Information For Individuals, Tier 1, UK Visas

Tier 1 Entrepreneur Extension Applications

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Are you interested in growing your business in order to apply for a Tier 1 Entrepreneur Extension Visa? Do you already hold a Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa? If so Commonwealth Contractors can help!

Requirements For Tier 1 Entrepreneur  Extension

Within 3 months

You must have complied with the requirement to

Either: become a Director of a UK business (either new or existing)

Or: Registered as Self Employed with HMRC

Within 2 years

Within a MAXIMUM of 2 years, you must have created 2 new full time (>30 hrs pw) PAYE (not self employed) jobs for UK ‘settled workers’ (or a net increase of 2 if taking over a pre existing business) ; these jobs must be shown to have existed for at least 12 months before you apply to extend the visa (this will be c3yrs after the initial approval, hance the need to create them within 2 years). This must be proved by:

  • Proof the employees are settled workers (passport pages)
  • copy of form P11 (or, if the P11 does not mention the start date, the original P45 or P46); the hourly rate to the employee must be mentioned to allow the hrs worked to be determined from the total pay.
  • Duplicate wage documents issued to the worker covering the whole period of employment of the worker.
  • Accountants letter confirming the new posts have been created

NB The above was last updated in Jan 2012. Regulations are subject to change and may not be the same when you come to apply to extend.

Accelerated settlement: New rules introduced in March 2011

If within 3 years you have

EITHER: Turned over £5m

OR Created 10 jobs,

then you may be able to apply for settlement after 3 years.

Settlement is conditional on, among other things, you not having spent more than 180days/year out of the UK in each year, and on passing a ‘Life in the UK’ test.

As with most parts of the UK immigration system, the above ‘tick boxes’ have been turned into notional points based requirements. The points based technicalities are summarised below:

Investment in UK Business (20 Points Available)

You must be able to prove that you have invested the level of funds detailed at the ‘initial application’ stage in the business.

Investment in UK Business

Points
You have invested, or had invested on your behalf, not less than £200,000 in cash directly into one or more businesses in the UKORYou have invested, or had invested on your behalf, not less than £50,000 in cash directly into one or more businesses in the UK (if you were awarded points in your initial application for having funds of £50,000 from registered venture capital firms, entrepreneurial seed funding competitions or UK government departments for the purpose of establishing or expanding a UK business)

20 Points

Registered as a Director or Self Employed (20 Points Available)

Registered as a Director or Self Employed

Points
You have:

  • Registered with HM Revenue & Customs as self-employed; OR
  • Registered a new business, of which you are a director; OR
  • Registered as a director of an existing business

If you are currently in the UK under Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) status, you must have registered no more than 6 months after:

  • The date when you arrived in the UK on a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa, if you applied from abroad; OR
  • The date when you were given a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa, if you applied from abroad and there is no evidence of your date of entry to the UK; OR
  • The date when you were first given permission to stay in the UK under Tier 1 (Entrepreneur), in any other case.

20 Points

Engaged in Business Activity (15 Points Available)

Engaged in Business Activity

Points
You are engaged in business activity at the time of your extension application, and you can prove that within the last 3 months earlier you have been:

  • Registered with HM Revenue & Customs as self-employed; or
  • Registered a new business in which you are a director; or
  • Registered as a director of an existing business.

15 Points

Created New Jobs (20 Points Available)

Created New Jobs

Points
You have:

  • Established a new business or businesses that has/have created the equivalent of at least 2 new full-time jobs for people settled in the UK; OR
  • Taken over or joined an existing business(es), and your services or investment have resulted in a net increase in the employment provided by the business(es) for people settled in the UK by creating the equivalent of at least 2 new full-time jobs.

If you are currently in the UK under Tier 1 (Entrepreneur), the jobs must have existed for at least 12 months of your current permission to stay

20 Points

English Language Requirement (10 points)

You will automatically meet this requirement if you are applying for a visa extension as you will have had to prove it when getting the initial visa.

Maintenance Requirement (10 Points)

You must be able to support yourself and your dependants without requiring access to public funds. Therefore the meet the maintenance requirement you must have, for yourself:

  • £2,800 in personal savings if you are applying from outside the UK, OR
  • £800 in personal savings if you are applying from Inside the UK

Also, for each dependant

  • £1,600 in personal savings if you are applying from outside the UK, OR
  • £533 in personal savings if you are applying from Inside the UK

(obviously most extensions will be from within the UK)

You may also like to read:
Tier 1 Entrepreneur Consulting Business

Find out More

To find out more about our solutions call now on 0330 390 9021 or Submit your Details and we will get right back to you!

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