Mark Holthe 0:02
Welcome everyone to another episode of the Canadian immigration podcast. This is episode 177 and today we're shifting gears a little bit, and we're going to talk about a program that is quite unique. There's definitely not a lot of people that would consider this as an option for immigrating to Canada, but this is one that is right here at home in Alberta. For us, it's a program that Alicia has had some recent experience with, and in fact, Alicia just did a webinar with one of our our partner vendors, Journey business plans, who you know, actually assisted with developing some of the business plans for some of our clients that are involved in the Alberta advantage immigration program, farming stream. So Alicia, what's it been like so far, delving into this quite unique area of the provincial nominee program that really has been around since the beginning of the program, but very rarely gets used.
Alicia Backman-Beharry 1:04
It's it's a very niche program, but if you qualify, it's a fantastic fit. And so it's all about making sure that this is the program for you. So it's all about ensuring that you know what this program is, that you haven't missed any of the ineligibilities that you are a bona fide farmer in primary production, that you have the net worth, that you have a really tangible, manageable business plan and something that you can execute to show that you will be successful in setting up primary farming operations in Alberta. So if it fits for you, it is fantastic. It's a it's a good program. Now, that said, there are a number of unknowns, because, of course, we're dealing with aaip, and so it's always a little bit of a mystery box when we're dealing with aaip. And processing times are also a bit of a mystery box.
Mark Holthe 1:57
Yes, indeed they are. And as we start right off the bat. Just will flip over, and we'll just show the processing times. You will see here right now that there are 90 spots allocated to all of the entrepreneur streams. And so when we look at the entrepreneur streams, farming is just one of them. There are 264 applications at varying stages in the queue, and you can see in terms of processing, it says, basically they're evaluated upon receipt. So I would have to assume, because of the very few number of farming stream applications, that they are going to get looked at maybe a little bit sooner than some of the other ones. Has that been your experience?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 2:43
Alicia, it remains to be seen. They don't give you a lot of information during the processing. So here's the interesting thing about farm stream, when we look at the other so just like you said, Mark, there's other entrepreneur streams, but the other ones, so rural entrepreneur stream, you need an expression of interest. The Form isn't available online. You have to get a request from AIP to submit a business application to even be able to access the AIP portal. So that's rural entrepreneur stream. Then you have the graduate entrepreneur so that is based on points, you're in an EOI pool. Then you have a foreign graduate entrepreneur stream. Again, you're based on points you're in an EOI pool, and you have to have a designated agency that supports your application. So out of all of these, the only one that does not have an expression of interest, it's literally direct apply, is farm stream. So this is the only one where you can actually submit an application, and it's a paper based application. Mark. So it's a whole different beast in terms of how you organize and submit
Mark Holthe 3:44
this application. Yeah. Well, today we're going to take some steps forward here and break it down for anyone that is interested in going through this program. So right off the bat, Alicia, why do you think they created it?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 4:00
Yeah. I mean, I think Alberta has always had an emphasis on looking to support immigration in centers outside of our census metropolitan areas. They're trying to encourage people to move outside of Calgary and Edmonton and to establish thriving businesses elsewhere in the province. So farmstream hits those highlights because it is bringing people who have expertise from somewhere overseas in terms of active farm management, and then they're putting that to use in Alberta, definitely, when we take a look at the conditions and we take a look at the business plan, that's going to be giving some analysis of where are there opportunities, where are we missing out in primary food production or meat production or different types of crops, and so there is fantastic arable land in Alberta, and sometimes we are not capitalizing on all of that just because of the people indeed.
Mark Holthe 4:59
All right, so. Talk about what it takes to actually be eligible, and that does not necessarily mean that you are going to get a nomination, which is been very readily apparent or made apparent to us by the Alberta advantage immigration program. You can check all the boxes and maybe still not actually receive a nomination. So what are they looking at in terms of eligibility?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 5:23
Yeah. And so just like you, we kind of touched upon briefly, there aren't, not very many spots for 2026, and if we look at the overall numbers for Alberta, there are few spots overall. So we only have 6403 plus maybe some francophones, so we don't have a ton of spots. And so basically, Alberta has said, even if you're eligible, we don't have to accept your application. We don't have to process your application. We can change streams. We can close streams midway through. It's no guarantee that you're even going to have an application looked at. If we don't think that you have the ability to become economically established in Alberta.
