Part 1 of a 5-Part Series: Testing the Credibility of a Business Plan

When it comes to investment-based immigration, building a credible business plan should be the foremost priority. Of course, each immigration program has its own requirements, and those requirements need to be met, however, we commonly see prospective immigrants presenting business concepts that meet program requirements without much thought as to whether or not they are doing so in a way that is logical and believable. When adjudicators review business plans, they look at everything in context to make sure that all the pieces fit together in a manner that makes business sense.

This series presents some of the most common errors we see and how to avoid them.

Part 1: Job Creation

Because job creation is a common requirement of investment or business-based immigration, we often see clients projecting hires for their business that do not match the needs of the business. Examples include:

• exceeding the needs of a given business, relative to its sales volume or revenue level
• qualifying an applicant’s senior management role by creating unnecessarily levels of vertical hierarchies for relatively small businesses

Clients should be made to understand that it is not sufficient to simply staff a business in a manner that meets immigration program needs. They must consider industry standards. One way that clients can add staffing for smaller businesses is to position those staff members or managers for planning or executing on a growth plan, such as in sales and marketing or business development roles. Of course, if a client chooses this path their business plan should reflect the impact of those efforts with projections for growing revenues that justify that level of investment.

Adjudicators will review staffing with a critical eye to ensure that job creation plans are reasonable. One of the best ways to protect business immigration applicants from an adjudicator’s testing probes is to arm oneself with the right kind of market research, so that staffing plans are in line with industry standards.