Successful Sponsor Licence Application
Efficient and helpful. Amer and his Team are quick to respond to queries, even over the weekends and at night. Sponsor Licence granted after only 4 weeks. Thanks.
Daniel Johnson
Obtain Your Entrepreneur Visa ILR
Do you already hold a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa, and are interested in applying to extend this visa or for indefinite leave to remain (ILR)? If so, our Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa extension solicitors at Cranbrook Legal are ready and waiting to assist with your application.
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The Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa category closed to new applicants on 29 March 2019. However, if you already have a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa, you can still apply to extend your visa, or for family members to join you. It is also still possible to use an existing Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa as a route to settling in the UK, otherwise known as obtaining indefinite leave to remain (ILR).
We are one of the few immigration law firms actively working on Entrepreneur visa applications. We have a high level of commercial awareness, and are also highly knowledgeable as to the common reasons for Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa extension refusal. We are therefore well-placed to advise you to help ensure the success of your application.
We understand that COVID-19 may have affected your business, and you may be unsure whether – in light of this – you still meet the requirements for an extension of your Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa, or for settling in the UK. Fortunately, our experts are on hand to assist you in securing an extension orILR as a holder of the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa, whatever your present circumstances may be. For more information, please call 0208 215 0053.
Recent Entrepreneur Visa Success Stories
Our Entrepreneur visa extension UK solicitors do not just assist clients with extensions to this visa, but can also help existing holders of this visa to settle in the UK. This status is otherwise known as indefinite leave to remain, or ILR.
In order to obtain ILR as someone who already holds the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa, you are required to fulfil certain requirements set by the Home Office. These include – but are not limited to – meeting the English language requirements, passing the Government’s Life in the UK Test, and spending a certain amount of time in the UK.
Our commercially aware and experienced professionals will advise and guide you in relation to your application for a T1 Entrepreneur visa extension, or for ILR. We are one of the few remaining immigration law firms still actively working on extension or ILR applications for holders of this visa.
We also take great pride in our client-focused service, which places the emphasis on treating each and every case with care, dignity and total transparency, to help our clients achieve the outcomes they desire.
We realise that in recent times, for example, you might be worried that COVID-19’s impact on your business may have impacted on your ability to fulfil the requirements for ILR or a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa extension. Whatever your aspirations may be, we’ll work closely with you to help secure the best possible future in the UK for you and your family.
You can apply for ILR through the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa route if you satisfy the following conditions:
Holders of the Entrepreneur visa who apply for ILR between the ages of 18 and 64 are also required to:
Applications for ILR can also be refused for various reasons, including if you:
You will also need to meet the ‘continuous residence’ requirement if you are applying to settle in the UK as a holder of this visa. The term ‘continuous residence’ refers to the time you spend in the UK. During this time, you can only be outside the UK for up to 180 days in any 12-month period.
As an applicant for ILR, you are required to have been in the UK for three years if your business was new and either:
You are also entitled to apply to settle in the UK after three years if you took over an existing business and your net income from business activity in a three-year period has been at least £5 million.
If you do not meet the requirements for three years, ‘continuous residence’ is five years. Those three or five years can include time spent as a holder of either the Businessperson or Innovator visa.
If you are applying for an extension or indefinite leave to remain (ILR) as an existing holder of a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa, you will be required to show all of the necessary documentation to evidence that you have satisfied the requirements with regard to investment, business activity and job creation.
In addition, applicants for accelerated settlement will be expected to supply evidence to show they satisfy the criteria for at least one of the two accelerated settlement routes.
Applicants for a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa extension are required to do the following:
The evidence that you submit to the Home Office will be key to your efforts to secure a UK Entrepreneur visa extension. It is therefore crucial that you provide the documents the Home Office requires in order to assess your extension application. Any documents the Home Office asks for in this regard must be received by them within 28 days of the date of request.
With regard to the specific documents required, the Home Office will expect you to provide your business accounts and accompanying evidence of your investment. You will also need to supply documents showing that you obtained the necessary business registration. Furthermore, documents will need to be provided showing that you have established a new UK business, or joined and are engaged in business in the UK, when you submit your application.
