You can now register a Business in Ontario without a Canadian Resident on the Board

Ontario will no longer require any resident Canadians on the Board of Directors when registering a business. This policy will be effective on July 5th, 2021.

In the past, companies incorporated under the Ontario’s Business Corporations required that at least 25% of the directors be resident Canadians. Even if the business had less than four directors, one director had to be a resident Canadian.

The removal of this requirement will allow you to incorporate your business (or continue under the Ontario’s Business Corporations Act, OBCA), in Canada’s most populous province, ONTARIO.

This and other changes allow Ontario to be more aligned with other provinces that have no Canadian residency requirements for their directors. For example, British Columbia has not had a residency requirement for more than two decades. On the other hand, Alberta recently removed its directors residency requirement as of March 29th, 2021.

<<Read: Expand your business in Canada with Parsai Immigration Services>>

Register a business

To incorporate a business, you must first decide what type of business you are going to incorporate. Some of the general requirements in Ontario are:

• File Articles of Incorporation (Form 1 under the Business Corporations Act) and supporting documents with the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services.
• Within 60 days of the date of incorporation, the corporation must also file an Initial Return/Notice of Change (Form 1 under the Corporations Information Act).

If you need more information about: business types in Canada, Residency Requirements for the Directors, Business Names, Name Extensions, and more, please click here.

Important

After July 5th, 2021, the residency requirements will remain only for federally incorporated companies under the Canada Business Corporations Act. Also, it will remain in Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Saskatchewan.

Corporations will still need to pay attention to any tax issues that may arise, especially in the context of cross-border issues. Therefore, corporations with non-resident directors must consider the residency thresholds of other jurisdictions, as well as understand the residency tie-breaker rules with Canada.

Asking Help from Professionals

Due to the complexities of business registration, we highly recommend getting help from professionals. A corporate lawyer can help you set up the structure of your business. A professional accountant may also help you register the company, and so on.

Parsai Immigration Services with help of its partners has successfully registered many businesses in different provinces of Canada, especially Ontario. If you have general questions about this pathway, fill out the following form. Otherwise, please book a consultation session or fill out our assessment form.

<<Read this article in Spanish>>

Fill our Free Canada Immigration Assessment Form in your language!

English	Spanish	Persian