Relocating your existing company abroad can be both challenging and rewarding. As an immigration destination, Canada remains an attractive choice for entrepreneurs, business immigrants, and workers.
If you’re thinking about expanding your business to Canada, the team at Sobirovs Law Firm can help you move your existing Company to Canada. Here is an overview of the main points and steps to consider when moving to Canada. However, please note that Canadian immigration is always changing. Therefore, before proceeding with any immigration project, please consult with our lawyers.
If you want to set up your company’s operations in Canada and obtain a Canadian work permit for yourself or your team members, you should consider applying for the Intra-Company Transfer (ICT) program. The ICT program allows foreign companies to expand to Canada and transfer their staff members (executive, managerial or specialized knowledge employees) to work in Canada. To be eligible for this program, both the expanding company and the applicant must meet a number of requirements, as discussed below.
Depending on your country of nationality and other factors, getting a work permit may take approximately 2-4 months.
Below are the steps to follow in order to expand your business to Canada.
Not all business owners can move their companies to Canada. To benefit from the ICT program’s provisions, both the expanding companies and the chosen applicants must meet multiple requirements.
Requirements for Foreign Companies:
Requirements for Applicants:
If you think your company meets the eligibility criteria for the ICT program, you can proceed to the next step,  which is registering your company’s presence in Canada.
When establishing your presence in Canada, it is important to pay attention to the corporate ownership structure of your Canadian company. The law requires that your existing business in your home country and your company in Canada must have a parent/subsidiary or an affiliate relationship. In other words, your Canadian company must be registered as a parent, subsidiary or affiliate company of your existing business.
Once you are clear about your Canadian company’s ownership structure, you need to decide where to base your first corporate office in Canada. If you wish to register a Federal company in Canada, then you must have at least 1 Canadian Director in your business. Some provinces do not require the presence of the Canadian Director when establishing a business in Canada.
For example, if you want to base your business in Ontario or British Columbia, you do not need a Canadian Director. On the other hand, if your target province where this is not the case, then you would need to nominate at least 1 Canadian director who will be responsible and accountable for managing your Canadian operations. If you don’t have someone who can act as your Canadian Director, you should get your Canadian law firm’s guidance on this issue or talk to an accounting form in Canada who can assist you with this matter.
Once your company is registered in Canada, you can apply for a work permit to work at your newly established Canadian company. In order to apply for a work permit, you must collect and present Canadian immigration officers a number of documents to demonstrate your eligibility under the ICT program. Make sure to include the following documents:
ICT work permits are usually issued for 2 years. However, for newly established companies in Canada, the initial work permit may be issued for 1 year and can later be extended multiple times. Your spouse/partner and children under 22 can accompany you to Canada.
It usually takes between 1-4 months for the Canadian authorities to process your work permit application.
Once your work permit application is approved, you will be issued a work visa to travel to Canada (depending on your citizenship). The work permit document will be issued at the port of entry upon your arrival to Canada.
In order to extend your ICT work permit, you must demonstrate to the Canadian immigration authorities that you have successfully established your operations in Canada and have been actively doing business. Specifically, the officer will assess the following factors before extending your ICT work permit application:
These are the most important factors to establish and demonstrate to the Canadian immigration authorities in order to extend the ICT work permit.Â
This is how existing foreign companies may expand into Canada.  If you still have questions, please contact us.
We hope that we’ve given you an understanding of the process of expanding your company from anywhere in the world to Canada using the ICT program. You can now decide whenever you are ready to take your company to the next level.
Learn more about Golden Visas in Canada
Canada is the world’s second-largest country by land area and the 10th-largest economy. Entering Canada offers many benefits, such as exploring new markets, taking advantage of the government’s incentives, and enjoying business-friendly laws and regulations.
With an ever-growing economy, Canada facilitates global business owners. Many such business owners and business immigrants wonder whether they can move their companies to Canada and face disproportionate fear and anxiety when considering the challenges that come with making such an immigration decision.
The steps to moving your company to Canada are fairly straightforward. We will help break down the complexities and highlight the benefits of moving or expanding your company. The following are some of the many reasons that entrepreneurs all over the world are choosing to benefit from the opportunities that Canada has to offer them.
The U.S. and Canada are similar countries, but there are some major differences. A 2016 study report by KPMG suggests that the cost of doing business in Canada is 14.6% lower for U.S. companies than in the U.S. This provides Canada with a competitive edge over not only the US but also other industrialized nations like the UK, Australia, Germany, and Japan.
Canada also boasts a number of business-focused policies and standards to help attract thriving businesses and innovative entrepreneurs. They include:
The corporate tax rate in Canada’s corporate system in 2019 was as low as 15%, which is considered an economical rate internationally. In contrast, the corporate tax was 21% in the US in 2019, which remains an extra cost and tax burden for companies.
Canada also enjoys the benefits of having trade agreements with many other countries. Due to the new Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, Canada has access to the US and Mexico markets, providing exponential benefits to new and growing companies choosing Canada as their home.
Canada provides immigrants with easy, welcoming, and feasible policies. The Canadian immigration system is based on merits and prefers skilled and degree-holding immigrants. It possesses one of the highest per-capita immigration rates among developed nations. In 2018 alone, Canada welcomed over 310,000 immigrants into the country.
Canada has historically been the destination for high-skilled workforce migrants. Access to a highly skilled workforce is one of Canadian companies’ main competitive advantages.
Canada ranks 22nd out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings. A breakdown of that statistic puts Canada third in ease of starting a business and seventh in ease of obtaining credit. Other factors also make doing business easy in Canada.
Canada’s natural resources contribute to the economy. Oil and natural gas contributed $108 billion to the country’s GDP in 2018, supported nearly 530,000 jobs across the country in 2017 and provided the government with an average annual revenue of $8 billion for the 2016-2018 period.
Fundamental human rights and additional freedoms are guaranteed in Canada. Business immigrants can benefit from free health care and free secondary education for their children if they opt for Canada for their company’s international expansion.
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