Provincial Nominee Program (PNP)

A foreign buyer, or a staff member who might stay on after a sale, may look at the PNP as a route to permanent residence. IRCC lists Quebec and Nunavut as not having PNP programs. The wider picture is in what Government of Canada pages say about buying a business as an immigration route.

How the rules frame it

• Subject to subsection (5), section 87 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations makes a person a member of the provincial nominee class if named in a nomination certificate issued by a province under a provincial nomination agreement in force with the Minister, made in accordance with provincial selection criteria the Minister has approved in writing, and made on the basis of the person’s ability to become economically established in Canada and intention to reside in that province.
• The province has sole responsibility to evaluate, according to those approved criteria, the person’s ability to become economically established in Canada and intention to reside in that province.
• Subsection (5) says a person is not a member if the nomination was based on the person’s provision of capital, or if the person intends to participate or has participated in an immigration-linked investment scheme; subsection (6) sets out when subsection (5) does not apply.
• British Columbia describes its Entrepreneur Immigration base stream as a pathway for people looking to start a new business, or take over and grow an existing one.

What to ask

Ask the province’s program what it requires of a business purchase. This entry covers British Columbia and the federal rules only; check the rules where you are. Compare an employer-specific work permit.