What changed
On November 10, 2026, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) published a program delivery update for the Start-up business class, the program commonly called the Start-up Visa (SUV). The change is to the prioritization criteria officers use when deciding which files from the inventory to accept into processing first.
IRCC's note says the update "identif[ies] the A77 work permit as the specific work permit available only to SUV clients and, therefore, the only work permit considered for prioritization." Until now the instructions referred to "a work permit available only to SUV clients" without naming the code. The substance of the rule is the same; the ambiguity is gone. A Start-up Visa applicant who holds some other work permit, for example an employer-specific permit or an open permit obtained another way, does not meet this condition.
The prioritization conditions as now written
The updated instructions say a Start-up business class application may be eligible for priority processing if at least one member of the application group holds a valid A77 work permit, and the commitment behind the business was made by an authorized venture capital fund (minimum $200,000), an authorized angel investor group (minimum $75,000) or an authorized business incubator (minimum $75,000), or the incubator is a member of Canada's Tech Network. "Authorized" means the organization is on IRCC's list of designated organizations.
Files are then accepted into processing in three tiers: first, applications meeting the prioritization conditions under the Ministerial Instructions; second, applications where nobody on the team holds a valid A77 permit but one or more of the other conditions is met; third, all other applications. Within each tier, IRCC works first in, first out.
Who this affects
The Start-up Visa is paused to new applications, so this concerns people whose permanent residence files are already in the inventory. IRCC's processing-times page currently estimates Start-up Visa permanent residence at more than 10 years, which is why the processing order matters.
If someone on your team holds an A77 permit, keep it valid; an expired permit no longer meets the condition. If your team holds no A77 permit, the file sits in the second or third tier whatever other permits you have. Note that new applications for the SUV open work permit have been closed since December 19, 2025, so a team that never obtained one cannot add it now. Separately, IRCC's 2027 time-limited measure lets provinces and territories identify applicants under closed federal business programs, including the Start-up Visa, for extra permanent residence space; details of how that will work have not been published.