Mark Holthe 6:04
You know, the first interaction I had with this was probably back in 2007 and I had some American citizens who owned land on the Canadian side of the Alberta of the border, as well as in Montana. So Alberta and Montana, and they would travel a lot, and they decided that, you know the land and what they were doing, they really wanted to expand it on the Alberta side. And so we had looked at this, and I remember reaching out to Alberta agriculture, whoever it was, I can't remember at the time that was administering the program. And they talked about innovation and the importance of creating new ideas and new farming techniques and things like that. And in the end, for this, for these American farmers, we decided that an intercompany transfer was just easier, because they had companies on both sides of the border and and then get a work permit, and then transition through the old days of more certainty with PR, we knew they could get it that way, so we ultimately didn't go through here. But even before that, Alicia, I remember looking and at most, there was maybe one or two that were processed a year. And in some years, I remember speaking with the old program manager, Brad traphan, who had said, Yeah, we didn't do any that last year. And you know, it just there wasn't anyone who had actually submitted applications. But what we're seeing now is that this significant interest in coming to Canada for a wide variety of people, and the difficulties of going through the traditional PR routes are now causing people to consider other options, and that's part of the reason why we see so many entrepreneur applications going through, and I have to assume farm stream as well. But this is a new era where people are looking to every avenue they can when the traditional ones are just drying up. So I don't know at this stage. Alicia is where as we're going through, and we're talking about eligibility, like, are there some hurdles or barriers that would kind of exclude people right off the bat they're just not going to get through.
Alicia Backman-Beharry 8:02
Yeah, and so I think this is where it really is important to have a difficult, probing discussion with your clients, right up front and to really dig into is this the right stream for you? And so what I've done with my clients is just like Mark said, people are looking at this stream now when they may not have looked at it in the past, because there's very few pathways that have eligibility for anybody who doesn't have a full university degree anymore, and that's kind of one of them. Farm stream is one of them. So one of the requirements is, normally that you provide your education, your training, your experience, your work experience, active farm management experience, but it isn't necessarily fatal to your application if you don't have a full degree, because many farmers have been farming for 20 years, but they don't have a full degree, maybe they have a high school diploma, and then they've got practical experience. They have maybe a bachelor or not a bachelor's, but a diploma in agricultural or farm management or something like that. And it's not game over for most applications, it would be game over if you don't have a bachelor's because you just can't reach enough points. So farm stream is one of the only ones where if you really have been farming for the last 20 years, and you can prove that you've been farming for the last 20 years. Education may not be fatal, but of course, there are other eligibility requirements. In addition to that act of farm management, you have to prove 500,000 in accessible equity. It has to be funds that are unencumbered. You've got to do the exchange rates. You've got to prove the source of those funds. It is an entrepreneur application. So all the requirements under the PNP forms federally, also you've got to show exactly where this money is coming from. You've got to have accountant created net worth statements that are certified copies.
Mark Holthe 9:57
Alicia, I know, with all the other programs, High School. Is a minimum. Is it still that with the farm stream?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 10:04
So it talks about education, it talks about providing your documents in the checklist. I did send emails to aaip to ask them, you know, is this fatal if we can't prove High School from 20 years ago? They said, prove to us that you have farming experience, that you are capable in this area, that you would be successful in the economic establishment and could create a farm.
