Canada Golden Visa Cost 2026: One Route Left

Key takeaways

There is no Canadian golden visa, and the federal investor programme has been dead since 2014. Canada terminated the backlog of the Federal Immigrant Investor Program and the Federal Entrepreneur Program through the Economic Action Plan 2014 Act, which received Royal Assent on 19 June 2014. Nothing federal has replaced it.

Three of the four routes people price as a Canada golden visa are closed or paused in 2026. IRCC's own start-up visa page states the programme "was paused on June 30, 2026". The Self-Employed Persons Program shows a status of Paused. Ontario's nominee programme now runs one stream and says all others are closed.

Québec's investor programme is open, and the published bill for a single applicant is CAD 220,821 in money you do not get back. That is the CAD 200,000 contribution to Investissement Québec Immigrants Investisseurs inc., the CAD 18,241 review fee effective 1 January 2026, and CAD 2,580 of federal processing, right-of-permanent-residence and biometrics fees. The CAD 1,000,000 investment sits on top and is repaid.

But it is repaid without interest, which costs roughly CAD 189,000 at the risk-free rate. Québec's conditions page states the principal returns within 30 days of maturity, without interest, and that the investment income goes to Québec programmes. Compounded over five years at the Government of Canada five-year benchmark bond yield of 3.53% on 15 October 2026, that forgone return is about CAD 189,400.

The real barrier is no longer the money — it is French and a year of your life. Québec requires spoken French at level 7 on its own competency scale, proven by test even if French is your mother tongue, plus a stay of at least 12 months in Québec within two years of the work permit being issued, of which you must personally complete six.

On this page

This guide prices the Canadian routes from the governments that run them: Québec's immigration ministry for the investor conditions and the 2026 fee, IRCC's programme pages for the status of the federal routes and its fee list for the federal charges, WelcomeBC for the one provincial entrepreneur stream still drawing candidates, and the Bank of Canada for the yield behind the opportunity-cost table. This site's renderer does not emit heading anchors, so the list below is a map rather than a set of jump links.

• Canada golden visa cost in 2026: there is no visa to buy
• Québec is the only route you can still buy into
• "Refundable" is not the same as free
• What the money cannot buy: French level 7 and a year on the ground
• The federal routes: paused, paused, and terminated in 2014
• British Columbia is the open alternative, at a third of the price
• No Canadian passport is for sale, at any price
• Related guides on Domicila

Canada golden visa cost in 2026: there is no visa to buy

The honest answer to the Canada golden visa cost question is that the product being priced does not exist, and most of the prices circulating for it belong to programmes that have since shut. Canada has no residency-by-investment scheme, no contribution tier, no qualifying property threshold and no passport for sale. What it has is a set of business immigration routes, each run by a different government, and most of them currently closed.

That matters more in 2026 than it did a year ago, because the closures came in a cluster. The federal Start-Up Visa — the route almost every consultancy page now presents as Canada's investor option — stopped taking new applications, and IRCC's programme page states plainly that it "was paused on June 30, 2026". The Self-Employed Persons Program carries a status of Paused. Ontario, which ran the best-known provincial entrepreneur stream, now lists a single open stream and says every other one is closed.

So the question has to be narrowed from what does a Canada golden visa cost to which Canadian route can I still apply to, and what does that one cost. Here is where each stood when we checked on 16 October 2026.

One row is doing almost all the work. If you want to convert money into Canadian permanent residence in 2026 and you are not building an operating business yourself, Québec is the only door, and the only one with a price list.

Québec is the only route you can still buy into

Québec selects its own economic immigrants under the Canada–Québec Accord, which is why its investor programme survived the federal cull. The conditions page sets out the financial test in two parts, and the distinction between them is the most important thing here.

The first is an investment of CAD 1,000,000 in a five-year term investment, guaranteed by the Government of Québec and made on your behalf by a financial intermediary holding a participation agreement with the ministry. The second is a financial contribution of CAD 200,000 to Investissement Québec Immigrants Investisseurs inc. The investment comes back; the contribution does not. You must also show a net worth of at least CAD 2,000,000, lawfully obtained and documented, which may be held jointly with a spouse included in the application, and two years of management experience gained in the five years before you apply.

