Business Immigration From South Africa to Canada (Lessons Learned)

Ways for South African Businesses to Expand to Canada: an example of an Intra-Company Transfer during the COVID-19 pandemic

For many South African businesses and entrepreneurs, Canada is a preferred point of entry to the North American market. Looking at the sky-high success of Elon Musk (a centibillionaire originally from South Africa and later lived in Canada) we can say doing business in Canada gives South African entrepreneurs tons of space fuel for success!

Here’s a great success story of our South African client who owns a company that offers products and services in the smart mining sector. The company is an international technology company that develops new generation operating, management and communication systems for the mining industry. It offers its customers proactive, useful, dynamic, operational and management systems with innovative software and hardware solutions. It’s a proudly South African company!

The company saw great opportunities in the mining sector of Canada and decided to expand to gain more business from global clients, including potential clients in Canada and the US.

The Challenge of Multiple Delays

The Client’s family consists of a spouse and 3 children all of whom the Client wanted to bring to Canada. So, our strategy had to ensure that the whole family would be able to travel from South Africa to Canada together. This was one of the challenges as the family members had various citizenship. Moreover, the process got a bit complicated because the family welcomed a new child whom we had to include in the application only after getting a passport for the newborn. As a result, the process got delayed as we waited for the personal documents of the new baby.

On the business side, the Client had several established companies with various levels of annual revenue ranging from $170,000 to $3,000,000. Our team had to understand and describe to Canadian authorities a web of various corporations and how they were related to support the Client’s Intra-Company Transfer application. This analysis also took time and our team made sure that we understand all businesses of the Client 100% before we submitted a well-prepared work permit application. We had to understand the corporate structure first and then explain to the Visa Office how things worked between the companies.

Canadian Statuses For the Whole Family

We submitted an application package covering 5 family members: 2 spouses and 3 children. The application package was submitted on December 19, 2020, and we received got approved on August 13, 2021. The big delay in the process was due to the multiple delays with new passports of the family members and also because of the COVID-19 limitations in South Africa and at the High Commission of Canada during 2021.

The Client and his family members have already sent their passports to the High Commission of Canada in Pretoria and obtained their respective visas. While the school-age children will get study permits, the spouse will get an open work permit allowing her to work in Canada, if she wishes. The family successfully arrived in Canada despite the new COVID restrictions on flights from South Africa. The restrictions came into effect whilst the family was on the plane to Canada! The family will, however, have to follow domestic quarantine protocols. Despite that, the client with his family entered the country without any problems. They are now planning to enroll their children in school and open a new chapter in their lives.

Our Lessons & Conclusions

To expedite the process for the whole family we had to be persistent and systemic in light of the worsening pandemic in South Africa and Canada. We prepared a clear explanation to the High Commission requesting to accept the applications even with soon expiring passports. At the same time, we worked with the Client to obtain new passports for the family members. We undertook to send the new passports to the High Commission as soon as we received them. That way, we managed to save time and our team could move forward with those parts of the process that could be moved.

There are times in the immigration process that are stagnated and, as trusted lawyers of the Client, we used every opportunity to move the needle forward and keep all parties updated. This approach helped us to build trust not only with the Client but also with the ultimate decision-makers at the High Commission of Canada in South Africa.

The best time to move towards your Canadian business immigration goals is now. If there are hampering circumstances, they must be addressed in detail. Visa officers are humans, too, and your lawyers need to explain those peculiar circumstances to make their job easier. By doing so, your lawyers not only help the Visa Officers but also pursue your immigration goals in the best manner.

How Sobirovs Team Can Help You Achieve Your Immigration Goals

Business immigration is our specialized area. In the vast area of immigration law, we’ve adopted a laser-focused approach to help foreign business owners and entrepreneurs to move to Canada. Our focus had given us a deep understanding of Canadian business immigration programs and allowed us to serve hundreds of business owners, self-employed individuals, entrepreneurs, startups and companies from all around the world. Many positive results that we’ve achieved for our clients encourage us to help more foreign entrepreneurs to come to Canada to do business. If you are such an entrepreneur, let us offer your tailored legal services and bring your business to Canada.

Step 1: Check your eligibility for business immigration programs using our Free Instant Assessment tool.
Step 2: Check our fees using our Fee Calculator. Don’t worry if the fees estimated by the Fee Calculator seem too high. We can give you a discount if your case is strong.
Step 3: Book a 1-hour Strategy Meeting with our senior business immigration lawyer to discuss your immigration case.