Withdrawal or refusal of an application from an essential person (start-up business class)

An “essential person” is a person who is considered to be essential to the business and who has been identified as essential by the designated entity on the commitment certificate and letter of support.

If an applicant who is deemed an “essential” person withdraws their application or their application is refused, all applications linked to the same business proposal must be refused for not meeting the requirements to be a member of the start-up business class. Alternatively, the other applications may be returned if processing has not commenced.

Officers should inform the applicant of the reason for the return or refusal. Further, a refund will only be issued if the application has not been put into process.

When an essential person’s application does not meet R10 requirements

If an essential person’s application does not meet the requirements pursuant to subsection 10 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations and there are other applicants linked to the same commitment certificate, including other essential applicants, the officer should wait for the applicant to resubmit their application (allow until the commitment certificate expires).

If the essential person reapplies, the officer should proceed with processing the application.

If the essential person does not reapply and processing has not begun on other applications, the officer should:

• advise other applicants that a person deemed essential did not reapply before the expiration of the commitment certificate and that as a result their application will not be processed
• refund the fees