Mark Holthe 10:31
Yeah. So in other words, yeah, just put the information in, and I will let you know if we accept it or not. But we're not going to, we're not going to fetter our discretion by giving you a direct answer. I think about my own father. He through a variety of circumstances. He only had a grade six education, like he never went past elementary he got sick when he was young. He fell behind in school, and then he just worked on the farm. And so he had he farmed all his life, and I'm always curious about this, because there is an element of, you know, business acumen that a person needs. And when they're coming in from another country, if their farming experience has been kind of small, kind of farm, and you know, the manner of running a business in that country is not terribly sophisticated. You grow the crops, you go to market, you sell it, you know, then maybe you're not going to be able to function in Canada running a complex farm, because it really is big business now, at least, to survive. And that's part of the reason myself. You know, our family farm has long since sold, and many of my friends that I went to school with their family farms have all been swallowed up by larger entities, either the hatterian Brethren, have bought them out, or other farmers have expanded. So it's a lot of it's really big business now, so you have to have that business acumen in order to be successful. So thus, you know the business plan and things that a person has to be able to produce, right?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 11:58
And, yeah. And the other interesting one is language, Mark, so you touched upon that as well, right? So this is really the only one where you might be able to wedge your way in if you don't have an actual IELTS or a cell, Pip, general exam result, but from your other documents, from the interviews, from the discussions with AIP, hopefully you can prove that your language and your business acumen are sufficient, that you're a genuine applicant.
Mark Holthe 12:24
All right, next, in terms of our our little list here that we're working through money, so you talked a little bit about the fact you need a minimum of 500,000 in equity. I have to assume Alicia that minimum is really just the threshold to submit an application, because to get a farm off the ground now from scratch, just buying the land alone is going to exceed $500,000 in equity. So what are you seeing with the program now?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 13:01
Yeah, so they do say 500,000 is a minimum, and applicants may very well be required to show that they can invest more, right? And so this is where it's important to talk to your client about, okay, where are you right now? What are you doing? Are you actively managing a farm in a country, and is it your farm? Are you co managing it? Have you sold that farm? And then, if you've sold that farm, what did you do with the money? And so how much of that is yours, and how much of it might be owned by a sibling or a parent or somebody else who's part of this farming business, and how much can you actually show that you can bring to Canada when? So that's a lot of the exercise. And the net worth is really figuring out, where did the money go? Where has it come from? Where is it now? How will you be able to deploy it? So yes, you've got to have that accountant prepared statement. And most people, so my clients so far have been European farmers from different countries and each country has its own protocols with respect to how they have their accounting and their paperwork for businesses. So really figuring out how is their farming operation currently held? Is it a sole proprietor? Is it a farming business? What sort of shares do they have? Is it ownership? Are they managing all those things to make sure that you might need a net worth accountant prepared statement for the business, as well as for the individual, personally. So that's important to keep in mind. And then again, I don't know if people understand, but it's basically you're doing an AIP application, a farm stream, 004, application form with a document checklist, but embedded in that is a mini permanent resident application under IRCC federal rules. So then you also have to have the IMM eight and the schedule for a, and you have to have the schedule four, and you have to have all of the 566, nines for everybody in the family. And so one of those forms, of course, the IMM eight Schedule A, the economic class. PNP, business nominees, this is where they have to have a personal statement. And I think many people miss this in the accumulation of funds. Personal Statement, it has to be signed by the applicants, describing where they got this money. Is it employment income, business income, investment income, the dates and amount, amounts of each investment made cumulative gains, whether it's an inheritance or a donation, you got to do, you got to do your due diligence in proving where you got that money.
