With money from his family and profits from the skin care business he ran in Syria, Elias Sabee applied for the Quebec Immigrant Investor Program in 2008.

He invested $120,000 in cash into the province’s economy through Desjardins Trust Inc., an intermediary, and took out a loan to finance the balance of the required $400,000 total to meet the threshold of the immigration program in exchange for permanent residency. Then the waiting began