What this stream is
This is the stream for someone who studied at Memorial University of Newfoundland or the College of the North Atlantic and is already running a business in the province. It is assessed on the business you have rather than the business you propose, and there is no capital threshold and no work permit stage at all.
You cannot apply to either stream directly, but the form you need is not the one the worker pages point you to
Both entrepreneur streams run on a two stage model. You submit a short expression of interest, the province ranks and pools it, and invitations to apply are issued in batches through the year. Only an invited candidate can file an application. That is not new here. Both entrepreneur guides have set out the same six step sequence beginning with an expression of interest since December 2020, and the province's February 2025 announcement extended the model to the worker categories and the Atlantic Immigration Program rather than to the entrepreneur categories.
This category has its own standalone expression of interest form, linked from its live overview page, which records that the expression of interest system is currently open. Open the International Graduate Entrepreneur expression of interest form. It was open when we checked on 19 August 2026.
This is worth being precise about, because the province's general expression of interest pages will tell you that you must also have a job or a job offer from an employer in the province and that an expression of interest without one will not be considered for an invitation. That rule, and the employer invite codes that go with it, belong to the worker categories and to the Atlantic Immigration Program, which run through the Immigration Accelerator. The entrepreneur forms carry no job offer field, no employer field and no invite code field. Read as written, the worker rule would tell a fully qualified entrepreneur that the route is closed, which is the single most expensive mistake available on this page.
What the province does with your expression of interest is less clear than the form is. Both guides say it is ranked on the points assessment score and placed in a pool, and that submitting one guarantees nothing. The province's current prioritization criteria, updated 23 March 2026, are framed around occupations and employers, make no reference to either entrepreneur points grid, and say plainly that the criteria guide decisions but do not guarantee an invitation. We could not source which mechanism actually drives entrepreneur selection today. The province publishes a table of invitation rounds with the number issued on each date, split between the nominee program and the Atlantic Immigration Program and no further, so we could not source how many invitations in any round went to either entrepreneur stream.
- The credential is the gate. A degree or diploma completed after at least two academic years of full time in person study at one of those two institutions, completed within two years before you submit the expression of interest. No other institution qualifies.
- The business must already be trading, and trading properly. Owned, operated and actively managed by you here for at least one continuous year before the expression of interest, with at least 33.3 per cent ownership, in sound financial health, and paying you a salary that at least meets the Low Income Cut-Off.
- The business must have been a career objective. The guide says plainly that a business created solely for immigration purposes is ineligible. That is a judgement the province makes on the documents and at the site visit, and it is the reason this stream is not a shortcut for someone who has just incorporated.
- The language bar is higher, not lower. CLB 7 in all four abilities against CLB 5 on the entrepreneur stream. Having no capital threshold does not make this the easier route.
- Nomination is direct. No approval letter, no performance agreement, no work permit stage, no arrival meeting and no further year of establishment. Four stages rather than six, and the province works with you for three of them.
- Up to three people can apply on one business. You and two associated partners, who may be international graduates or Canadian citizens or permanent residents. Everyone seeking permanent residence through the stream must hold at least a third of the equity and must file the same documentation as you. Someone applying under the entrepreneur stream cannot be a partner here.
