Canada's groundbreaking Tech Talent Strategy (TTS) was unveiled at the Collision Conference on June 27, 2023 by the Minister of Immigration and Citizenship. Building upon the success of Canada's Global Skills Strategy, which has been in place since 2017, the new Tech Talent Strategy is strategically geared towards nurturing and bolstering Canada's thriving tech ecosystem.
Within the framework of the TTS, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has set its sights on attracting tech talent, including an ambitious target of 10,000 highly qualified H1B visa holders from the United States, while concurrently introducing a pioneering Innovation Stream. However, amidst these noteworthy developments, the TTS has also cast a spotlight on one of Canada's most innovative visa programs—the Start-up Visa.
The inception of the start-up visa in 2013 marked a pivotal moment in Canada's quest to incentivize founders to establish their enterprises in Canada. As the world's inaugural program of its kind, the start-up visa program launch featured Kevin O'Leary of Dragon's Den fame. Positioned as a strategic asset in Canada's global talent acquisition arsenal, this program was thoughtfully crafted to be inclusive, devoid of age requirements, formal education prerequisites, or stringent language proficiency criteria. Moreover, the financial bar was set at a level sufficient to cover living expenses for a span of 6 to 12 months. This deliberate approach aimed to cast the widest net possible, acknowledging that many tech unicorns emerged from the creative minds of university students or dropouts who bootstrapped their ventures.
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