The Tier 1- Entrepreneur visa has been designed for people from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland who wish to come to the UK to establish a new business and work in the capacity of running that business.
BASIC REQUIREMENTS
To apply for the Tier-1 Entrepreneur Visa the applicant must fulfill the following basic requirements:
• He must be at least 16 years old.
• Must meet the English Language requirement
• Must meet the maintenance requirement. This means that in addition to the funds required for investment he must provide evidence of having personal funds of £945 (if applying from within the UK), or £3,310 (if applying from outside the UK) to satisfy the UKBA that he will be able to maintain and accommodate himself and his dependants (if any) without resorting to the UK public funds.
• The most important requirement is to have access to either-
At least £200,000 and,
1. All the funds need to have been held in one or more regulated financial institutions.
2. All the above funds need to be free to be spent in the UK. or
At least £50,000 from,
1. One or more UK entrepreneurial seed funding competitions listed as endorsed on the UK Trade and Investment website, or
2. One or more registered venture capital firms regulated by the Financial Services Authority, or
3. One or more UK Government departments, that have made the funds available for the specific purpose of establishing or expanding a UK business.
SHARING INVESTMENT FUNDS
An applicant can form an 'entrepreneurial team' with another Tier-1 (Entrepreneur) applicant and share the investment funds. Both the team members must meet all the eligibility criteria of the application and must not use the same funds on another application with a different entrepreneurial team.
DOCUMENTS REQUIRED
The following documents are needed at the time of application:
• A current passport or a valid travel identification.
• A passport sized coloured photograph.
• Evidence of the investment funds.
• A genuine business plan.
• Evidence of maintenance funds.
• Proof of the English Language Requirements.
• His tuberculosis(TB) test if the applicant is from a country this test is necessary in.
• A criminal record certificate from any country the applicant has lived in 12 months or more in the last 10 years.
SWITCHING
If an individual is already staying in the UK under Tier 1 (Post study Worker) visa he can switch to the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa and extend their stay in the UK.
DURATION OF STAY
Initially this visa is provided for a period of 3 years and 4 months, and it is possible to extend the visa by another 2 years, whereby the applicant will have to prove that He has created new jobs for British citizens or settled workers and he is engaged in business activities.
After successfully staying in the UK for 5 years it becomes possible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) that is permanent residency. In order to achieve this an applicant will need to show that he meets the residency requirements of staying in the UK for at least 185 days per year. It is possible to accelerate this route to ILR to 3 years if the applicant can prove to have created 10 jobs or a total turnover of £5 million.
DOs and DON'Ts
An applicant can:
Set up a new business or take over one or more running business in the UK.
Bring his dependants with him and these dependants can work or study in the UK.
An applicant can't.
Get public funds.
Do any work outside his business, for instance work where he is employed by another business.
