EB-5 asks for $800,000 in a Targeted Employment Area and returns a US green card for the investor, a spouse and every unmarried child under 21. Canada's investor routes ask for different things. Quebec's Immigrant Investor Program wants a large passive loan to the province plus French. The federal Start-Up Visa wants a real company with an approved Canadian backer behind it. For a family whose main goal is a permanent status their children keep into adulthood, EB-5 is the most predictable of the three, because it turns on capital and job creation rather than on language tests or provincial intake quotas.
What the $800,000 actually buys
Two thresholds exist. Invest $800,000 in a Targeted Employment Area, or $1,050,000 anywhere else, and both figures hold until the first inflation adjustment on 1 January 2027. The capital has to create ten full-time jobs for qualifying US workers, and it has to stay genuinely at risk while doing so, a requirement written into 8 CFR 204.6, the governing EB-5 regulation. Nobody is allowed to promise you a return. A regional center that hints at a guarantee has told you something useful about itself.
The filing chain is short. You submit Form I-526E for regional center investors, wait for adjudication, then either adjust status inside the United States or interview at a consulate abroad. Approval brings two years of conditional permanent residence. In the ninety days before that period ends you file Form I-829 to remove the conditions, and once it is approved the card stops being conditional.
Two dates outrank anything in a marketing deck. Regional center authorization currently runs to 30 September 2027, and petitions filed on or before 30 September 2026 are grandfathered, so they remain adjudicable even if that authorization lapses.
Quebec's investor stream keeps closing
QIIP has been shut more often than open in recent years. Quebec suspended new applications in 2019 and then extended the suspension repeatedly. A redesigned version arrived with a French language requirement attached and part of the money reclassified as a non-refundable contribution rather than a returnable loan. Intake has since been paused again while the province tightens its overall immigration levels. Anyone quoting you a QIIP timeline should be asked to show the current provincial notice.
The mechanics were always unusual. An applicant lent money interest free to the province for a fixed term through an authorized financial intermediary, and the principal came back at the end. Most applicants never posted the whole sum themselves. They financed it through a bank and paid a non-refundable financing charge instead, so the honest comparison against $800,000 is that charge. The headline loan figure overstates what a QIIP applicant ever spent.
Selection also ran through the province rather than through Ottawa, which meant a Quebec selection certificate came before federal permanent residence.
Does the Start-Up Visa lead to permanent residence?
Yes, and directly, with no conditional period comparable to the EB-5 two year window. The cost is that you have to build something. An approved incubator or investor group must issue a letter of support for your business before the application can go in.
Ownership rules are specific. Up to five people can attach to one business, each must hold at least 10 percent of the voting rights, and the applicants together with the designated organization must control more than half. Language sits at benchmark level 5 in English or French, a modest bar next to Quebec's. Settlement funds scale with family size.
Throughput is the weakness. Processing has stretched into multiple years, and Ottawa has capped how many letters of support each designated organization can issue annually, which turned a fast-sounding route into a queue. An open work permit can bridge some of that wait. Paying an incubator a large fee for a letter of support is a bad idea, because officers look hard at whether the business was ever going to exist.
Where each route actually stalls
EB-5 stalls in two places. The first is adjudication of the petition, where times vary widely by project and by category, with rural filings receiving statutory priority under the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022. The second is visa availability, which for most nationalities is no obstacle at all, though Indian and Chinese applicants face cut-off dates in the unreserved category and file into the reserved ones instead. Reserved allocations sit at 20 percent rural, 10 percent high unemployment and 2 percent infrastructure.
An applicant already lawfully in the United States can file the green card application at the same time as the petition when a visa number is available. Work and travel authorization then follow within months rather than years, which is why so many H-1B and L-1 families pick EB-5 over an offshore option.
Canada's delays are administrative. Quebec's queue depends on whether the province is accepting anyone at all. The Start-Up Visa queue depends on a national cap and on how fast officers get through files that need a business review. Neither responds to how much you are willing to spend.
Age-out risk and university tuition
EB-5 covers unmarried children under 21, and the Child Status Protection Act can subtract petition pending time from a child's age, which sometimes rescues a 21 or 22 year old. Canada is more generous on the definition, counting dependent children under 22. Both systems cut off eventually.
Tuition is where the argument gets concrete. A permanent resident who establishes domicile in a state normally pays resident tuition at public universities, and the annual gap against international rates at a flagship campus runs well into five figures. Across four years and two children, that offsets a meaningful share of the $800,000 on its own.
How much of the capital is really exposed?
EB-5 money is genuinely at risk. It goes into a new commercial enterprise, it can be lost, and that exposure is precisely why no honest sponsor offers a guarantee. Ask what the project's senior debt looks like. Ask who ranks ahead of you and what happens if the jobs arrive late.
QIIP money differed in kind, since the province returned the principal and the loss was capped at the financing charge plus fees. That was the strongest argument Canada ever had. It is also unavailable today, because the door is shut.
Start-Up Visa capital is yours to burn. There is no minimum investment from the applicant, which sounds cheap until you price two or three years of running a Canadian company that has to look genuine to an officer.
Citizenship at the end of each road
Green card holders can generally apply to naturalize after five years of permanent residence, subject to continuous residence and physical presence rules. Canada asks for 1,095 days of physical presence within a five year window. The Canadian clock is shorter, and the Canadian requirement to actually be there is stricter. Investors who keep a business back home should weigh that difference carefully, since a US green card also carries abandonment risk during long absences.
Who should pick which
Choose EB-5 if the United States is the real destination and the family can document $800,000 plus fees to a US standard. Education for the children is usually the deciding factor. Choose the Start-Up Visa if you intend to run a business and can absorb a wait measured in years, remembering that the language test is a genuine gate. Quebec belongs on a watch list rather than a shortlist until the province reopens.
Comparisons with other jurisdictions follow the same logic. Australia's route asked for far more money in exchange for a temporary first stage, as the EB-5 versus Australia SIV comparison sets out, and the UK's replacement for its old investor tier put endorsing bodies in the same gatekeeping position Canada's designated organizations occupy, covered in EB-5 versus the UK innovator routes. Weighing several countries at once? Start with the overview of EB-5 against other global options. Investors who want a US business they personally run sometimes land on E-2 instead, explained in the EB-5 versus E-2 comparison, though E-2 never becomes permanent by itself.