Applicants needing to score points for job creation are also required to provide a series of documents showing this. These will include printouts of Real Time-Full Payment Submissions showing your compliance with Pay As You Earn (PAYE) reporting requirements to HMRC, in respect to each relevant settled worker as legally required.
The Home Office’s list of specified documents for showing job creation also includes the likes of duplicate payslips or wage slips for each settled worker used to claim points, and confirmation of the employment start date, job title, job description, hours paid per pay period, and the hourly rate for each settled worker relied upon to claim points. Also included in this list is documentation demonstrating that each employee has settled status in the UK.
If you are interested in accelerated settlement on the basis of £5 million business activity from a new UK business or businesses, you will need to supply audited accounts (if it is a legal obligation for your business to produce audited accounts) or unaudited accounts, showing the gross income arising from the business activity. These accounts must show that gross income reached a minimum of £5 million.
Applicants for settlement who are relying on business activity from an existing UK business they have invested in or taken over, are required to provide both of the following:
If you are applying for an extension of your Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa – but not if you are applying for ILR –you will also be required to show you will be able to continue supporting yourself for the duration of your stay on your extended visa.
Presuming you are already in the UK and are seeking further leave to remain on this visa, you will need to have personal savings amounting to at least £945, which you are required to have held for 90 consecutive days prior to your application date.
The Home Office will expect you to provide evidence that you have had the necessary personal savings for at least 90 consecutive days. This evidence will need to be in the form of cash funds held in an account; this includes savings accounts and current accounts, even when it is required for notice to be given. Regardless of notice period, the Home Office does not accept other accounts or financial instruments such as overdrafts, shares, bonds, credit cards or pension funds.
Only the following specified documents will be accepted by the Home Office as evidence of this requirement:
Finally, those applying for entry clearance as a Tier 1 Entrepreneur migrant – or who are applying as an over 18-years-old dependant of a main applicant in this route – will be expected to supply an overseas criminal record certificate for any country they have been present in for at least 12 months – cumulatively or consecutively – during the 10 years preceding the application.
To find out more about the documentation or other requirements for this visa that will apply to you, please call our team now on 0208 215 0053.
Holders of the Entrepreneur visa are required to make their ILR applications online. You will be informed within six months of whether your application has been successful.
Before you lodge your application to settle in the UK, and to avoid wasting time and money on the Home Office and legal fees, it is important to carefully check your eligibility, and that you have gathered all of the evidence needed for the Home Office to assess your application.
Book a consultation with our Entrepreneur visa extension UK lawyers today, and we will advise and guide you in relation to every aspect of your ILR application, to help deliver a positive outcome.
Why Customers Love Us ?
Successful Sponsor Licence Application
Efficient and helpful. Amer and his Team are quick to respond to queries, even over the weekends and at night. Sponsor Licence granted after only 4 weeks. Thanks.
Daniel Johnson
Care Home Sponsor Licence Application!
We used Cranbrook Legal for the processing of a Sponsor Licence Application. We are a Health Care provider and have faced huge difficulties in recruiting for our Care Homes. Amer and his team were quick to identify the documents needed for our specific case and they were able to prepare a really strong application. I have no doubt that the really good Cover Letter convinced the Home Office to approve our Application. Thanks again, superb work!
Sophie Barton
ILR Application
Thanks to Amer and team for all help given to me my indefinite visa and British citizenship : so many solicitor tell me that British Nationality is impossible for me but Amer looked at my file and took care and fight with Home Office and in the end they give up and give me British Nationality .thank you for Amer and Cranbrook team
Hossan Ali
It is still possible for the family members of Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa holders to apply to join them in the UK. Please note, however, that this will entail each family member – or ‘dependant’ – applying for their own visa.
The fee for a family member – such as a spouse – to apply for this visa is £1,878 for each family member. Each family member will also be required to pay £100 to £200, so that they can have their biometric information – fingerprints and a photograph – taken.
If your family member is applying from within the UK, they may have the option of paying an additional £800, so that they can get a quicker decision via the Home Office’s super priority service.
The Home Office fee to apply for ILR is £2,389 per applicant. This means that each family member, or ‘dependant’, of yours would also need to pay this fee for their own application, provided that they meet the eligibility requirements.
