular).

I agree with Shopify, but what else ? I thought Toronto and KW were the only cities with a good startup ecosystem. As far as I am concern, Washington DC isnt the startup capital of the US, so why would Ottawa be? In my opinion government shouldn't be a driver of capital in startups, nor is it ... ?

Ottawa's tech scene isn't mainly because of the government. Nortel was based there, and its diaspora and suppliers seeded a decent tech ecosystem.

Re: Canada's Start-up Visa

#206

Post by fargolime »

rdouble wrote: post #148
jacquesm wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, ok, you can xordon both mention Vancouver to be much more expensive these days, please note that any information about Canada that I have is likely to be 6 years out of date (that's when I last spent time there) and wrt Vancouver closer to 8 years. I know several people that moved there from Toronto recently and neither of them mentioned expensive housing but I'll take your word for it.

Vancouver was ranked least affordable housing market in the world by the Economist two years back.

Its house prices make it one of world's most expensive cities, with slightly worse weather than Seattle (where it's overcast at least 6 months a year), where houses are much cheaper.

Re: Canada's Start-up Visa

#207

Post by fargolime »

jacquesm wrote: post #133

Some bits and pieces of info for those considering this: - remember to sign up for OHIP (or the local equivalent) as soon as you arrive, there is a time limit on how long you can wait before signing up after arriving in Canada. If you don't do this in time you will not be covered. - Canada has some pretty severe weather in the winter, everywhere except for the area around Niagara falls and Vancouver. The latter is th…

Serious question: how are the Pakistanis and Zimbabweans and other folk who are elderly and whose skills aren't current (I'm assuming) becoming Canadian citizens? Vancouver, for example, is a melting pot. Is a skilled worker legally allowed to bring any number of their unskilled extended family over?

Re: Canada's Start-up Visa

#208

Post by todsul »

codydjango wrote: post #188
brunoc wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Toronto, Waterloo, Vancouver, Montreal In Montreal: Founder Fuel http://founderfuel.com/en/

Founder fuel was exceptional this year.

I thought so too. Certainly not the technical breadth of YC, but on par in terms of uniqueness of ideas, founder quality and traction. I thought our YC batch was a force to be reckoned with, but wow, this year's FonderFuel batch was killer.

Re: Canada's Start-up Visa

#209

Post by brm »

bparsons wrote: post #146
jacquesm wrote: post #133

Some bits and pieces of info for those considering this: - remember to sign up for OHIP (or the local equivalent) as soon as you arrive, there is a time limit on how long you can wait before signing up after arriving in Canada. If you don't do this in time you will not be covered. - Canada has some pretty severe weather in the winter, everywhere except for the area around Niagara falls and Vancouver. The latter is th…

Can't say enough about Vancouver. The skytrain will take you from the YVR arrivals terminal right downtown. Cost is 6 bucks, and you will be at your apartment or hotel in 20-30 minutes. The city is most the most walkable in the world, with almost no need for a car (unless you really like to go on weekend road trips). Crime is extremely low right now, and the city economy is very solid. With TED moving to the city nex…

Most walkable city in the world? Do you have sources to back this?

Re: Canada's Start-up Visa

#210

Post by halostatue »

querulous wrote: post #198
goatforce5 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW my Permanent Residency came in way faster than the time that was published at the time. The estimate is based on "processing time from receipt of application to final decision for 80% of cases". The rather excellent British Expats (not just for Brits!) forum users keep track of the various processing times of Canadian immigration applications. http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=33 British Expats f…

I got my PR in months but I've been waiting for citizenship now for 2.5 years

…that's disquieting and disturbing to read. I had not realized that the Harper government had been that bad to immigration and citizenship. (I assumed it was bad because it's Harper, but I didn't know it was that bad.)

I got my citizenship about ten years ago (I only know because I'm on my third passport), about six months after applying and taking the test. I had been resident for just under four years at the time.

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