What counts as a 'qualifying relationship' between the foreign and Canadian companies for an intra-company transfer?

A qualifying relationship for an intra-company transfer means the foreign company and the Canadian company must be related through common ownership or control — for example, as parent and subsidiary, as branches of the same company, or as affiliates under shared ownership. It is a corporate-structure test, not simply a business relationship between two separately owned companies.

The nuance that catches people off guard is that being connected by contract, by a franchise agreement, or by a licensing arrangement to use a shared brand name is generally not enough on its own, even if the companies present themselves publicly as part of the same brand family. IRCC looks past how a relationship is described on paper or in marketing materials and examines the real corporate ownership and control structure — who actually owns and controls each entity, and how that ownership connects the two companies. Two companies operating under the same brand but owned by entirely separate, unrelated shareholders would generally not meet this test, no matter how closely their branding or operations appear to overlap. Because verifying a qualifying relationship often involves reviewing corporate records, shareholder structures, and organizational charts in detail, and because IRCC scrutinizes this closely, applicants should have their corporate structure reviewed by an immigration lawyer before relying on an intra-company transfer application.