Mark Holthe 15:29
Yeah, and I love in the checklist, how it like you identified the very last source a donation. So this is not something where you've got a little, you know, garden in your backyard, and you've been growing vegetables and selling them at the market, and then you pull all the money from your friends and neighbors in your community to, you know, to basically give you the resources to come and set up a business in Alberta with loans, and, you know, and Guaranteed, you know, payments back to people for having lent you the money this. These are unencumbered funds. And if you are not able to show that, hey, you're doing pretty good in your own country, because obviously, to move, and there's a reason why it's coming from Europe and say maybe, maybe not India or Africa, is because the number, the amount of money that's required to actually invest is significant. And like I said before, it is. It isn't a very it's a very expensive business to get set up. It's really hard for people. If, like, one of my kids, let's say, says, Wow, dad, you were a farmer, you know, I think I'd like to be a farmer. I you know, let's that's what I want to do for a living. It is just not feasible anymore for someone to just say, I want to be a farmer and, you know, and just start up new acquire land equipment, you know, all the machinery involved in raising a crop and taking it to market, or even, you know, animals, or whatever it might be that you're raising. It's just, it's not practical, because things have become just so expensive, especially land is one. So when individuals are coming through, you know, even though it's a donation and a non bank loan, also love that as well, from your from your friend, Guido, yeah, those are just, it's probably not going to fly, and that's why they want this detailed description of how you've accumulated your funds.
Alicia Backman-Beharry 17:23
So yes, there's more to net worth and forms than meets the eyes. So be careful with those
Mark Holthe 17:29
all right farming experience. So once again, my kids and we lived in the US, and we were coming up to Canada, and we want to be farmers. We want to go through the Alberta advantage immigration program, we're probably not going to make it. Well, maybe I could make some cases, but it's been 40 years since I was on the farm, so probably I wouldn't be successful. What are we looking at in terms of experience? What do they want to see?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 17:55
Yeah, so they want to see active farm management in primary production. So what have you been doing? How have you been networking in your own country? What sort of associations or boards are you on? Have you been dealing, if you're with crop management? Have you been dealing with seeds and pesticides? And do you understand irrigation? And I mean, they don't say these things, but it's up to you to prove that you are legitimately working in active farm management, depending on the type of business you've been running. So one of my farm clients was producing crops, and the other one was dealing with animals, different different livestock, so making sure that you're documenting all of these things, and what is the Knock Code, what? What sort of work have they been doing? Usually it's going to be the farm manager or farm supervisor proving that a lot of these farmers don't really have up to date resumes, so working with them to start to build out here, okay, prove your work experience with associations. What other certifications may you have taken to show that you've been active in terms of managing your farming business, so not codes, resumes, proof of farm management. And it's similar to many of the self employed streams, where you can't just sit down and write your own letter and then say, yep, this was my job. So it's important to get secondary references from suppliers or from clients or from farm management equipment companies that you've been using from co workers, people who know your business and have trusted it. One of my clients was able to get a letter from there's like a farming liaison who works with all of the farmers in the community and is a liaison back to the local government in terms of farm standards. So really, taking a look at what's unique to your clients circumstances, and how do you kind of pull out the details to prove that
Mark Holthe 19:48
farming experience. Now, Alicia, I think one thing I would want to address is this concept of primary agriculture. So I'll give you an example, so as we try to explain to people what this is. Is in Alberta. One very, very common thing is farmers do not necessarily harvest their own crops. There are custom combine, you know, operations that will essentially come in for a fee and harvest for you whip your, you know, whip off the harvest really fast and and then you yourself are not doing it, the person who does the combining, sure they might be, you know, coming with their combine and and knocking down the grain and, you know, and harvesting the grain. But they are not the owners of the property. They are being hired as an independent contractor to do that work. So as far as this program, if someone had like a custom combining operation, will use the US again and they decide they want to come up to Canada. Does that count or does it not count as farming experience
Alicia Backman-Beharry 20:53
doing custom combining in the past? Yeah, yeah. I mean, it might be potentially related, but it's not direct farming, primary agriculture, right? It's providing a service along the way.
Mark Holthe 21:05
Yeah, I agree. So you're the person who owns the land. You're planting the seed, you're, you're, you know, overseeing its growth, and sure, you may engage other people to help with the actual harvesting, which is possible, but you are the one driving the ship, and I think that's really what they're focusing on
Alicia Backman-Beharry 21:21
yeah and the other. The other interesting question that I got when I was doing the journey presentation was somebody asked, Well, can you be getting your farming experience or proving your farming experience by somebody else, internships or co ops? And AIP actually says, like, you cannot currently be a co op student or an international student, we will not consider you and your farm stream. But if the question was, you know, can you use past work experience where you were paid as an intern, maybe in your home country, in Europe? Can you use that as experience? Well, partially, probably. But if that's your only experience being a farmer, you know, I don't think you have any chance of being able to prove that you can start a brand new farming operation in Alberta, but if that's one of the pieces of evidence, then you know what's logical. Put on your officer hat and figure out, Is this a legitimate application?
