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10 Countries That Give Visas To Entrepreneurs

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Being an entrepreneur has its perks, and one of them includes the benefits of getting visas from top nations in the world. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development reports that over 40 countries now offer special startup visas to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses and expand globally.

A Start-Up Visa gives entrepreneurs from other countries the chance to build and grow their businesses in a new place, often in fields like tech, health, or clean energy. The idea is to bring in fresh talent and innovative ideas that can boost the local economy, create jobs, and solve real-world problems.

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These visas usually last between 2 and 3 years and can open the door to permanent residency or even citizenship if the business does well and meets certain goals.

Here are 10 countries that offer visas to entrepreneurs.

Canada

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Canada’s Start-Up Visa Program targets innovative entrepreneurs who can create jobs and compete globally. To qualify, applicants must secure support from a designated organisation like a venture capital fund and meet language and financial requirements. Successful applicants receive permanent residency from the start.

READ ALSO:Nigeria Ranks World’s 102nd Happiest Nation, US, Germany Not Among 20 Top Counties

United Kingdom

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The UK offers the Innovator founder visa, which replaced the old Start-Up and Innovator visas. It is aimed at entrepreneurs with innovative, scalable business ideas endorsed by an approved body. Applicants do not need investment funds upfront but must prove their idea is new and viable. It can lead to permanent residency after 3 years.

United States

While the US does not have a formal startup visa, the International Entrepreneur Parole program allows foreign founders of high-growth startups to stay in the US temporarily. Founders must show substantial funding from investors or government grants and the potential for job creation. It is not a direct path to a green card but can be a stepping stone.

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Portugal

Portugal offers the Startup Visa for non-EU tech entrepreneurs who want to build innovative companies in the country. Applicants must be accepted into a certified incubator and show they plan to create jobs and meet minimum income or profit potential. It leads to residency with a path to citizenship after 5 years.

READ ALSO:UK Hosts European Ministers For Ukraine Ceasefire Talks

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Singapore

Singapore’s EntrePass targets foreign founders launching venture-backed or innovative startups in sectors like tech, biotech, or sustainability. Applicants must be backed by a government-recognised incubator or VC. It is a renewable visa with the potential to apply for permanent residency through various local schemes.

Australia

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Australia’s Business Innovation and Investment Visa Subclass 188 includes a Business Innovation Stream for start-ups. Applicants must show a viable business plan and access to funding. This visa can lead to permanent residency under the Subclass 888 visa.

Germany

Germany does not have a specific start-up visa, but entrepreneurs can apply for a self-employment visa if they present a strong business plan with economic benefit to Germany. Berlin especially is a hub for start-ups. After 3 years of successful business activity, permanent residency is possible.

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READ ALSO:Europe Woos US Scientists Fleeing Trump’s Policies With Paris Conference

Spain

Spain offers a startup visa under its Entrepreneur Law for non-EU founders with innovative business ideas. Applicants must prove the idea is of high economic interest and submit it to Spain’s trade and investment office for approval. It grants a residence permit and can lead to long-term stay and citizenship.

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Ireland

Ireland’s Start-Up Entrepreneur Programme is for non-EU founders with high-potential start-ups, particularly in areas like tech or life sciences. Applicants must have a minimum of 50000 euros in funding and a scalable business idea. It offers a 2-year residency that can be extended and eventually lead to permanent residency.

France

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France runs the French Tech Visa for Founders, which is part of its broader French Tech program. It targets foreign entrepreneurs with an innovative start-up idea backed by a recognised incubator or accelerator in France. It is a 4-year renewable residence permit and includes a fast track to bring family members too.

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Hiroshima Marks 80 Years As US-Russia Nuclear Tensions Rise

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Japan marked 80 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on Wednesday with a ceremony reminding the world of the horrors unleashed, as sabre-rattling between the United States and Russia keeps the nuclear “Doomsday Clock” close to midnight.

A silent prayer was held at 8:15 am (2315 GMT), the moment when US aircraft Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” over the western Japanese city on August 6, 1945.

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On a sweltering morning, hundreds of black-clad officials, students and survivors laid flowers at the memorial cenotaph, with the ruins of a domed building in the background, a stark reminder of the horrors that unfolded.

In a speech, Hiroshima mayor Kazumi Matsui warned of “an accelerating trend toward military buildup around the world”, against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the chaos in the Middle East.

READ ALSO:Ukrainian Drone Strikes Kill Three In Russia

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These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history,” he said.

Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said it was Japan’s mission “to take the lead… toward a world without nuclear weapons”.

The final death toll of the Hiroshima attack would hit around 140,000 people, killed not just by the colossal blast and the ball of fire, but also later by the radiation.

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Three days after “Little Boy”, on August 9, another atomic bomb killed 74,000 people in Nagasaki. Imperial Japan surrendered on August 15, bringing an end to World War II.

Today, Hiroshima is a thriving metropolis of 1.2 million but the attacks live on in the memories of many.

On the eve of the ceremony, people began lining up to pay their respects to the victims in front of the cenotaph.

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READ ALSO:Russia Strikes Ukraine After Kyiv Offers Fresh Talks

Before dawn on Wednesday, families who lost loved ones in the attack also came to pray.

Yoshie Yokoyama, 96, who arrived in a wheelchair with her grandson, told reporters that her parents and grandparents were bomb victims.

