New for Entrepreneur and Investor applicants from 1 September 2015: overseas criminal certificate.

By 1st 4Immigration - #1 UK Immigration Experts -
If you are considering making an application under a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) or (Investor) category from outside the UK (known as Entry Clearance), from 1 September 2015 you will need to provide a criminal records check (ie a certificate) from each county where you lived for at least 12 months in the last 10 years (excluding the UK as this can be checked on the UKVI system).

It will also apply to the adult dependants of the main applicant.

If it may take a long time to obtain such a certificate in your country, you can avoid doing it by making your application in August. You can submit the online application form and pay a Home Office fee before 1 September for your application to be deemed as "submitted in August", even if your appointment to submit the documents and biometrics is some time after that. This is because of the term of ‘date of application’, which is based on the date of payment in the overseas applications.

The general logic does not change, all visa applicants have to declare all criminal convictions, from however long ago, on the application forms. Then the visa officers consider these, if any, under the General Grounds of Refusal, which apply to all applications under the Points-Based System. The change is having to provide an official document to prove it.    

For an individual advice or to make an application please contact us: info@1st4immigration.com or visit www.1st4immigration.com

If you are an Immigration Adviser or a Solicitor please visit our immigration Training and CPD website: www.1st4immigration.com/training
 

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