Mark Holthe 22:13
Yeah. And let's face it, a lot of people gain their farming experience working on their family farm, and then with the collateral, not land or whatever. Then they expand and have an opportunity to maybe acquire some other land, and then, you know, one of the children takes over that piece of property and then gets their own direct experience. And that's often how it works. So but, but Alicia says, you know, when it comes to demonstrating all of this, you have to show that the experience, the funds you know, what you're putting in your application is yours, not your parents, yeah, all right, let's touch now on the fun part, the analysis part, and this business risk is a reality. I don't know how many businesses fail, like 80% of them, or something, within the first five years. So farming is no different, especially if you're starting from scratch. So this whole area of business plans, Alicia and the analysis of business risk, maybe can talk a little bit about that.
Alicia Backman-Beharry 23:09
So we always make sure that our clients go and get an independent business analysis a business plan. And it's really important, because AIP says, well, the proposed business plan is going to be reviewed by Alberta agriculture and irrigation, and they're going to ensure the farming operation actually aligns with Alberta farming industry requirements. So making sure that you do understand what Alberta farming industry requirements are and some of those risks, like we know in Alberta, we've had wildfire smoke. We've had drought, significant drought, especially in southern Alberta, that's been affecting water licenses and the ability to irrigate. So making sure that you've checked into local conditions, and you're assessing, literally on the ground, what's on the ground, what's under the ground, what the weather conditions are, and how you're going to make your crop successful given local challenges. So that's one of the key risks when you're looking at starting a business, making sure that you have a valid business plan that is assessing your opportunities and your competitors and what's happening with market and costs, cost structure and your labor as well, so making sure that you have all of that. But in addition, it's also trying to figure out, Where are you going to have a farming operation? How is this going to be a viable plan? And so we can talk about this a little bit more in terms of the logistics, but when are they actually going to be acquiring this business, and will it be there for them to acquire?
Mark Holthe 24:44
You know, it's interesting as I think about all these risks Alicia, you know, and they're practical, and they're financial, and you have to encompass all of them within your plan. You know, if you're say you're going to have a you're going to have a fruit orchard in some. Than Alberta, where I live, and you don't take into consideration that this the historical droughts and that really we are very arid kind of I think arid is the proper word. There's not a lot of rain down south unless you're relying upon irrigation. And if this beautiful parcel of land that you've purchased is what we'd call dry land down here, then probably an orchard is not the best solution for you. And so there's the environment, you know, there's the the the weather conditions, there's like you've identified, you know, in your presentation, with journey and everywhere, water licenses, all those kinds of things. So they all have to be addressed. And so this is not something you just throw together in a weekend and submit an application and pay the fee. This requires a significant amount of research and legwork before you can ever get to the stage where you can actually submit the application.
