Ontario's redesigned Entrepreneur stream 2026: what we know
Key takeaways
Ontario proposed a redesigned Entrepreneur stream in December 2025 with two tracks: establishing a new business or purchasing an existing one (business succession)
No confirmed investment minimums, net-worth thresholds, job-creation requirements, or launch date have been published as of June 2026
The proposal is part of a four-stream overhaul that replaced all previous OINP pathways on May 30, 2026, leaving no active provincial business-immigration route in Ontario
The federal Start-up Visa remains the only operating business-immigration pathway to Canadian permanent residence
Ontario's business immigration landscape sits in regulatory limbo. The province closed its Entrepreneur category on May 30, 2026, as part of a sweeping replacement of the entire Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP), but has not yet launched the proposed replacement stream outlined in a December 2025 stakeholder consultation.
The proposed Entrepreneur stream would target two applicant profiles: foreign nationals establishing a new business in Ontario, and those purchasing and operating an existing Ontario business under a business-succession model. Beyond that framing, the province has published almost nothing—no minimum investment amounts, no net-worth requirements, no job-creation targets, no application process, and no timeline for when the stream will accept applications.
Ontario proposes redesigned Entrepreneur stream
The December 2025 consultation document laid out plans to consolidate OINP intake into four streams. The Entrepreneur stream was one of them, intended to replace the closed Entrepreneur category that had operated under the previous regulatory framework.
Under the proposal, the stream would accept two distinct applicant groups:
Foreign nationals who have established and are actively operating a new business in Ontario
Foreign nationals who have purchased and are operating an existing Ontario business (the province calls this "business succession")
The consultation closed on January 1, 2026. Five months later, Ontario has not published final eligibility criteria, operational guidelines, or a launch date. The OINP website does not list the Entrepreneur stream as an active pathway.
What's missing is everything an applicant would need to plan around: how much capital you need to invest, whether you need prior business-ownership experience, how many jobs the business must create, whether the business must be in a specific sector or region, and whether you apply before or after establishing the business. The proposal mentions none of this.
What we know about the proposed Entrepreneur stream
The consultation document offers a two-sentence description. That's the entire public record.
The stream would issue provincial nominations for permanent residence to entrepreneurs who either start a new business or buy an existing one. The business must be in Ontario and the applicant must be actively operating it. That's the scope of confirmed detail.
Compare that to the old Entrepreneur category, which required a minimum net worth of CAD $400,000 to $800,000 depending on location, a personal investment of at least $200,000, and the creation of at least one full-time job for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. The old stream also required applicants to visit Ontario for an interview and submit a business plan before receiving nomination. None of those specifics appear in the December proposal.
The business-succession track is new. The previous Entrepreneur category did not explicitly accommodate purchase of an existing business, though some applicants structured their plans that way. The proposed stream formalizes it as a distinct pathway, which could appeal to applicants who prefer acquiring a going concern over launching a startup.
Ontario has run entrepreneur-class immigration in the past with sector restrictions (the old category excluded passive real-estate investment and most franchise models), regional incentives (lower thresholds outside the Greater Toronto Area), and mandatory job-creation floors. Whether any of those features return in the redesigned stream is unknown.
How the proposed stream fits Ontario's immigration overhaul
The Entrepreneur stream is one piece of a four-stream redesign that took effect on May 30, 2026, when Ontario revoked all existing Provincial Nominee Program pathways and replaced them with a new regulatory framework.
The four proposed streams are:
Employer Job Offer stream — Two tracks: TEER 0–3 for skilled workers, TEER 4–5 for lower-skilled occupations.
Priority Healthcare stream — For regulated health professionals with Ontario registration.
Entrepreneur stream — New business or business succession.
As of June 2026, none of these streams are operational. Ontario closed all previous pathways—including the Employer Job Offer: In-Demand Skills and International Student categories—on May 30 without opening replacements. The province confirmed that applications submitted under the old streams will be processed under the eligibility rules in place at the time of submission, but no new applications are being accepted under any OINP stream.
The overhaul leaves Ontario without an active immigration intake for the first time in years. Applicants who were planning to apply through OINP—whether as workers, students, or entrepreneurs—are in a holding pattern until the province publishes final criteria and opens application portals.
The Entrepreneur stream's role in this redesign is unclear. Business immigration has historically been a small fraction of OINP volume compared to employer-sponsored and Express Entry-aligned streams, and the December consultation gave it less detail than any other proposed pathway. Whether that signals deprioritization or simply a longer design timeline is anyone's guess.
When will the Entrepreneur stream actually open?
Ontario has not published a launch date. The consultation closed five months ago. The old streams closed four weeks ago. The proposed replacement streams remain proposals.
