Extending your UK entrepreneur visa: Five tips to ensure a successful extension application
The process of submitting an Entrepreneur application and awaiting a response can be stressful and time-consuming. After it is all over, you may feel nothing but relief and excitement at the prospect of starting your new business. However, there are a number of steps that you must take with regard to your business, to ensure that your leave to remain as an entrepreneur in the UK is not curtailed. Planning ahead at an early stage will also lay the foundation for a successful extension application in a little over three years’ time.
Apart from moving to the UK and enjoying your new business, these are our top 5 recommendations to ensure that you and your business are in the best position to stay in the UK:
Tip 1: Ensure that your investment funds remain available to you until they are invested into your business
It is possible for the Home office to perform spots checks on your investment and if your funds are no longer available, your leave in the UK could be curtailed.
Tip 2: Register as a director or as self-employed within six months
If you decide to extend your stay in the UK after the initial grant of leave, you will need to show that you were registered as a director of a UK business or as self-employed within the six months after you were granted leave or the date that you entered the UK. You will also need to show that you were either registered as a director of a UK business or self-employed in the three months prior to making your extension application. While there is no requirement to be working for the same business or for registration to be continuous, it is important to bear this requirement in mind when you make business decisions.
Tip 3: Invest your money into your business
By the time you make your extension application, you need to have invested all of your money into your business. There is no requirement that you do this all in one go, or an amount that you must invest each year, so long as it has all been invested by the time you make your extension application. You do not have to invest all your money into one business, so there is some flexibility if your plans change over the years.
Tip 4: Start thinking about how and when you will create jobs for your business
A requirement for an extension application as an Entrepreneur is that you have created the equivalent of two full time jobs that have existed for at least 12 months. This means that you need to be in a position to increase the number of employees in an existing business by the equivalent of two people or create the equiavelent of two jobs in a new business at least a year prior to your leave expiring. This is not a requirement that you can just rush through in the weeks before you make your next application, but is something that will take time and careful planning over the initial years.
Tip 5: Collect your documents as they become available
As with your initial application, there are a large number of specified evidence requirements that you will need to meet in order to be successful in your extension application. In particular there are very strict requirements for evidencing that your investment was actually made into the business and the form that this investment can take, as well as detailed requirements to evidence your job creation. In order to make the process easier, you can start collecting documents that you know are going to be important as you run your business now. These may include your accounts, bank statements and employment records. The earlier that you identify any potential problems with your next application, the easier it will be to address them.
For further advice or assistance with preparing an application for entry clearance or leave to remain as a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) migrant, contact our immigration barristers in Covent Garden, London on 0203 617 9173 or by email info@richmondchambers.com.