What the stream requires
| Requirement | What the province asks for |
|---|---|
| Age | At least 21. No upper limit is published, unlike the entrepreneur stream. |
| Your credential | A degree or diploma completed after at least two academic years of full time, in person study at Memorial University of Newfoundland or the College of the North Atlantic, completed within two years before the expression of interest is submitted. |
| Status | A valid post graduation work permit. |
| The business, and how long | Own, operate and actively manage a business in Newfoundland and Labrador for at least one continuous year before the date of the expression of interest. |
| Ownership | At least 33.3 per cent of the equity of the eligible business, with active and ongoing participation in the day to day management and direction. |
| What you are paid | Compensation in the form of a salary from the business that at minimum meets the Low Income Cut-Off as defined by Statistics Canada. We could not source the figure the province applies, because it varies with family size and year, so we confirm it on each file. |
| Financial health of the business | Producing revenue and earning sufficient profits to allow you to become economically established in the province, evidenced by a review engagement and special purpose report from an individual or firm licensed under the province's Chartered Professional Accountants and Public Accountants Act and holding a public accountant's licence. There is no closed list here, unlike the net worth verification on the other stream, so an accountant you already use may prepare these reports if they hold that licence. |
| Job creation | Demonstrate the ability to create at least one full time equivalent job for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. If you started the business the position must be over and above your own, must not be filled by a dependent or relative, must be directly related to the business and must meet prevailing provincial wage levels. If you bought it, you must offer existing staff similar terms including existing wages. |
| Language | CLB 7 or higher in speaking, listening, reading and writing in English or French. |
| The business itself | Started as a career objective and not solely for immigration purposes, a for profit entity earning profits from selling goods or services, a permanent establishment under subsection 400(2) of the Canadian Income Tax Regulations, liable to income tax here, meeting local legal requirements, actively managed by you from the registered place of business in the province and not remotely, and with the potential to create significant economic benefit to the province. |
| A business continuity plan | Provided after actively managing the business for at least one continuous year. No format is prescribed, but it must address the business idea, commercial viability, sales and marketing, regulatory requirements, financial analysis, human resources, operations, risk analysis and job creation. |
| Residence | The intention to live permanently in Newfoundland and Labrador. We could not source any published minimum number of days of physical presence. |
| Process | An online expression of interest on this category's own form, then an invitation to apply. Nothing is payable to submit an expression of interest, and there is no provincial application fee either, the province's changes note recording their removal effective 7 April 2022. The form is here, and it carries no job offer field, no employer field and no invite code field, because those belong to the worker categories. |
The same exclusions apply as on the entrepreneur stream. Applicants supporting regional economic development or working in high demand sectors, given as agriculture, aquaculture, technology and natural resources, receive priority consideration.
Two requirements end more of these files than anything else. The study must have been in person, so a credential completed online or in a hybrid format does not qualify however strong the business is. And the credential must have been completed within two years before the expression of interest, so a graduate who spent three years building the business before thinking about immigration may find the credential out of time even though the business is exactly what the province wants. Check both before anything else.
Who and what the province will not accept
The exclusions mirror the entrepreneur stream. You cannot apply if you are living illegally in your country of residence, if a removal order has been issued against you by IRCC or the Canada Border Services Agency, if you are prohibited from entering Canada, if you are a passive investor, or if you do not hold legal status, in which case you are ineligible until it is restored.
The excluded business types are the same list, being remote businesses, property rental, investment and leasing, real estate and insurance and business brokerage unless compelling benefit to the province is proved, licensed professional services and self employed operators requiring accreditation, pay day lending and cheque cashing and money changing and cash machines, pawnbrokers, taxi companies, home based businesses unless compelling benefit is proved, adult content, not for profit businesses, passive investment vehicles, businesses paying employees solely by commission, and any business that by association would tend to bring the program or the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador into disrepute.
On this stream there is one addition that matters more than the list. The business must have been started as a career objective, and a business created solely for immigration purposes is ineligible. A site visit forms part of the interview, so this is tested against what the province can see rather than only against what you write.
Buying rather than building is allowed here too. The guide sets out the same two sub categories as the entrepreneur stream, being starting a new business and purchasing an existing one. If you bought, the business must have been in continuous operation by the same owner for the previous five years, must be actively operating and not in receivership, you must show reasonable efforts to establish fair market value, and you must offer existing staff similar terms including their existing wages. The one continuous year of your own ownership and active management still has to be there.
How the score is built
Six sections and 110 points, against a pass mark of 67. Education is the heaviest section and the points are for provincial credentials only.
| Factor | Level | Points |
|---|---|---|
| First official language | CLB 9 or higher in all four abilities | 20 |
| CLB 8 or higher in all four abilities | 16 | |
| CLB 7 or higher in all four abilities | 12 | |
| Second official language | CLB 5 or higher in all four abilities | 8 |
| Education, provincial credentials only | Doctorate completed in the province | 30 |
| Master's degree completed in the province | 20 | |
| Post secondary degree or diploma of two years or longer from a provincial institution | 15 | |
| Age | 21 to 30 | 10 |
| 31 to 40 | 10 | |
| 41 to 50 | 5 | |
| 51 or older | 0 |
Section maxima as published are 28 for language, 30 for education and 10 for age.
