Canada to Soften Visa Policy for Some Pakistani Tech Startups

The Canadian government is all set to provide a 52-week work permit or a permanent residence to Pakistani tech startups.

According to Amir Jafri, who’s the founder of Momentum Pakistan, the representative of Accelerator Centre Silicon Valley North has revealed the features of the visa program for the entrepreneurs and Pakistani tech startups to Momentum Pakistan 2018.

Pakistani entrepreneurs and startups will be given the tickets to the Toronto-Waterloo region, which houses thousands of technology startups and multinational companies and is regarded as the ‘Silicon Valley North’, to represent their ideas globally and get better connectivity in the global market.

Momentum Pakistan 2018 is inviting tech giants like Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, IBM and several others to Karachi on February 19 and 20. The representatives of these digital world companies will mentor the innovative startups and will provide the required tools and support to entrepreneurs and startups having unique ideas.

In this regard, Canada’s initiative of soft visa policy will help Pakistani startups to brand and build their businesses in the global market.

Amir Jafri said that the Canadian representative will be the part of Momentum Pakistan 2018 to support the startups and entrepreneurs. The Canadian center will also address the concerns of Pakistani startups regarding the visa program issuance once a month on the Momentum Pakistan 2018 platform.

Quoting Cam Wind, who’s a Client Experience Coordinator at Accelerator Centre’s Visa Startup Visa Program, Amir Jafri said:

The Pakistani startups could keep their operations in Pakistan, while the visa would facilitate them to get benefit from the Canadian entrepreneurial friendly systems.

Preference in Visa Grants

Cam Wind explained about the preference in the visa grants:

The startups with innovative technology-based initiatives, not services, and with a history of certain revenue generation, a strong founding team, a clear future vision, and growth perspective will be preferred over others.

Amir said that getting a visa from developed countries like Canada is challenging for Pakistani entrepreneurs. However, the offer by the Canadian government could be a real game changer.

Global Social Entrepreneurship Foundation founder Muhammad Siddique said that promoting the culture of entrepreneurship in Pakistan would create the culture of “learning to fish for life” and for that, Momentum Pakistan 2018 would be offering “countless fishing techniques”.

Here’s his interview with Cam Wind: