Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa Indefinite Leave to Remain

Our Client was granted an Entrepreneur Visa 3 years ago on the basis of an innovative business which had not yet been seen in the UK. However, soon after his arrival in the United Kingdom Our Client’s businesses in his home country encountered some difficulties which meant that he had to return back to his home country.

Over the three year period of his Visa, Our Client spent a vast majority of time in Pakistan and found it difficult to fulfil his residency requirements in the UK. In addition to this, Our Client was unable to kickstart the intended business in the UK but rather established a business which he had not had approved by the Home Office in the UK.

In terms of the absences, we advised our Client that it was important to understand the reasons for his absences from the UK. We advised that if we could show that the absences were not in his control and that there were compassionate and/or compelling circumstances surrounding this, we could request the Secretary of State to use her discretion and not use this against our Client. We worked with our Client to understand each of the extensive trips outside the UK so that we could determine what would be considered as compassionate and what wouldn’t.

Our Client was able to provide us with the rest of the documentation relating to the other requirements. We advised our Client that we should provide a Business Plan for the new business which was establish rather than the intended one. This will help demonstrate that Our Client was still a genuine entrepreneur and was operating a genuine business.

After a wait of approximately two weeks, the Home Office contacted us to advise that Our Client had been granted a Visa.

Our Client missed the deadline for her to extend her Visa but nonetheless submitted an application around 3 weeks after her Visa had expired. After 4 months, the Home Office had written to her to ask for evidence in support of the Application as the evidence provided was not enough.

Our Client contacted us having spoken to a number of other immigration advisors since receiving the correspondence from the Home Office. She mentioned that all the advisors she has spoken to her advised that she was unlikely to be successful with her application. She was unsure now if she should proceed with the application.

We then went through our Client’s documents and the current Guidance released by the Home Office regarding the Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa extensions. This was key as the Home Office had introduced concessions in light of the Pandemic to help applicants in their extension applications.

We advised Our Client that she could rely on these concessions however she would need to provide additional documents. We advised her on all the Documents that would be needed for the application however time was of the essence as the Home Office had only provided her with 14 days to submit her evidence. We considered an extension request but Our Client was eager to submit ASAP.

After a wait of 10 days, the Home Office notified our Client that her application for the Extension has been granted.

Our Client approached us with approximately two months remaining on his Visa. We noted from Our Client’s paperwork that he was short by 2 months regarding the job creation requirement. We noted that our Client’s visa was expiring before he could fulfil the Job Creation requirement so we had to strategise with our Client to ensure that we could take him to the required time despite his visa expiring earlier.

We advised the Client that we should submit the application for the extension of the Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa to ensure that his Visa does not expire. However, given that the process of submitting applications can take time, this would give us the opportunity to fulfil a further two months and the Job Creation Requirement.

We provided our Client with a Documents List which outlined all documents needed for a successful application. We advised our Client that he should provide us the documents needed to fulfil the Job Creation requirement. We prepared the Legal Representations and the application and submitted on behalf of the Client. Following the submission of the Application, Our Client was unable to book his Biometric Appointment at the Visa Application Centre which meant that the delay helped in allowing the Client to fulfil the Job Creation Requirement.

As enough time has now lapsed, we then submitted a variation of the initial application but now providing all details regarding the Job Creation Requirement. The initial application would be withdrawn and the application fee would be refunded by the Home Office and the new varied application would be considered by the Home Office.

After approximately 6 weeks, we received notification from the Home Office that our Client’s application for an extension was granted.

We were approached by Our Client who required assistance with applying for the extension of his Entrepreneur Visa Application. For his initial entry clearance application, he was able to prepare and submit the application himself. In this instance however, he required help as he had not invested the full £200,000 into his business and he was unsure as to how this could be tackled in the application.

We advised our Client that in some instances, the Home Office are willing to consider applications in which the full £200,000 has not been invested by the Applicant in the Business. We advised our Client that this only can happen in very specific circumstances and therefore needed to analyse his Company Accounts and whether he still had access to the full amount for the Investment.

Applying the Guidance, we were able to rely on specific sections which would allow Our Client to extend his Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa in the UK. Our Client was happy with the strategy and we began to prepare his application for submission. When the Client provided us with his documentation, we noted that some documents were contradictory in nature and this could lead to a negative decision from the Home Office. Our Immigration Team advised Our Client of further evidence which he could provide which would explain the contradiction.

Following the submission of the Application, Our Client was contacted by the Home Office caseworker to provide further evidence in support of the application. We advised Our Client of what further evidence can be supplied to the Home Office to respond to their queries. We prepared additional legal representations to explain the relevance of the documents.

After 5 days, we received notification from the Home Office advising that Our Client had been granted his extension.

Our Client had established an African restaurant in the UK. She had been residing in the UK with her family for 3 years and wished to extend her Visa for a further two years. Over the years, Our Client had invested her £200,000 into the business through a Director’s Loan which required a specific set of documents to be provided as part of the Application. Through our initial conversation, it became clear that whilst she had access to £200,000, she did not transfer the full amount into the Business Account, but rather used her Personal Account interchangeably with the Business Account.

We needed to ensure that Our Client had not inadvertently made mistakes in the previous three years of her business so we decided the best approach would be to provide her with a Documents List so that she can provide us all the documents for us to review and to advise her accordingly. It was important to have access to all her documents so that we could cross-reference the documents to ensure that there were no contradictions.

Thankfully, the only issue related to the investment funds. We thoroughly review both her personal and business bank statements to identify transactions which related to the Business. We demonstrated that the investment funds were made up of a Director’s loan and a Cash Investment.

After a wait of approximately three weeks, we were notified by the Home Office that our Client and her family members had been granted an extension to their Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa for a further two years.

Our Client had entered the UK on a Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa and had established his business here. He had forgotten to maintain his personal bank account in order to satisfy the Maintenance Requirement. The issue however was that the Maintenance Requirements states that the account balance should be maintained for 3 months however his visa was due to expire in 30 days.

Our Client thought that he could only rely on one bank account for the 3 month period, however this was a misconception. We advised him that we could rely on any bank account in any country as long as he was listed as the Account holder, this included joint accounts.

We requested from Our Client all Bank Statements from all Bank Accounts that he was listed on, including with his wife and children. We were able to demonstrate that from a range of accounts, the balance never fell below the required amount for the 3 months period.

The Home Office, after considering the application for four days notified us that Our Client’s application for leave to remain had been successful. This brought much relief to Our Client as he could now plan to bring his family to the UK.