Startup Visas
Startup Visas have been a hot topic the past few years due to immigration and talent sourcing bottlenecks in ecosystems. While remote work has alleviated some of that pressure, founders still need to incorporate somewhere. There are 14 countries have startup visa programs—of those, only 7 are founder-friendly & do not require amounts of capital invested — Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
The other seven require a combination of graduate degrees, or a large amount of capital, making them less viable for lean entrepreneurs — the UK, Ireland, France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Chile.
Country
Degree Required
Visa Duration
Bootstrappers
Visa Fees
Personal Funds
Min. Investment
Processing Time
🇨🇦 Canada
Not Required
Permanent
Yes
$1,180
$9,700
$0
365 days
🇪🇪 Estonia
Not Required
12 months
Yes
$88
$1,994
$0
60 days
🇱🇻 Latvia
Not Required
36 months
Yes
$221-443
$5,720
$0
30 days
🇱🇹 Lithuania
Not Required
12 months
Yes
$168
$8,173
$0
30 days
🇫🇮 Finland
Not Required
24 months
Yes
$390
$26,760
$0
90 days
🇩🇰 Denmark
Not Required
24 months
Yes
$282
$20,485
$0
45 days
🇳🇱 Netherlands
Not Required
12 months
Yes
$252
$15,224
$0
30 days
Startup Visa Table Legend
Degree Requirement
Not all startup visa options require degrees in order to qualify. Some such as Canada, Estonia, and Latvia require no degrees. Others, like England require a graduate level degree, and some require just undergraduate level degrees.
Visa Duration
This is how long you are allowed to stay on the startup visa you’re issued and whether it is permanent or not. Most visa types give you N years to establish your business and make it sustainably profitable at which point you qualify for permanent residence. Another important consideration is what happens if your business fails.
Bootstrappers
This is whether it is practical for bootstrappers, people building companies seeded with their own capital or revenue from the company itself are welcome to apply and the country has no large capital requirement.
Visa Fees
Processing fees that are payable at the point of your application. This is typically non-refundable regardless of outcome.
Personal Funds
These are the minimum funds you need to have in your bank account when applying for the startup visa in order to ensure that you can support yourself in terms of housing, food, and other expenses while you work on your business.
Minimum Investment
This specifies whether you need a minimum amount of investment in order for you and your company to qualify for the respective countries' startup visa programs.
Processing Time
Amount of time you can expect to take for your application to be processed and receive an outcome. Keep in mind that this varies on a per case basis.