UK Entrepreneur Visa Success Stories

Our immigration barristers have assisted many individuals and their families to enter and remain in the UK under the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa route.  Our clients have included interior designers, musicians, artists, café and restaurant owners, business analysts, HR consultants, IT consultants, investment managers, estate agents, mobile app developers, games developers and fashion designers, to name but a few.

UK Entrepreneur Visa Success Stories

For example:

• Our immigration barristers assisted a citizen of Kenya to obtain a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa that allowed her to set up a new business in the UK importing high quality preserved roses from Ecuador. Our client’s Entrepreneur visa application was approved within one week and without her being called for an interview.

• The Richmond Chambers immigration team acted for a successful South African businessman who wished to relocate his family to the UK. We were able to introduce our client to a UKTI-approved business advisory firm which assisted him to identify a suitable investment opportunity. Our immigration barristers then prepared a successful Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa application based on an investment into an existing UK games console business.

• Our immigration barristers assisted an Egyptian national relocate to the UK as a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur). Our client came to us after receiving a refusal of her application on the grounds that she was not a Genuine Entrepreneur. After she changed her business idea, we prepared a fresh application and with detailed legal representations were able to convince the Home Office that despite their previous findings, she is a genuine entrepreneur.

• We represented an Australian wealth management professional in his appeal proceedings against a decision of UK Visas and Immigration to refuse his Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa application. Our immigration barristers successfully persuaded an Immigration Judge that a Linkedin profile did constitute ‘advertising or marketing’ material. Our client was granted leave to remain as a Tier 1 Entrepreneur, allowing him to continue running his investment management firm.

• We assisted our client, a national of Jordan, to apply for accelerated settlement as a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) migrant. We were able to persuade the Home Office that he met the job creation requirement of 10 jobs by relying on a combination of employment of 20 different individuals. We were also successful in convincing the Home Office that our client satisfied the Genuine Entrepreneur test, as it applies at the settlement stage.

• Our client, a citizen of Hong Kong, was a successful property investor who wished to relocate to the UK. Understanding that the Immigration Rules for Tier 1 Entrepreneurs did not permit investment into companies mainly engaged in property development or investment, we assisted our client to successfully apply for a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa on the basis of a proposal to establish a real estate marketing agency in the UK.

• We assisted a Kuwaiti furniture designer to set up a furniture design studio in the UK. Having already spent half of her investment funds on business-related purchases, our client was concerned that she would not be able to satisfy the investment funds requirement for a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa. We persuaded the Home Office that her existing purchases could be treated as an investment made into the business and therefore, taken together with our client’s additional savings, the investment funds requirement was satisfied.

• We assisted a Nigerian Entrepreneur whose visa application had been refused on the erroneous basis that he could not rely on investment and maintenance funds held in the same bank account. Following our written representations, UKVI withdraw their refusal decision and granted our client entry clearance as a Tier 1 Entrepreneur without his case going to court. We also helped our client to negotiate a significant reduction in the standard UKVI visa processing time, thereby enabling him to enter the UK without further delay.

• We acted for a citizen of Iran who wished to extend her stay in the UK as a Tier 1 Entrepreneur in order to continue running her café in North London. Relying upon a combination of personal money that she had invested into her UK incorporated business by way of a director’s loan and savings gifted by her mother and father, we guided our client through the complex documentary evidence requirements of the Immigration Rules and provided her with practical advice in relation to satisfying the genuine entrepreneur test.

• Our immigration barristers assisted a Chinese national to apply for judicial review of a decision to refuse his application for entry clearance as a Tier 1 Entrepreneur on genuineness and credibility grounds. Having reviewed our legal arguments, the Home Office withdrew their refusal letter and granted our client a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa without the case going to court.

• We prepared a successful Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa application for a citizen of Chile, together with dependant visa applications for his family members. Relying on investment funds held overseas, we were able to satisfy the Home Office that the funds were genuinely available for an investment into a solar panel asset leasing business and that our client was a genuine entrepreneur with a credible and viable business plan.

• Our client, a successful businessman from Nigeria, obtained a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa in order to continue running his UK company providing investment opportunities to high net worth individuals in West Africa wishing to settle in the UK. He relied on a combination of his share capital in the UK company of which he was a director and a gift from his wife in order to satisfy the investment funds requirement.

• Our client, a citizen of Russia, was a professional concert pianist who, after completing his music studies in the UK, had set up a music tuition business whilst on a Tier 1 Post-Study Work visa. We prepared a successful application for him to extend his stay in the UK as a Tier 1 Entrepreneur in order to continue running his music tuition business.

• Our immigration barristers succeeded in overturning a decision of the Home Office to refuse a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa application by a citizen of Nigeria on the basis that he had not signed every page of a copy contract. We persuaded an Immigration Judge that the Home Office should have exercised evidential flexibility and afforded our client an opportunity to sign the pages of the contract, rather than simply refusing his application. He was subsequently granted leave to remain as a Tier 1 Entrepreneur.

• The Richmond Chambers immigration team acted for an up and coming fashion designer from Japan in his appeal proceedings. We successfully overturned a decision of the Home Office to refuse his Tier 1 Entrepreneur application by persuading an Immigration Judge that the evidence submitted in support of the application did demonstrate that our client’s fashion business was trading.

Contact our Entrepreneur Immigration Barristers

For advice and assistance in relation to an application for entry clearance, further leave to remain or settlement as a Tier 1 Entrepreneur, contact our immigration barristers in London on 0203 617 9173 or via our enquiry form below.