- Hi, I'm Tom Bradford.
This is a guide to the tier one investor visa.
I'm going to share with you some stories
from my clients who have applied successfully
under this route, and we're gonna look at the key points
in these diagrams.
You do need to bear in mind
when applying, and the options available to you
before you apply.
So before we start, I'm Tom Bradford,
I'm a barrister and partner at the law firm Freeths.
If you would like to subscribe, this is a series,
so click the notification bell
to get more on the tier one investor visa scheme
and the options available to you.
So let's start with a diagram.
You can see here that there are various routes available.
I'm actually starting here,
with the amount that you have to invest
under the entrepreneur routes.
Although here you will see that
the amount that you have to invest
under the tier one investor visa scheme
are significantly higher, so two million,
five million, and ten million.
So I applied successfully under the 10 million route,
for example, for a client who sold his business,
his company in the UK,
and it was important for him to be able to
naturalise his British citizen as fast as possible
but secure indefinite leave to remain
as fast as possible as well.
And that provided him with the two year route
for doing so.
If you invest five million,
then you set your concession in the UK after three years,
and then two million after five years.
Now the reason I'm highlighting these other routes as well
and the entrepreneur scheme
is that the tier one investor fee's a scheme.
It has become less attractive to some recently.
It used to be, basically, a completely passive regime.
One could invest the two million pounds, for example,
and that could be invested via a dependent,
so a wife, for example, in this consolation
if the husband was a breadwinner,
which is typically the case in my experience,
then the husband would be free to, as a dependent,
not to come into the UK
for half of the year.
As the main applicant, his wife would.
He would be free to pursue business interests elsewhere,
and wouldn't have to be actively involved at all,
except as a passive investment,
with an exit strategy as well
at the end of the period.
But it's a passive investment.
But that meant that he could settle as a dependent,
or barely set foot in the UK
after the relevant period,
so five years in the case of the two million pound route.
That's now not the case,
they have amended the rules
so that you need to be in the UK,
or not out of the UK for any more than 180 days,
and you need to do that in order to qualify
for indefinite leave to remain.
Now if you're going to be in the UK anyway,
and that's your objective,
then I definitely want you to consider
these lower routes.
So these lesser sums that one can invest in the UK
as the means to achieving an immigration outcome.
Settlement in the first instance,
and then after that,
naturalising as a British citizen.
Now the difference with the entrepreneur routes
is that the sum you invest
has got to be accompanied by some activity.
So, a business activity,
a business plan,
job creation, and various other criteria.
But underlying it is the investment of a sum of money,
just like with the investor visa route.
The most common route is the £200,000 one.
I've put in a seperate route, so you can see £100,000.
The reason I've put that in,
it's not a distinct route, but I'm acting, for example,
for two kinds at the moment, who are applying
as an entrepreneurial team,
and combining funds into a joint account.
So it's affectively £100,000 each.
So that is a distinct route, to that extent,
applying as an entrepreneurial team.
And then the £50,000 route is sort of two falls,
there's the graduate entrepreneur route,
and there is a route that involves
securing seed funding, or government grant,
or venture capital,
which means that you can invest at that lower sum.
So I'm gonna be producing videos in this series,
video guides on all of these different routes,
but I wanted to just give you that overview,
and highlight the points that really,
today,
there's,
for some, little to be gained
from applying under the investor visa routes,
which involves significantly higher amounts.
And as I say, for some,
the entrepreneur visa routes
and the lower sums that have to be invested
will be attractive.
Now for completeness, since we are looking at the overview,
there is an expedited route
under the entrepreneur route.
So you've seen in this previous diagram
that the more you invest,
the less time it takes to settle in the UK.
But I've put here with the entrepreneur routes,
so all at five years,
that it takes five years to...
To settle in the UK.
And I've got a separate diagram here,
which I was gonna come to in a moment,
but you can see here that you look in this five year period,
an initial application, and extension application
after three years, and then assessment application
at the five year point.
So let's just have a look
because I wanted to show you
that you can apply for an entrepreneur visa
and secure indefinite leave to remain
after three years.
That's if you increase the turnover of the business
by five million, or more,
or
you create 10 jobs in the UK, 10 full time jobs.
Now this latter one, 10 full time jobs,
is easier
for some to secure
than the five million pounds of turnover increase,
which is, for some, more difficult
to predict and plan for as an outcome,
than the creation of the jobs.
So there is an expedited route,
and if you compare this route, creating 10 jobs
within three years,
and you've got a, you know,
you've got a great business plan,
a great business idea...
And I'll come back to that.
Then, why would you invest five million pounds in the UK
to settle after three years?
If you've got to be in the UK to secure a settled status,
it seems to me that for many,
applying under this route
is going to be more attractive now,
now that they've amended this scheme
in commemoration to investor visas.
So as I say, there's two expedited routes
under the entrepreneur scheme.
So I wanted to touch briefly
on the entrepreneurial team provisions,
which I set out in this diagram,
and then also on the provisions,
more generally for initial applications.
As I say, the most common route is this 200,000 route.
If you're applying under the 50,000 route,
as you can see here, you've got to have seed funding,
a venture capital, or government grant.
And I've put down here, the graduate entrepreneur.
Now the funds need to be held in an approved bank,
so on a home office list,
so it's not a prohibited bank.
The funds need to be disposable in the UK.
And you can see that for each of these,
25 points is awarded for a total of 95 points,
which one needs to secure
for the initial application to be successful.
There's an English language requirement,
and a maintenance requirement.
