How To Apply for a Canadian Startup Visa as a Nigerian Tech Founder in 2025
Learn how to take your startup from Nigeria to Canada through the Startup Visa, and build your business with direct access to investors and global markets.
If you’ve ever thought about taking your startup beyond Nigeria, you’ll know it’s not as simple as packing your bags and pitching in a new city. Few places actually make room for entrepreneurs in a structured way. Canada happens to be one of them.
Through its Startup Visa program, launched in 2013, founders can secure permanent residency while building their businesses with direct access to investors and accelerators. For a Nigerian entrepreneur, that means a chance to plant your idea in North America and scale it with support already built into the system.
Ogbonda Chivumnovu
What is a Startup Visa?
Think of the Startup Visa (SUV) as a bridge for entrepreneurs. Instead of moving to Canada first and then figuring out how to start a business, the program lets you build both at the same time. To qualify, you need an innovative business idea and the backing of a designated Canadian organization—like a venture capital fund, angel investor group, or startup accelerator.
Why Should You Consider It?
The SUV goes beyond just immigration paperwork. It creates the avenue for you to grow as well as gain access to mentorship, funding, and a market that connects directly to the U.S. and beyond.
For Nigerian startups, this solves two pain points: limited access to large-scale funding and difficulty breaking into international markets. Canada’s ecosystem helps solve both, while also giving you and your family a stable path to permanent residency.
Steps to Apply for the Canadian Startup Visa
1. Start with your idea.
Applying for a startup visa begins with you having a business concept. It doesn't have to be a groundbreaking technology, but it should address a genuine problem and create employment in Canada. The key is to articulate how your idea functions and its potential impact. If it's already impacting lives and solving problems in your home country, that's a plus—it indicates you're not merely fantasizing, you're actively creating.
2. Get a Canadian partner on your side.
You can think of this as the most essential part of the processing of your Startup Visa. Canada won’t just take your word for it—you need a designated organization (a venture capital fund, angel investor group, or business incubator) to back you. It's a lot like pitching your business to investors at home in Lagos: you’ll need to convince them that your idea is worth the bet. If they like it, they’ll give you a Letter of Support—and that piece of paper is basically your golden ticket into the program.
3. Prove you can settle.
In most cases, relocating to another country is often more challenging than it seems. Many believe they can manage the financial and logistical hurdles—until they encounter rent, groceries, and bills without a reliable income.
To avoid getting stranded, you need proof that you can adapt. You’ll need to meet the language requirement (most Nigerians take IELTS for English) and show you have enough funds to support yourself.
Aside from that, the government expects you to hold at least 10% of the voting rights of your business, with you and the designated Canadian organization holding more than 50% of the total voting rights. Meeting these conditions demonstrates that your startup can operate responsibly while living in the country.
4. File your application.
By now, you should have your documents in place—your business plan, Letter of Support, language test results, and proof of funds. After that, the next step is to apply, uploading the necessary documents. You’ll need to include that Letter of Support along with all the other required paperwork. Double-check everything before you submit, because even minor mistakes can slow things down.
5. Then comes the waiting.
Here’s the part most people find tough: the wait. Processing can stretch for years—sometimes up to 52 months. In that time, immigration officers go through your documents, run background checks, and basically make sure your case is solid. It’s not fast, but if everything lines up, the payoff is huge: permanent residency for you and your family, and the chance to grow your business in one of the strongest startup hubs in the world.
Oluwaseun Bamisile
Conclusion
It’s not the easiest road, and the wait can feel long, but for founders ready to take that leap, Canada offers the mix of stability and scale that lets you grow your business with access to investors, mentors, and markets that would otherwise take years to reach.
In a nutshell, that can be the difference between struggling to get noticed at home and planting your idea in a place where the ecosystem is already set up to support it. Sometimes, that’s all you need—the right place to plant the seed and the room to let it grow.