Alicia Backman-Beharry 25:53
Yep. And here's the other big one in terms of the business risk, and this is the foreign ownership of land regulations in Alberta. And so if you are not a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, if you are a foreign national, then be super careful, because there are definitely, I would say, go talk to a knowledgeable real estate lawyer to make sure that you understand this carefully. Because this is not our bailiwick. This is we don't do real estate transactions, but we are flagging this issue to make sure that you go talk to somebody. Because in general, there are many caveats, and there are some exceptions, but foreign citizens and foreign controlled corporations. So it doesn't matter whichever way you are trying to establish your business. If it is foreign, then you can only own or beneficially own, up to two parcels of controlled land that may not exceed 20 acres in total. Super important for people to understand,
Mark Holthe 26:49
yeah, and that's difficult, like lots of farming operations require land now, it depends on, you know, what the nature of production is, and I'm not sure Alicia, the farms, the particular farms that you're, you're talking about, is it? Are they? Are they? Is it? Is it animals? Is it crops? Like, what kind of, what kind of ventures are they are looking Yeah, yeah. So in some, some of them, they're, you know, if you're, if you're gonna start a grain farm, you know, or even alfalfa or hay, or whatever, you're gonna need a whole lot more land than a couple parcels. So you have to be very strategic in order to make this work. Because it won't work for every type of every type of farming business, that is for sure. Okay, next on our list here is, is where and when to start. So you know, this is a classic Alicia, because so often within immigration, they want you to put the cart before the horse, essentially. So you got to show you've got some skin in the game, and what if you don't get the nomination Right?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 27:56
Exactly, exactly. So this is the practical reality that I've been dealing with with my clients is, okay, you have this business plan, you have a you've come to Canada, you've done some exploratory visits, you think that you can purchase a parcel of land once you have your permanent residence, because then you don't have these restrictions in terms of the size of the acres that you can hold. But what's the practical timeline here? Because when you submit this application, we're mailing an application, so it's maybe two weeks, or hopefully less, of mailing time. Then it goes into the void at aaip, who knows when they're going to respond to you? It might be three or four months before you hear back from them, and then they're probably going to ask you for a whole bunch more. And then at a certain stage, hopefully, hopefully they will make a determination on whether you get a nomination. It might be yes, it might be No, hopefully it's yes, but if it's no, and you've already decided to enter into a conditional purchase contract, for example, are you okay with that risk? What's your exit plan if it's yes on a nomination, and then you have to go and submit your PR portal. Keep in mind, you have to submit a PR portal application to the federal government, and now you're looking at another at least 13 months of processing with the federal government. So it's a long time.
Mark Holthe 29:14
Yeah, it's interesting with all of the changes that have occurred, Alicia within the Alberta advantage immigration program. One of them, more so than any other right now, is fees. So they're now looking to charge everything we were just looking today and and, you know, we're recording this in April of 2026 this episode, yeah, the fees are have just been skyrocketing, especially since, you know, well, all the way back to April, 2024 that's when they they made the really big jump. There used to be a $500 fee, and, and, and now it's what, 3500 $3,500 to just to submit the application. So hey, for the Alberta, it's a user pay kind of user funded system. Now, I remember when there were no. Fees for the Alberta advantage immigration program. And then slowly, over time, there's now fees for everything, and we just learned even any expression of interest now is going to require that people pay a fee for consideration of the expression of interest, even though it's electronic, like it's no human looks at it. You know, when it comes to, you know, the actual assessment and calculation of the points when the nomination comes, then they're going to choose who they want, but it's we're in a different world. Alicia, yeah,
Alicia Backman-Beharry 30:29
it's pretty frustrating on that worker EOI fee, because the problem with Alberta's worker EOI system is that there's no vetting to see whether you have an eligible application. So and there's no ability to change your profile once you've submitted it. So if you need to go back and update anything, you have to withdraw your application. And then now apparently you have to pay another fee, $5 every single time.
Mark Holthe 30:53
Yeah, that's crazy. Okay, so practically speaking, like, what are some things that people need to really think about when they're when they're doing this. You know, obviously there's no way you're going to be able to put together any kind of a meaningful plan unless you're able to travel to Canada. So if you can't get a visitor visa to come to do some form of an exploratory visit, like, I don't know how you would be able to proceed with this. No one's going to invest millions of dollars in a farming business just virtually having someone walk around with a, you know, with a whatsapp live stream or something, what? What's the, what's the strategy, at least that that your clients, you've seen, and that you've used,
Alicia Backman-Beharry 31:35
yeah, so making sure that you have an ETA, or if you are viewed or required, that you are able to have a visitor visa to come to Canada. Most of my all of my clients, have been European, and so they only needed an electronic travel authorization so that they could come here. They could talk to various farmers. They can talk to connections that they had in the community. Most of those were cultural or friends or relatives from, you know, distant relatives that had come over in the past, and they had a community where they could go to to start to network, but you need to definitely make sure that you have so technically, there's no mandatory requirement for an exploratory visit under farm stream, many of the other entrepreneur streams do in different provinces, but practically, AIP does ask you, have You come? What have you done to explore the area and so describing all of that, but at the same time, it can also be a risk if you decide to visit. Have sold your farm back home and you're going to visit for six months. So now my question is, okay, well, IRCC might start getting worried that you're working without authorization while you do all these exploratory visits. So it really depends and make sure that you can show your temporary intent. So yes, you can have a dual intent under Section 22 of the act, you can be exploring your permanent residence options, but you still have to have enough tie to your home country and the ability to go back. So most of these people would have significant funds to show that that's what they're living off of. But you still can't work without authorization in Canada, and that's really important.
