Entrepreneur Visas

Our lawyers specialise in assisting clients who wish to remain in the UK will come to the UK in order to set up a joint businesses.

We think that the lawyers should not only be able to navigate the immigration process for you, but should also be able to recognise the unique part of your business and understand how they fit together with the immigration process.

Our lawyers will always ensure that they:

• understand your business or business plans,
• understand you,
• understand your future plans,
• and will then advise you about how you can best make those plans a reality inside UK.

We’re also able to advise where possible about which businesses on most suited to both the Entrepreneur Visa and Visa requirements generally in the UK. We ensure that that we handle the process from beginning to the end.

Our lawyers have even been able to advise on a limited basis on the business itself, giving tips about strategy and set up.

We think we add a great deal of value to clients because we place your business and your plans at the heart of the visa process.

Key aspects of our entrepreneur visa service are:

• Speed and Efficiency  – people who wish to setup businesses typically find it to have delays in their great plans moving forward and cannot wait to get started, our view is that this process should not be delayed overly by the requirement to get a Visa.
• Even those who already have businesses find that their time is at a premium. We take the burden of all the procedural requirements out of your hands  – leaving you to do what you do best  – building world-class businesses.
• Latest information –  our lawyers ensure that they are up to date with the latest entrepreneur these requirements, trends and approaches being followed by the home office as well as processing times and all the different locations around the world with the application can be made.
• Experience – It is this unwritten knowledge that means that we go beyond what is simply written on the home office’s website –  we do this to ensure that the visas granted all time every time.
• Business contacts they are able to advise both during the immigration process and immediately afterwards about other service providers who can assist.
• We work with the best business plan writers in the country who can provide useful assistance and guidance in making your business reality.
• We work with leading accountants you again can advise on the processes and procedures regarding HMRC.
• We also work with leading business lawyers if these are needed.

The requirements of the Entrepreneur Visa

The requirements of the these are subject to change and you should contact our lawyers for the  latest changes.

However it is important to know that generally there’re four major requirements for entrepreneur visa.

English Language

The first is the requirement to speak English. This is broken down essentially as follows. You meet the requirements if :

• you’re are a national English speaking country,
• you are the holder of a degree level or above qualification accepted by the Home Office in English,
• You are otherwise exempt, or;
• You had undertaken  anEnglish examination which is accepted by the Home Office (such as the IELTS test. Our lawyers can not only advise on this issue but for our clients we can also book in the appointment.

The 200,000 seed capital

The next requirement is the individuals are able to invest £200,000 into their business, on occasion this will be £50,000 but this is only a limited circumstances and you call our lawyers for more information.

Taking the £200,000 scenario as our paradigm, these funds have to be cleared and not subject to any restrictions and be transferable to the UK. They can however be in the UK already as long as they’ve entered in UK in the last 12 months and also can be held in a third party’s name they cannot be held in a company account.

You should contact our immigration lawyers further guidance on this often complex issue.

Maintenance

The Home Office also requires that individuals and their families have enough maintenance funds to live on prior to their application to come to the UK and these funds are to be held for 90 days in the main applicant’s account and in potentially limited situations in the dependent’s account.

The evidence of this must be shown in the application and these funds must be held in the individual’s name – not in a company name and should not have dipped below a minimum balance.

At the time of writing and since April 2014, the rules require £3310 to be held by the main applicant and £1900 to be held either by or on behalf of each of the dependents to the application.

Genuine Entrepreneur Test

The final requirement is perhaps the most complex and clearly the most objective. The requirements of the entrepreneur visa since 31 January 2013 has been to also prove to immigration authorities that there is a genuine intention to set up a business which is valid and will be running in the United Kingdom. This is a difficult question to answer. Applicants often find it difficult to prove their future intention. And this is where we believe we had the most value to clients.

We are able to advise in a very common sense manner on the following issues:

• which businesses that are suitable for the entrepreneur test;
• which businesses are not suited;
• which forms of evidence the Home Office would find persuasivein meeting this test;
• how to link the individuals previous experience and history to the business they want to do;
• our general strategies in meeting these tests.

Beyond the Visa

Our lawyers can also clearly advise on the process beyond obtainingthe visa.

If there is no clear plan on how to extend the visa in three years time , this can cause issues. We therefore advise our clients right from the outset how their plan will work in three years time.

We aim to project manage and advise our clients as regards the whole process right up to the point of indefinite leave to remain and up to obtaining a British passport.

Contact our immigration office today for clear focused advice on immigration and business.

PSW Entrepreneur visa

In April 2012 a variation of the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa was introduced for holders of the now closed Tier 1 Post-Study work visa (PSW) to switch in to the entrepreneur category with only £50,000 seed capital, the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa allows an applicant and their dependants to remain in the UK on the basis of their business.

In order to qualify an applicant must prove the following:

• They hold a valid PSW visa
• Evidence of funds totalling £50,000
• Adequate English
• Adequate living costs (maintenance)
• Ability to set-up new or join an existing business in the UK that is viable
• They have already registered as either a director or a self-employed person
• Their business provides graduate level services in line with Level 4 or above of the Tier 2 Codes of Practice
• Evidence that the business is trading its services

If the above can be demonstrated using specified documentation a grant of 3 years leave will be granted, this leave can be extended for a further 2 years. At the 5 year point the applicant can then apply for Permanent residency and subsequently nationality one year later.

This visa category is perfect for applicant’s whom have a skilled business with little start-up costs or overheads, It will allow a holder the freedom to run several businesses and use their time growing their own business or offering their services as a contractor.

The above process can also be completed with another applicant creating a team, meaning that the total funding between the two applicants would be £50,000 (£25,000 each). If the applicant does not wish to start their business or it is not yet trading before they apply or their business activity is not that of a graduate level service then they would not qualify for this visa, they would therefore need to apply for the £200,000 category.

Some important aspects of the PSW Entrepreneur visa:

Obligations

• Invest the funds in one of more of their own business’ within the first 3 years
• Employee 2 settled workers for at least 12 months in the first 3 years
• No investment in companies that engage in property management or property investment
• Holder may not take paid employment with any organisation of which they are not a director, contracting however is allowed.

Rights

• Holder can run one or more business as via a limited company or self-employed person
• Holder and dependants can spend up to 180 days outside the UK  per 12 months without affecting the visa status or permanent residency
• Holder can undertake part-time study
• Right of access to the NHS for the holder and dependants
• Right of access to schools and higher education for dependants
• Dependants may take paid employment without restrictions

Reward

• Permanent residency after 5 years
• Permanent residency after 3 years if the holders business employs 10 settled staff for 12 months or has a combined 3 year turnover of £5 million
• Nationality for all holder and dependants after 6 years if permanent residency is achieved
• Time spent on the visa can be combined with other visa categories to create 10 years long residency rights