| Factor | Level | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Provincial economic priorities | Business in technology, agriculture, aquaculture or natural resources | 10 |
| Business in a sector not listed above | 5 | |
| Business in a rural area, outside the St. John's census metropolitan area | 5 | |
| Adaptability | Relatives in Newfoundland and Labrador | 6 |
| Previous work here of two years or more | 6 | |
| Previous work here of one to two years | 3 | |
| Business ownership experience | Ownership of the current business for two years or more | 10 |
| Ownership of the current business for one to two years | 5 | |
| Ownership of the current business related to your field of study | 5 |
Section maxima as published are 15 for economic priorities, 12 for adaptability and 15 for ownership experience.
The published grid is ambiguous about stacking, and here is the reading the calculator uses
Three section maxima on this grid exceed the highest single line inside them. Economic priorities is capped at 15 while the best single line is 10. Adaptability is capped at 12 while the best single line is 6. Ownership experience is capped at 15 while the best single line is 10. The grid does not say in terms whether the remaining lines stack.
The reading we use is that they do. Add the best line in each section to the one line in each that can plainly sit alongside it, being the 5 point rural line, the 6 point previous work line and the 5 point field of study line, and the six sections total exactly 110, which is the maximum the province publishes. No other reading reaches 110, and the reconciliation holds on every one of the six sections rather than on some of them, so this is close to compelled rather than merely arguable. We would still put it to the province in writing on a file where it decided the outcome.
Two further readings are built in. A priority and a non priority sector are alternatives, since the business is in one or the other. So are the bands inside language, education, age, previous work and ownership duration. Note also that the province awards the same 10 points for ages 21 to 30 and 31 to 40, which is not a mistake in this calculator.
Meeting the eligibility requirements does not reach the pass mark. On the province's own numbers a candidate who satisfies every published minimum and nothing more has CLB 7 for 12, a two year provincial credential for 15, one year of ownership for 5, a non priority sector for 5 and the best age band for 10. That is 47 against a pass mark of 67. Aged 41 to 50 it is 42. The gap has to be closed by things you can still influence, being the language result, the sector, the location, another year of ownership and whether the business relates to what you studied.
International Graduate Entrepreneur points calculator
The province's published grid for this stream, reproduced factor by factor, with the published pass mark of 67 out of 110. It tells you whether you clear the mark. It does not tell you whether you will be invited.
Your situation
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Requirements checker
A structured way to see where you stand against the published criteria. It returns an indication only, not an eligibility decision, not legal advice, and not a prediction that you will be invited.
Your situation
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The process, stage by stage
Four stages, three of them with the province. It is shorter than the entrepreneur stream because the work the other stream asks you to do after approval is work you have already done.
- Expression of interestFree, on this category's own form, ranked on the 110 point grid and held in the pool for twelve months. Points gained afterwards do not count, so sit the language test and reach the ownership anniversary before you submit rather than after.
- Invitation to apply, then fileSelect a licensed accountant within twenty calendar days. File the complete application form, all supporting documents and the review engagement and special purpose report within ninety calendar days. The reports must be sent by the accountant direct to the province, on your written direction quoting the invitation file number.
- In person interview with a site visitAnticipated within fifteen business days of the request, and someone comes to look at the business. Failing to attend inside the period the province sets closes the application, and if the interview is not successful the file is closed and the decision cannot be appealed.
- Nomination, then permanent residenceIf the officer is satisfied you meet the criteria you may be nominated. Apply to IRCC within six months, keep your status and hold a valid work permit while the federal application is processed, and send the province your confirmation of permanent residence within thirty business days of landing.
| From | You must | Within |
|---|---|---|
| Invitation to apply | Select a licensed accountant to prepare the reports and tell the province | 20 calendar days |
| Invitation to apply | File the complete application, all supporting documents and the review engagement and special purpose report | 90 calendar days |
| The province's request | Attend the in person interview and site visit | anticipated 15 business days |
| Nomination | Apply to IRCC for permanent residence | 6 months |
| Landing | Send the province your confirmation of permanent residence | 30 business days |
Missing an invitation stage deadline expires the invitation and closes the file, and you begin again with a new expression of interest. The province states that it does not grant extensions to an invitation.