Mark Holthe 33:11
Yeah, and then one kind of a litmus test, I guess I'll give is, is before the contract is signed, whether it's purchase and sale of a property, a property, an existing farm, whatever you're taking over the steps leading up to the actual signing of that contract and purchase. You can, you get a little bit of leeway, right? You can come over, you can check things out. It's exploratory. You know, they often don't consider that active engagement in the labor market. But once that contract is signed, once that property is yours, then you're going to have a little bit of a tougher time, you know, coming over on as a visitor, while basically overseeing and, to some extent, running the farm. So there's it's you have to really be careful. You have to be, yeah, really, really cautious in terms of what you're doing on the ground, and especially if you're at that stage where you've already acquired the property. Any other last you know, kind of tips or suggestions in terms of of logistics Alicia that you can share as we wrap up?
Alicia Backman-Beharry 34:19
Yeah. So one thing and just a possible strategy, and it really depends on the circumstances, but sometimes if, if you have somebody who's selling that farm, it might be possible for the seller of the farm to go through the LMIA process under the egg stream and get a work permit for the main applicant on the farm stream application, so that that person could work in the meantime, while their PR application is being processed. So maybe there is something that could be a solution, if you look at exactly what's going on with the dynamics of the parties, but that requires, for sure, advanced planning in terms of the practical realities of farm stream and get that business plan super. Really make sure that you've got your accountants net worth statements, your documents from your existing farm business to show what your active operations are, you have to show what your accounting figures have been for the last five years. So you've got to have five years of farming operation experience and be able to prove that with letters of support. Start asking people for letters of support early, because it takes a while to gather all those things. Make sure that you have your source of funds clearly documented. There's a whole bunch of different places you've got to show your source of funds, so check your exchange rates, try to do all that at the very ends that it all matches. And then when you pay the fee, there's actually a link that you have to ask the government for, and then you've got to go in and pay the application fee, and, of course, mail that application so make sure you've got tracking the signature on that puppy.
Mark Holthe 35:50
Yeah. You know, ultimately, when it comes to any entrepreneur type program that you're submitting to the government, the individuals that are assessing these are experienced, so they have seen everything. And sometimes, when we are looking at establishing a business and creating our business plans, we tend to be very aspirational, and that's great. You want to be positive, and you know, hope that things are going to turn out very, very well. But one piece of advice that I would give people as they're going through this process is to be very realistic, to be very conservative when you're setting out your the financials in your business plan, because if it looks like things are a little bit more inflated than probably reality would would would play out, it's going to undermine your application. And obviously, you know, I mentioned at the beginning things that are innovative, or their kind of new business, new farming practices, things that are creative, those will get the attention, I guess, of the government, a little bit more than someone who says in they just want to buy a bunch of cows and run a cow calf operation, and so be be aware of that as well as you're going through this process. All right. Thanks so much. Alicia, this is a little bit of a divergence from what we typically cover, but I think this is really beneficial. So if you are an individual that's looking at exploring opportunities through the farming stream in Alberta, we're here to assist and wish you guys all the best as you're trying to navigate this crazy world that we call Canadian immigration. Take care everyone you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