The province's December 2025 document invited feedback on the proposed criteria but did not commit to a timeline for implementation. Stakeholder consultation in Canadian immigration policy often precedes regulatory drafting by months or years, and there is no statutory deadline forcing Ontario to operationalize the new streams by any particular date.
Practical obstacles could be delaying launch. The Entrepreneur stream would require an application portal, a business-plan review process, site-visit protocols (if the province retains them), and staff trained to assess business viability and succession deals. The old Entrepreneur category required in-person interviews in Toronto; whether the new stream keeps that requirement—and whether OINP has the capacity to resume interviews—is unconfirmed.
Another variable: federal processing capacity. A provincial nomination is not permanent residence; it's a supporting document for a PR application to IRCC. If IRCC's business-class processing times are running long (the Start-up Visa is currently processing at 31–37 months for some applicants), Ontario may be hesitant to issue nominations into a backlogged federal queue.
Applicants waiting for the stream to open have no official channel to track progress. The OINP does not publish a roadmap or implementation schedule. The best proxy is the OINP news page, which has not mentioned the Entrepreneur stream since the December consultation.
Federal Start-up Visa remains the only active business-immigration route
While Ontario's Entrepreneur stream sits in proposal stage, the federal Start-up Visa (SUV) program continues to accept applications. It is currently the only business-immigration pathway to Canadian permanent residence that is operationally open.
The Start-up Visa requires applicants to secure a letter of support from a designated Canadian venture capital fund, angel investor group, or business incubator. The business must be innovative, scalable, and capable of competing internationally. There is no minimum investment threshold set by IRCC, but designated organizations typically require significant equity stakes and operational milestones.
Key differences between the Start-up Visa and Ontario's proposed Entrepreneur stream:
Designation requirement — SUV requires third-party validation from a designated organization; the proposed OINP stream does not mention this requirement.
PR pathway — SUV grants permanent residence directly through IRCC; OINP issues a provincial nomination that supports a PR application.
Business type — SUV targets high-growth startups; OINP's proposal includes business succession (buying an existing business), which SUV does not accommodate.
Processing time — SUV is currently processing at 31–37 months for some applicants; OINP processing times are unknown because the stream is not yet open.
The Start-up Visa introduced an annual cap of 10 applications per designated organization in 2024, and processing times have stretched as the program's popularity grew. Some applicants who would have qualified for SUV are now looking at provincial entrepreneur streams as alternatives, but Ontario's closure leaves fewer options. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba continue to operate entrepreneur streams with published criteria, though each has its own investment minimums and operational requirements.
For applicants considering starting a business in Canada, the choice between federal and provincial routes depends on business model, available capital, and risk tolerance. The Start-up Visa offers a direct PR pathway but requires third-party buy-in and a high-growth business plan. Provincial streams (where open) typically allow more traditional small-business models but add a two-stage process: provincial nomination, then federal PR application.
Ontario's proposed stream, if it launches with criteria similar to the old Entrepreneur category, would likely sit somewhere in the middle—more accessible than SUV for conventional businesses, but with investment and job-creation floors that screen out very small ventures.
What happens to applications under the old Entrepreneur category
Ontario confirmed that all applications submitted under the closed Entrepreneur category and other previous OINP streams will be assessed according to the eligibility requirements in place at the time of application. This is standard practice when immigration programs change mid-cycle, and it protects applicants who submitted files under the old rules from retroactive disqualification.
Applicants who received a provincial nomination under the old Entrepreneur category before May 30, 2026, can still use that nomination to apply for permanent residence through IRCC. The nomination itself remains valid for the period stated in the nomination letter (typically six months from issuance, though extensions are sometimes granted).
Applicants who were partway through the old Entrepreneur category process—for example, those who had submitted an Expression of Interest but had not yet been invited to apply, or those who had been invited but had not yet submitted a full application—are in a more complicated position. The stream is closed, so no new invitations or application acceptances are happening. Whether Ontario will process pending EOIs under the old criteria or roll them into the new stream (if and when it launches) has not been clarified.
The safest assumption for anyone in the old pipeline is to contact OINP directly for case-specific guidance. The program's contact information is available on the OINP website.
For applicants who had planned to apply under the old Entrepreneur category but had not yet submitted anything, the path forward depends entirely on when and how the new stream launches. There is no grandfathering, no waitlist, and no way to lock in the old criteria. When the new stream opens, it will operate under whatever rules Ontario publishes at that time.
Official program details, when published, will appear at ontario.ca and canada.ca/immigration; this article is independent reference content.
A small portion of this article — research support, fact-cross-checking, and copy-editing — was assisted by AI tooling. Editorial decisions, source verification, and final sign-off remain with our team. We cite primary sources from canada.ca for every factual claim.
Source: canada.ca · IRCC.com is an independent news site and not affiliated with the Government of Canada.