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My grandfather died soon after the bombing, while my father and mother both died after developing cancer. My parents-in-law also died, so my husband couldn’t see them again when he came back from battlefields after the war.

“People are still suffering,” she added.

Wednesday’s ceremony was set to include a record of around 120 countries and regions including, for the first time, Taiwanese and Palestinian representatives.

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The United States — which has never formally apologised for the bombings — was represented by its ambassador to Japan. Russia and China were absent.

READ ALSO:Anxiety As Trump Deploys US Nuclear Submarines Near Russia After ex-President’s Comment

Nihon Hidankyo, the grassroots organisation that last year won the Nobel Peace Prize, is representing the dwindling number of survivors, known as hibakusha.

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As of March, there were 99,130 hibakusha, according to the Japanese health ministry, with the average age of 86.

“I want foreign envoys to visit the peace memorial museum and understand what happened,” the group’s co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki told local media ahead of the commemorations.

Pope Leo XIV said in a statement that “in our time of mounting global tensions and conflicts”, Hiroshima and Nagasaki remained “living reminders of the profound horrors wrought by nuclear weapons”.

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that “the very weapons that brought such devastation to Hiroshima and Nagasaki are once again being treated as tools of coercion”.

READ ALSO:Russia Strikes Ukraine After Kyiv Offers Fresh Talks

– Younger generation –
The attacks remain the only time atomic bombs have been used in wartime.

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Kunihiko Sakuma, 80, who survived the blasts as a baby, told AFP he was hopeful that there could eventually be a nuclear-free world.

“The younger generation is working hard for that end,” he said ahead of the ceremony.

But in January, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ “Doomsday Clock” shifted to 89 seconds to midnight, the closest in its 78-year history.

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The clock symbolising humanity’s distance from destruction was last moved to 90 seconds to midnight over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

READ ALSO:Russian Strikes Kill 16 In Kyiv

Russia and the United States account for around 90 percent of the world’s over 12,000 warheads, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

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SIPRI warned in June that “a dangerous new nuclear arms race is emerging at a time when arms control regimes are severely weakened,” with nearly all of the nine nuclear-armed states modernising their arsenals.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump said that he had ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines following an online spat with former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

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Rare 1937 ‘Hobbit’ Discovered In House Clearance Sells For $57,000

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A rare first-edition copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” sold for 43,000 pounds ($57,000) at auction on Wednesday, after it was found during a house clearance in South-West England.

Purchased by a private collector in the United Kingdom, the book is one of 1,500 original copies of the British author’s seminal fantasy novel that were published in 1937.

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Of those, only “a few hundred are believed to still remain”, according to the auction house Auctioneum, which discovered the book on a bookcase at a home in Bristol.

Bidders from around the world drove the price up by more than four times what the auction house expected for the manuscript.

READ ALSO:Travelling To US To Give Birth For Citizenship Illegal — US Mission

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“It’s a wonderful result for a very special book,” said Auctioneum rare books specialist Caitlin Riley.

The surviving books from the initial print run are now considered some of the most sought-after books in modern literature,” Auctioneum said in a statement.

Auctioneum unearthed the book during a routine house clearance after its owner passed away.

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“Nobody knew it was there,” Riley said. “It was just a run-of-the-mill bookcase.”

READ ALSO:Shooter Injures Five Soldiers At US Military Base

It was clearly an early Hobbit at first glance, so I just pulled it out and began to flick through it, never expecting it to be a true first edition,” she said.

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“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” she added, calling it an “unimaginably rare find”.

The copy is bound in light green cloth and features rare black-and-white illustrations by Tolkien, who created his beloved Middle-earth universe while he was a professor at the University of Oxford.

The book was passed down in the family library of Hubert Priestley, a botanist connected to the university.

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“It is likely that both men knew each other,” according to Auctioneum, which said Priestley and Tolkien shared mutual correspondence with author C.S. Lewis, who was also at Oxford.

“The Hobbit”, which was followed by the epic series “The Lord of the Rings”, has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide.

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The sagas were turned into a hit movie franchise in the 2000s.

A first edition of “The Hobbit” with a handwritten note in Elvish by the author sold for £137,000 at Sotheby’s in June 2015.

AFP

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Relief For Applicants As Germany Eases Visa Process, Opens Visa Centres In Nigeria, Others

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Germany has expanded its Schengen visa services by launching four new application centres in Africa and the Middle East, including two in Nigeria.

The centres, located in Abuja, Lagos (Nigeria), Yaoundé (Cameroon), and Nicosia (Cyprus), are part of a new seven-year partnership between Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and VFS Global, the international visa processing firm.

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Until now, Nigerians applying for German Schengen visas had to go through the German Embassy in Abuja or the Consulate General in Lagos, where limited capacity and high demand often caused delays and long appointment wait times.

READ ALSO:Immigration Issues Travel Advisory To Nigerians On US Visas

The new visa centres are expected to significantly ease the process, cut down on waiting periods, and improve overall access for applicants.

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Germany continues to be a major destination for Africans and Middle Easterners pursuing education, healthcare, tourism, and job opportunities.

Meanwhile, VFS Global has issued a warning to the public about fake websites and individuals offering fraudulent visa appointments for a fee.

Recent figures indicate Nigeria had a 45.9% Schengen visa rejection rate in 2024—the third-highest globally after Bangladesh.

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