10 weeks of Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa tips – Week 3 – Raise the funds that will remain available after you secure your visa.
Another day, another request for advice from a client to extend his Entrepreneur
visa but ... “there is no money”. This
is a typical scenario – and a cry for help -
we see, which is rapidly becoming very common. A migrant had an initial Entrepreneur
visa issued 3 years ago, having provided evidence of £200,000 (often borrowed
from their families).
Now, 3 years later, his visa is about to expire and he needs to apply
for extension. One of the conditions, however, is that this money had been
invested in a UK business. In a typical scenario, we see investment of only a
quarter of that amount. The rest of the money isn’t there and often was
returned to the family.
Although this concerns a visa extension stage, we would strongly advise
to think about this during the initial application. On one hand, it is a part
of the Genuine Entrepreneur Test that the funds are “genuinely” available and
will continue to be available. The visa officers will be using the balance
of probabilities principle. In plain language it means they will be “guessing”
, based on your evidence and previous history, whether you are likely to run a business
and invest the funds, or whether you are likely to do precisely what they are
worried about – obtain a visa, come to the UK and do something else.
On the other hand, 3 years of the initial visa may seem like a long
time, but in practice, time goes by very fast, and you will be facing a major
problem when trying to extend. The Immigration Rules do not require to invest
the funds on equal amounts per year, for example, the rule is to have invested
within 3 years. Strictly speaking, it could be the whole amount of £200,000
just one day before applying for extension, but it is unlikely to pass the “genuineness”
test.
Our advice – it is better to wait and raise genuine funds and apply for
a visa when you are genuinely ready. Once in the UK, to genuinely follow the
visa conditions. We covered some of the “genuineness” aspects in the post last
week.
For
individual advice or to make an application please contact usinfo@1st4immigration.com or
visit http://www.1st4immigration.com/index.php We
respond emails on the same working day! 1st 4Immigration Ltd, authorised by the
OISC, ref 200800152. we operate at the highest Level 3 of expertise. Office
address: 68 King William Street, City of London, London, EC4M 7DZ.