An expression of interest expires twelve months after it is received
If you are not selected inside those twelve months the expression of interest is removed from the pool. You may submit a new one. You will not be contacted at any point unless you are selected or it expires.
You also cannot improve a submitted expression of interest by acquiring points afterwards. Both guides say that if you gain points after submitting you must submit a new expression of interest, and the province warns that duplicate expressions of interest from the same person are flagged and may breach its policies. So the sequence matters. Sit the language test, finish the credential assessment and settle the business location before you submit, not after.
You have six months from nomination to apply for permanent residence
The province's proof of nomination expires six months after the date it is issued. Within those six months you must file a complete permanent residence application with the federal Centralized Intake Office. Both entrepreneur guides state this in the same terms.
The province's candidate FAQ confirms the certificate is valid for six months and says an extension certificate may be requested through the Immigration Accelerator portal. Treat that as a remedy you have to ask for and justify, not as a second window you are entitled to, and note that the Accelerator portal serves the worker and Atlantic intake rather than the entrepreneur one, so ask the province how the request is made on an entrepreneur file. Build the federal application while the provincial file is still open, not after the certificate arrives.
You must send the province a copy of your confirmation of permanent residence within thirty business days of landing
Both guides impose the same post landing duty. Once the visa office approves you and you land in Canada, you must give the Office of Immigration and Multiculturalism a copy of your signed confirmation of permanent residence within thirty business days.
It is the easiest obligation in the whole process to overlook, because by then you feel finished. You are also required to tell the province about changes to family composition, marital status, country of residence or contact details even after a visa has been issued.
Two deadlines run from the invitation here, and the sixty day figure is not one of them
The guide gives you twenty calendar days from the issuance date of the invitation letter to select your verifier and tell the province who it is, and ninety calendar days to file the complete application with all supporting documents and the review engagement and special purpose report. We treat that as the operative timetable for this category.
You will also read that an invitation is valid for sixty days with no extensions, on the province's expression of interest model pages, its expression of interest FAQ and its candidate FAQ. That figure is a property of the Immigration Accelerator intake, which the worker categories and the Atlantic Immigration Program use and the entrepreneur categories do not. On the other entrepreneur stream the same guides set a report deadline of one hundred and eighty days, which sixty days cannot contain, so the sixty day figure is not the entrepreneur timetable. We could not source any statement that the guides' timetable is superseded for entrepreneurs.
Working to the shorter period where it costs you nothing is still prudent, because an expired invitation closes the file with no appeal. But that is caution rather than a rule we can point to, so we confirm the applicable dates in writing with the province on every file.
Your post graduation work permit has to carry you through the federal stage
The guide requires you to maintain legal status and to hold a valid work permit while IRCC processes the permanent residence application. A post graduation work permit cannot be extended in the ordinary way, so on this stream permit timing is often the whole case.
The province's candidate FAQ says that a nominee whose permit is expiring may request a work permit support letter from the province, that the extension application must be filed by the expiry date to keep working on implied status, that filing inside the ninety day restoration period means you must stop working until IRCC responds, and that filing later than that puts you out of status and outside Canada to fix it. That guidance is written around employed nominees and we could not source anything applying it expressly to a self employed nominee under this stream, which is exactly why the timing needs advice early rather than late.
How this differs from the entrepreneur stream
The streams are not tiers. Read them by what they gate on, and the choice usually makes itself.
- It gates on a credential, not on capital. No net worth threshold and no investment threshold. In their place a Memorial University or College of the North Atlantic credential, completed in person and within two years, and a business you already own at least a third of.
- It is assessed on a business that exists. The entrepreneur stream is assessed on a plan and then tests delivery afterwards. Here the year of trading, the revenue, the profit and the salary have already happened and the province examines them, including by visiting.
- There is no work permit stage and no performance agreement. Nomination is direct. That removes the single largest source of risk on the other stream, which is a long list of obligations owed while your status is still temporary.
