Self-Employed Worker Program
Conditions for immigrating to Québec as a self-employed worker
To immigrate to Québec as a self-employed worker and be eligible for the Self-Employed Worker Program, you must meet the following conditions:
List of conditions to be honoured
- Settle in Québec to work here
- You must practise your profession or business activities in Québec, alone or with others, with or without paid help.
- Have a minimum net worth
- You must have a net worth of at least CDN$100,000. You can share this net worth with your spouse or common-law partner who is accompanying you to Québec. You must be able to demonstrate the legal origin and accumulation of your net worth.
- Have the required professional experience
- You must have at least two years of self-employment experience in the profession or trade you intend to practise in Québec.
- Make a start-up deposit
- You will need to make a start-up deposit with a financial institution located in the area where you plan to practise your trade or profession:
- Outside the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM), the start-up deposit is CDN$25,000.
- On the territory of the CMM, the start-up deposit is CDN$50,000.
You will need to make the deposit after you receive the letter that confirms the opening of your file.
Are you interested in coming to Québec to establish or acquire a business?
A strategic location between Europe and the Americas, Québec offers an abundance and variety of natural resources, highly-skilled, multilingual workers, a vibrant cultural community and an exceptionally high quality of life. Add to these advantages Québec ’s steadfast commitment to R&D, and you have one of the country’s most innovative economies, with high technology industries and ‘green’ energy increasing prosperity in the 21st century.
Business Environment
- GDP of CDN $301 billion in 2008, 60% generated by the service sector
- GDP per person 18th in the OECD, comparable to Germany and Italy , surpassing Spain
- Tax rates on business profits among the lowest in North America
- Tax incentives and labour force assistance and training programs ($2.5 billion annually)
- Exports account for 33% of GDP , with 72% of international exports shipped to the US
- Access to NAFTA market of over 440 million consumers
- A market of 110 million consumers within a 1000 km radius
- Within a 600 mile radius of Boston , New York , Washington and Detroit
- #1 exporter of newsprint, 2nd largest magnesium producer and 4th largest aluminum producer in the world
- The St. Lawrence Seaway offers easy access to the industrial heart of North America
Workforce
- Highly-educated workforce—19 universities produce 65,000 graduates annually
- 85% of workers have post-secondary or more , 22% a university degree
- Highly bilingual and multilingual workforce—40% speak French and English; 13% speak a third language
Key Advantages
- Québec ranks among the 10 most important health sciences industrial pools in North America. As a proof, the ten largest pharmaceutical companies in the world have operations in Québec : Canadian head office, fundamental R&D or manufacturing facilities.
- Nearly half of the Canadian biopharmaceutical industry and most of the basic and clinical research activities are concentrated in Québec
- Over 62% of overall Canadian aerospace industry production takes place in Québec
- Internationally, the Greater Montréal region is considered one of the major world centres for aeronautics, on the same level as Seattle, Wichita and Toulouse
- Montréal also has one of the highest concentrations of high-tech jobs in North America along with San Francisco, Seattle and Boston
- Clean energy producer supplying electricity to other parts of Canada and the US
- R&D spending—2.7% of GDP—is the highest in Canada and higher than the average of the OECD, the G7 and the European Union. Furthermore, Québec’s objective is to invest 3% of GDP in R&D by 2010
- Over 200 specialized university R&D centres—McGill is the Canadian university awarded the most patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office
- Private and public capital to fund investment projects
- Efficient road and rail networks and airport infrastructure
- 110 international financial centres
- Montreal Stock Exchange a Canadian hub for financial risk management and a significant partner in specialized markets in North America
- Home of the Canadian Space Agency
Potential Sectors
- Aerospace
- Agriculture & Agri-food
- Automotive & Ground Transportation Equipment
- Biopharmaceuticals
- Construction
- Energy (hydro-electric & wind)
- Environment
- Forestry
- Financial Services
- Genomics
- Information & Communications Technologies
- Information Technologies & Software
- Light Metals
- Microelectronics
- Mining
- Multimedia
- Textiles
- Tourism