On top sit the fees, and these are where published comparisons go stale fastest. Québec's application page sets the review fee at CAD 18,241 for the principal applicant effective 1 January 2026, with nothing charged for a spouse or dependent children, non-refundable even if the application is refused, and adjusted every 1 January. Selection by Québec is only the first half: permanent residence remains a federal decision, so IRCC's fees apply afterwards.

Two caveats. The IRCC line comes from the business-immigration rows of the federal fee list, which quotes CAD 1,895 processing plus a CAD 600 right-of-permanent-residence fee for a principal applicant and CAD 990 plus CAD 600 for an accompanying spouse, with dependent children at CAD 270 each. And the table excludes everything bought on the open market — the accounting report on your net worth, legal fees, the French test, medicals and police certificates — because no government publishes those prices and an honest comparison does not invent them.

"Refundable" is not the same as free

Every consultancy page describing this programme leans on the word refundable, and it is true as far as it goes: Québec's conditions page states that at maturity the principal of CAD 1,000,000 is repaid within 30 days. What the same page says next gets left out — the repayment is without interest, and the investment income is directed to Québec's business assistance programme and its development fund rather than to the investor.

That makes the million a cost, not a deposit. For five years you cannot deploy it and you earn nothing on it. The honest way to price that is against what the money would otherwise earn at no risk, and Canada publishes exactly that number: the Government of Canada five-year benchmark bond yield stood at 3.53% on 15 October 2026.

These are illustrations of forgone yield, not fees, and not a forecast: what you give up depends on what you would otherwise have done with the money, and yields move. But the middle row is the fair headline. At the risk-free rate on the day we checked, the full economic cost of the Québec route for a single applicant is roughly CAD 410,000 — CAD 220,821 of non-returnable government cost plus about CAD 189,400 of forgone return — against the CAD 1,200,000 that comparison pages usually quote as the price.

Read that way, Québec stops looking like the most expensive programme in the world and starts looking like a mid-priced one, closer in real terms to a European residence route than the headline suggests. Our golden visa cost comparison prices the open European programmes on the same basis, and cheapest golden visa ranks them on entry price.

What the money cannot buy: French level 7 and a year on the ground

The financial test is not what stops most applicants now. Québec attached two non-financial conditions that no amount of capital satisfies, and they are why the programme can be open with no cap and still have a manageable intake.

The first is French. Québec requires spoken French at a minimum of level 7 on the Échelle québécoise des niveaux de compétence en français, proven by a recognised test — TCF-Québec, TCF-Canada, TEFAQ, TEF Canada and several others — with results less than two years old at submission. Proof is required even if French is your mother tongue, and the ministry may interview you to verify the level you declared. There is no written-French requirement, which softens it slightly, but level 7 spoken is a working conversational standard, not a certificate you buy.

The second is presence. After a notice of intent to select you apply for a work permit within six months, then complete a stay in Québec of at least 12 months within two years of that permit being issued. You must serve at least six of those months personally; a spouse or de facto spouse may serve the other six. Documents proving the stay go back to the ministry afterwards.

Together those describe a programme for someone who intends to live in Québec, not someone buying an insurance policy. If the goal is mobility rather than relocation, this is the wrong product, and the comparison you want is in citizenship by investment vs golden visa. There is also an education condition — a diploma equivalent to a Québec secondary school diploma or a qualifying vocational credential — and an attestation of learning about democratic and Québec values, required within 60 days of the ministry's request.

The federal routes: paused, paused, and terminated in 2014

Federal business immigration is where most of the stale advice lives, so it is worth being precise. The Federal Immigrant Investor Program and the Federal Entrepreneur Program were not quietly wound down — they were ended by statute. IRCC's own termination notice records that the Economic Action Plan 2014 Act received Royal Assent on 19 June 2014 and terminated applications on which no selection decision had been made before 11 February 2014. The notice records that the department set up a task force to handle returning applicants' fees; it does not address what happened to money already invested, so do not trust a secondary source that says it does.

The Start-Up Visa then became the de facto federal route for a decade, and it was never priced as a golden visa: the money came from a designated organisation, not from you. IRCC's list of designated organisations sets the thresholds at a minimum CAD 200,000 investment from a designated venture capital fund or CAD 75,000 from an angel investor group; the third route turns on acceptance into a designated business incubator programme. The applicant's own financial test was settlement funds — CAD 15,263 for a single person on IRCC's July 2025 table — plus Canadian Language Benchmark 5 and at least 10% of voting rights, with the applicant and the designated organisation together holding more than half.