- The language bar is higher. CLB 7 against CLB 5, across all four abilities.
- Education points are provincial only. On the entrepreneur grid a foreign doctorate scores. Here only a credential completed in Newfoundland and Labrador scores, which is consistent with a stream designed to keep local graduates.
- Fewer partners. Three people on one business rather than ten, and someone applying under the entrepreneur stream cannot be a partner here.
- One internal inconsistency worth knowing. The business and financial criteria in the guide still call for an Audit Opinion and Special Purpose Report from a certified Audit Verifier, while the invitation to apply section of the same guide requires a Review Engagement and Special Purpose Report. The province's own changes note records the audit opinion being replaced by the review engagement, so we rely on the review engagement and treat the earlier reference as text that was not updated.
Where the province's own documents disagree
The guides you will be reading are years old, and there are two copies of one of them
The International Entrepreneur guide the province links is footered December 2020 and was last modified on the server in April 2021. A second copy of that guide sits on the same server and is not linked from any live page. Its filename and its server last modified date are April 2022, but its running footer is the identical December 2020, so April 2022 is when the file was saved rather than when the document was written. The same goes for the graduate guide, which the province serves as an April 2022 file and which is also footered December 2020. The Net Worth Verifier Document Checklist is footered January 2019. The sample Business Performance Agreement was last modified in December 2021 and is still written between the applicant and Her Majesty the Queen, naming a Minister of Immigration, Population Growth and Skills. The responsible department is now Jobs, Growth and Rural Development.
The province's live pages are a different matter and much more current. The overview and eligibility criteria pages for both entrepreneur categories were all last updated 4 May 2026, and they resolve several things the guides leave open, including the fee position, the designated net worth verifiers and which expression of interest form to use. Where a live page and a guide differ, this page says which one it follows and why.
None of that makes the criteria wrong. It does mean you are planning a seven figure decision against documents nobody has revised in years, while the process around them has changed twice. The independent audit of the program, final 26 January 2026, found that policy updates are made inconsistently and that internal staff may be interpreting policies differently because of ambiguity in the documentation. That is the province's own auditor, not our characterisation.
- On the provincial fee, there is nothing left to resolve. The linked guide says there is no provincial application fee for this category, for the principal applicant or associated partners, and the province's changes note records that removal as effective 7 April 2022. The position is the same on the other entrepreneur category, where the province's live overview page says there is no fee to apply. Neither category carries a provincial application fee, and we confirm it in writing rather than rely on a review date.
- The superseded copy differs only on the fee and the registry. An older copy of this guide sits on the province's server saying that a provincial application fee applies and referring you to a fee structure on the website. It also names Service NL rather than Digital Government and Service NL and requires a confirmation to be filed with the Registrar of Companies that the linked copy deletes. We rely on the linked copy on all three points. Note that the linked copy is served as an April 2022 file but carries a December 2020 footer, so the April 2022 date is when it was saved rather than when it was written.
- On the report required with the application, we rely on the review engagement. For the reason given above. If the province asks for an audit opinion instead, that is a question to raise rather than a bill to pay, because an audit is a materially more expensive engagement than a review.
- Everything that decides eligibility is the same in both copies. The institutions, the two academic years of full time in person study, the two year credential recency, the post graduation work permit, the one continuous year of ownership and active management, the 33.3 per cent ownership, the Low Income Cut-Off salary test, the language benchmark, the exclusions, the partnership limit, the deadlines and the whole of the points grid including the pass mark of 67 and the maximum of 110.
None of this leaves the guide standing alone. The province publishes a live eligibility criteria page for this category, last updated 4 May 2026, and it corroborates every substantive criterion set out above, being the two qualifying institutions, the minimum age of 21, the two year full time in person credential completed within the last two years, the valid post graduate work permit, ownership and active management of a local business at a third or more for one full year, one full time job for a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, a for profit business, CLB 7 across all four abilities, the business continuity plan with verified financial documents at your cost, and the expression of interest and invitation sequence. What we could not source is an online policy manual for either entrepreneur category, where the province publishes one for three of its worker categories.