So the area here, which is often very tricky for people,
is in fact, although it may not seem like it at first blush,
that the funds are
available
and can be transferred to the UK,
so they're transferrable to the UK.
Now the reason people struggle with this
is because the evidential requirements
are quite difficult to satisfy.
You need to produce a letter from the bank,
if it's outside of the UK, that is,
saying that effectively no one else
has a claim on the funds,
or they're not aware of any claim on the funds,
and they can be transferrable to the UK.
Now I think the reason why this causes
so much difficulty is that...
The banks'
risk threshold,
and their unwillingness to attract to claim
from such an undertaking, if you like,
or such a representation.
And that's perhaps understandable.
But you can see here from this template letter...
Let me just take you to the correct one.
The letter for...
This is a letter from an authorised financial institution,
that they really need to say...
The following amount of money is in your name
and is available for investment
in a business in United Kingdom,
or, as I'm saying, the applicant has agreed
to form an entrepreneurial team
and has the following amount of money in their own names
available for investment in the United Kingdom.
So that can cause difficulty.
In certain jurisdictions, there are capital controls
governing whether one can transfer money
after the jurisdiction,
and the bank are sometimes reluctant to deal with that.
So I highlight this,
simply because
if you're investing
in an existing business,
and you already have a bank account in the UK
to which you're a signaturee,
perhaps a business account
attached to a UK domiciled company,
then subject to any other director
who may be holding that account jointly with you,
giving consent, and giving a letter
which is similar to this but in slightly different terms,
then funds can,
in many cases, be transferred to the UK in advance,
and one can avoid the evidential difficulties
at consenting the banks.
Now, it's difficult
to open a bank account in the UK
if you don't have some form of residence here.
You can't generally do so on a visitor visa,
and that's the reason why people aren't generally able,
when applying for an entrepreneur visa,
to have funds in the UK, in a UK bank account.
If they are able to do so,
and we do deal with cases like this,
where they actually have the funds available in the UK,
then it's a much easier proposition.
One can produce bank statements
to show that the funds have been available for 90 days,
and confirmation from any joint account holder
who is a resident in the UK,
that they're available for investment in the business.
But, if you're not able to do that,
then unless you can become a signaturee
to a bank account for a business that is based in the UK,
as I say,
with a joint account holder who is
a resident in the UK,
then this is more of a difficult proposition.
We do have letters which are modified
from this template, which make it easier for you to secure
a letter from a foreign bank,
and we've obviously worked with different banks
that our clients have, and
can generally secure the required letter,
but many people have difficulties with this
if they're trying to represent themselves,
or if they haven't had experience in it before.
So I've flagged that.
And I just highlight this diagram here,
just to highlight the distinction.
It's a much easier proposition
if you have a bank account in the UK
and the funds are available in that account,
or can be transferred to that account in the UK.
If you have a foreign bank account,
you can encounter obstacles.
Some of the other evidential points
that I've just covered briefly
are the declarations of the availability
of third party funds.
Generally when we are doing applications,
we like to have the funds, our clients' funds available
in an account for 90 days.
That means that no further proof of provenance is required.
However,
given the surrounding requirements,
or accompanying requirements,
it's prudent to produce additional evidence
of the provenance of funds.
Ultimately, the home office quite understandably
needs to be satisfied that these are not, for example,
a process of crime.
And there's some other
documents I wanted to highlight,
just in emulation to this,
the requirement for job creation.
You must create two full time jobs in the UK,
lasting for 12 months.
Now this is just a diagram to highlight that point,
first of all, so creation of those jobs
within
the first three years before applying for
an extension application.
Interestingly, the money itself does not have to be invested
until
you come to apply for the extension application.
As long as it's invested before then,
then it qualifies for the purposes
of the extension application.
However, the reality is, it would usually be
invested if not in the beginning,
then incrementally over a period.
There's an overriding requirement
that this must be a genuine business,
and so if the funds aren't invested
for any significant period of time,
then that may raise questions
when you come to the extension stage.
This is just to highlight the absence requirements.
So you need to bear in mind
not only the absence requirements
for indefinite leave to remain,
so not more than 180 days outside of the country,
but also,
the absence requirement for naturalising
as a British citizen, if that's your objective.
Now I mentioned before that you need to wait a year
after settling in the UK
before applying naturalise as a British citizen.
But there, the absence requirements are more restrictive,
so unless you've organized your affairs
and residence to make sure
that you can apply with these,
then you can find yourself disappointed.
And here, it's 450 days, which is equivalent to half
the absence requirement for indefinite leave to remain,
so equivalent of 90 days a year,
and no more than 90 days in the last year.
So that's an important factor to bear in mind.
So those are the key points.
I hope this has been helpful.
If you want to subscribe
to the following episodes in this series,
and I'll just quickly run over what they are.
I'm going to deal in some detail
with the £50,000 route,
the £200,000 route,
which as I say, is the most common one,
and I'm also gonna deal with
processing times, how long does it take
for the application to be granted.
I'm going to deal with guides to the application form,
and the supporting documents that you need.
And we're also gonna look at success rates,
so success rates are pretty poor,
but as I'm gonna deal with in this video,
there's a reason for that.
Many applications are misconceived
in one respect to another,
but particularly in relation to the viability for business.
We're also gonna have a look at the interview process
and questions that you can be expected
to be asked when you apply,
the so called golden visa,
or whether there is a UK golden visa,
and I'm also gonna look more at the entrepreneurial teams
and as I say, what is basically a £1,000 route
if you're combining funds with another.
So thanks for listening,
and I will see you in the next episode.