UK Entrepreneur Visa

The business-minded individuals who are intended to set up and expand their business in the United Kingdom should apply for a visa under this category. The country offers excellent business opportunities, and whether you want to run one or multiple businesses in the UK, the entrepreneur visa has got you covered.

The Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa not only facilitates the applicants, but it is also applied to the applicants’ immediate family members including children who are under the age of eighteen years and the spouses. Basically, the Entrepreneur Visa is issued for 40 months. However, it can be extended for about two more years.

The first category applicants are allowed to apply for the citizenship of UK, only if they have lived in the country for at least six years. Moreover, the individuals who create at least ten job opportunities or get a minimum of £5 million as annual turnover can apply for the British Citizenship after their residency of five years in the United Kingdom.

Eligibility Criteria

The United Kingdom follows a point-based system. In order to be a successful applicant for the UK Entrepreneur Visa, you must earn enough points on the point-based assessment. These points depend on multiple factors. Some of these include the funds that the applicant has for investment in a business, the ability to speak English Language, and availability of enough maintenance funds for bearing the living expenses in the United Kingdom.

Requirements

All the applicants need a minimum of 95 points to qualify for the entrepreneur visa. These points are associated with different attributes that also depend on whether you are applying for the initial visa or for an extension. You can score 10 points for good English language skills and 10 points for having maintenance funds. Any applicant who fails to get at least 5 scores for attributes and 10 scores for the availability of enough maintenance funds along with 10 points for English language skills, he will not be qualified for the visa, and his application will be rejected.

Application Process

Step 1

You can choose the self-assessment of your application to find out how much points you can score by using the points calculators available online. You should use these calculators to check that whether you can qualify for the visa or not before submitting your application.

Step 2

All applicants are required to send their application form, supporting documents and the fee to visa application center. Make sure you attach all the required documents and supporting evidence with the application. Once the decision is made by the authorities, any evidence provided will not be considered. Once the entry permit is issued to the applicant as an entrepreneur, he/she will be allowed to stay and work in the UK for 3 years and 4 months. When your permitted period to stay is about to end, you can apply for an extension of visa for another two years. Remember that you will have to apply for an extension before your initial visa expires.

Application Requirements

For submitting the initial application for Entrepreneur Visa, you must fulfil the following requirements.

• The applicants must have easy access to £200,000. This amount of money must be maintained for at least consecutive months.

• All the applicants must keep their funds in any one or multiple regulated financial institutes.

• All the funds should be easily disposable. It refers that the applicants’ funds must be transferable to the United Kingdom.

• If the applicants have a graduation degree in English, they will have to clear the NARIC assessment of academic credentials or meet certain English language requirements.

The applicants who are applying for the extension of their entrepreneur visa, they must meet the following criteria for qualifying.

• They must register their business within the first 6 months of their stay in the United Kingdom.

• They must not be employed in any other company or organization.

• They must have excellent English Language skills.

• They must keep their maintenance funds in a regulated financial organization for a minimum of 90 days.

• The applicants must invest at least £200,000 in business in the United Kingdom.

• The applicants must produce at least 2 jobs for one year.