That route is shut to new applicants. IRCC's notice of 19 December 2025 stopped new Start-Up Visa applications at 11:59 p.m. on 31 December 2025, closed the optional work permit the same day, and extended the Self-Employed Persons Program pause "until further notice". The programme pages now say the Start-Up Visa "was paused on June 30, 2026", the date the last holders of 2025 commitment certificates fell out of the window. Applications accepted before the pause are still being processed.

A replacement is coming, but it is not a plan you can act on. IRCC said in December 2025 that "more information about the new pilot program for entrepreneurs will be communicated in 2026", and the department's 2026–27 Departmental Plan describes a new high-impact Start-Up Visa pilot aimed at elite entrepreneurs. As of mid-October 2026 no eligibility criteria, intake size or launch date had been published, so treat any consultancy offering to prepare you for it as selling a document against rules nobody has seen.

British Columbia is the open alternative, at a third of the price

If the Québec conditions do not fit, the live alternative is a provincial entrepreneur stream, and British Columbia's is the one that has kept drawing candidates through 2026. It is a different product: you run a business rather than lend a government money, and nothing is refundable because the money goes into your own company.

WelcomeBC publishes the thresholds. The Base stream asks a minimum personal net worth of CAD 600,000 and an eligible personal investment of CAD 200,000, with at least one new full-time job for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. The Regional stream halves it: CAD 300,000 net worth and CAD 100,000 invested, again with one job. A separate Strategic Projects stream serves corporations expanding into B.C. at a minimum equity investment of CAD 500,000. Fees are CAD 300 to register and CAD 3,500 to apply, with CAD 500 for a review request.

The catch is selection. Both individual streams require an invitation after registration, and invitations are scored and issued in periodic draws, so registering is not applying and there is no queue you join by paying.

Which is cheaper depends on what you count. B.C. costs a fraction in fees and locks up a fifth of the capital, but it asks you to build and run a company and the invitation is not yours to control. Ontario shows the risk in waiting for a better option: its nominee programme page, updated on 14 July 2026, states that "the new Ontario Workforce Priority stream has now launched, and all other streams are now closed". Two governments cut investor and entrepreneur selection inside two years — IRCC twice, Ontario once — which reads as a policy direction rather than a backlog measure. For the same trade-off priced elsewhere, see germany golden visa cost, where residence also runs through an operating business, and uk golden visa cost, where the investor route closed and was not replaced.

No Canadian passport is for sale, at any price

Several pages competing for this keyword are titled around Canadian citizenship by investment. There is no such thing, and the gap between permanent residence and a passport is wide enough to change the whole proposition.

Neither the Québec investor programme nor any provincial entrepreneur stream grants citizenship. They grant selection toward permanent residence, which is a federal decision made separately, and permanent residence is where the citizenship clock starts rather than ends. Canadian naturalisation then requires physical presence in Canada as a permanent resident, language ability in English or French, and a knowledge test — none of which an investment shortens or waives. An applicant who has served Québec's 12-month stay condition has completed one year of a considerably longer road.

This is the same structure we found in other countries that market residence as a passport route, and it is worth comparing on that basis rather than on the headline figure. Norway citizenship by investment cost covers a country with no programme at all; us gold card cost covers the newest attempt to price American residence; and eb5 visa cost prices the long-standing American route Canada is most often compared against.

Québec also adjusts its review fee every 1 January, so CAD 18,241 is a 2026 number by construction. Confirm every figure here against the government source before you pay anyone: fees in this sector are indexed annually and programmes in it close with little notice.

Related guides on Domicila

If Canada is on your shortlist, these are the comparisons that do the most work next:

• Golden visa cost comparison — every open programme priced on its current official fee table
• Cheapest golden visa — where the entry price is genuinely lowest, and what you give up for it
• Golden visa countries — which programmes lead to citizenship and which stop at residence
• US gold card cost — how the newest American route is priced, and what it replaces
• EB-5 visa cost — the American investor route Canada is most often compared with
• New Zealand golden visa cost — another Commonwealth country pricing residence through investment
• Switzerland golden visa cost — a country with no programme, priced from its tax statute instead
• Citizenship by investment vs golden visa — a passport now, or a residence permit first