Incorporating a recruitment business in Alberta. PR + WP partners

[jamesls1]

Hello,

My friend and I are wanting to incorporate a recruitment company in Alberta as co-owners. He is a Permanent Resident now, and I am on a closed Work Permit (attached to my previous employer & stating I can only work as a Recruitment Consultant) (I was laid off from the employer and am currently out of work). I've read that 25% of the board have to be PR in Alberta which is fine in our situation.

I am just wondering what my status would be... Am I able to become a co-owner of a company even with a closed WP?

Please can anyone offer any advice generally for me about how to stay in Canada indefinitely so that I can run this company? My WP expires in Oct 2016 and my visa is for 2 years but requires me to apply for a new work permit (which would require getting LMIA approval from the govt and of course finding a new recruitment job). Would working for myself / co-owners help to qualify some of these conditions?

I've got a lot of research to do but I'm just hoping anyone out there can offer some advice? Thanks a lot.

 

[scylla]

You can be a co-owner of the company but cannot do any work for the company or do any work towards its set up (that would be working illegally). At this time your only involvement in the company can be financial (i.e. investing your money in the company so that it can be started). To work for your own company, you would need to go through the LMIA + closed work permit process.

Self-employment unfortunately won't get you an approved LMIA or closed work permit. It's unlikely that starting your own company will either since the company won't be established enough for a while to merit an approved LMIA, you may have difficulty convincing CIC that a Canadian couldn't be hired for the role and/or CIC may feel the company was primarily started in order for you to try to remain and work in Canada.

You are far better off finding an established employer in Canada who is willing to offer you a job and go through the LMIA process.