Can you buy your way into Canada?

Citizenship and Immigration Canada may not put it exactly this way, but the federal Immigrant Investor Program, which was reopened to prospective immigrants this month, is essentially a fast(er) track to Canadian permanent resident status if you don’t have a Canadian job lined up.

It just takes money.

To apply for permanent resident status as an Immigrant Investor in Canada, you now have to have a net worth of at least CAD$1.6 million AND be willing to make an investment of CAD$800,000.

You’re basically making a no-interest loan of $800,000 to the Canadian government for five years.

Of course, you have to have business experience as well as money — either by owning (or part-owning) a business for at least two years or by managing at least five full-time employees for a similar period.

And you still have to have at least 35 points (out of a possible 100) from the immigrant investor selection criteria, which include:

• education
• work experience
• age (you get the most points if you’re between the ages of 21 and 49)
• English- and/or French-language ability
• “adaptability,” which means that you’ve either made a “business exploration” trip to Canada or participated in joint federal–provincial business immigration initiatives.

Under the previous Immigrant Investor program, you needed to have a minimum net worth of CAD$800,000 and make an investment of CAD $400,000.

However, the program became so backlogged with applications that the government has doubled the financial requirements, effective December 2010.

The processing times for investor applications are still quite lengthy — about two years for applicants from Taiwan, the UK, and South Korea; roughly three years for applicants from the US, Germany, Hong Kong, and China; and even longer times for applicants from other parts of the world.

Still, if you’ve got the money, it offers a way to open the door to your new home in Canada.

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Did you qualify for Canadian permanent resident status under the Investor program? Or do you have advice for others hoping to follow that route?

Please leave a comment and let us know.

Permanent Resident Card photo ©Alan Albert