With regard to the legal fees charged for helping with the ILR application by our own Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa extension lawyers, we operate a fixed-fee service, with this fee agreed from the outset to give you crucial financial certainty. We will project manage your case from start to finish, and will not impose any further ‘hidden’ charges or costs during your relationship with us.
Why Choose Us For Your Entrepreneur ILR UK?
Once you have been granted indefinite leave to remain, you will be entitled to withdraw your investment, in whole or in part, and/or even close your business, and to use your funds as you see fit. You will be permitted to do this because successful applicants for ILR are no longer subject to immigration control.
However, in order to reach this stage, you will need to satisfy the requirements for ILR through the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa route. Our Entrepreneur visa extension UK lawyers can advise you on these requirements, which include currently holding the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa, satisfying the requirements for continuous residence, and having created sufficient jobs or income.
Please note that in order to obtain ILR, you will need to score 75 points on the Home Office’s settlement applications points table. 20 points are awarded to applicants who have invested, or caused investment to be made by one or more third parties totalling a minimum of £200,000 in cash directly into one or multiple UK businesses. This minimum investment requirement is £50,000 if you were awarded points for £50,000 funding or investment in your last grant of leave.
Someone with indefinite leave to remain (ILR) has the right to apply to become a British citizen if they have lived in the UK for five years and have had ILR status for 12 months. This 12-month wait is not required for those who are married to a British citizen.
If you have received ILR and wish to apply for British citizenship, you are also required to:
You should not have exceeded 450 days spent outside the UK during the five years prior to your application. Nor should you have spent over 90 days outside the UK during the last 12 months, or broken any UK immigration laws – for instance, by living in the UK illegally.
The Home Office will expect you to have been physically present in the UK exactly five years before it receives your application for citizenship. If you are unable to prove this, your application may be rejected.
What Our Customers Say About Us
Very good experience, despite never even meeting or seeing the lawyers (phone/zoom/email). They were very meticulous in checking all our documents were complete, and my VISA
Auri
The British spousal visa process is a horrendous ordeal full of incomplete and misleading information, traps and pitfalls designed to make only the smartest (or richest)
Tom Dennehy
Was super impressed with Cranbrook Legal. They were efficient and friendly, and most importantly really explained the process properly and simply. We secured our sponsor licence
Annabel Fox
Thank you so much to Mr. Muhammad Ali and also thanks to Cranbrook Legal team for making my visa application stress free and easy. Their clear
Sagoon Thapa
I cannot thank Cranbrook Legal enough for their exceptional service in helping me secure my Skilled Worker visa for the UK. From the initial consultation to
Hazhar Shekha
The Home Office generally expects applicants for ILR who hold the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa to have invested, or caused investment to be made by one or more third parties in cash directly into one or several UK businesses, totalling no less than £200,000.
If, however, your last grant of leave saw you awarded points for £50,000 funding or investment, the above required investment amount will be just £50,000.
In order to achieve ILR through the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa route, you must satisfy the Home Office’s ‘continuous residence’ requirements. As an existing holder of the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa, you must have been living in the UK for three years or five years by the time you apply to settle in the UK, with the exact wait depending on the jobs and income you have created.
During your time of continuous residence, you can only be outside the UK for up to 180 days during any 12 months. In making your ILR application, you will be required to list details of your absences from the country, including your reasons for these absences.
If you have spent more than 180 days outside the UK in any consecutive 12-month period, this will break the continuous leave period, meaning you will need to start the qualifying period for settlement again. This may necessitate you seeking an extension of your Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa so that you can reach the required continuous period in the UK.
As long as you meet the Home Office’s requirements to be eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain –including with regard to investment, business activity and job creation –you will be permitted to lodge an ILR application, regardless of your business’s number of customers/clients.
Please note, however, that as a holder of an Entrepreneur visa, you are not permitted to yourself work directly for clients. Instead, your business would need to be engaged by your client, with your services being supplied through your company.
The Home Office has made concessions available to holders of the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa whose businesses have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This means that if your own business has faced coronavirus-related disruption, you no longer need to employ a minimum of two people for 12 consecutive months, in order to qualify for a T1 Entrepreneur visa extension.
The 12-month period for which you must employ someone can be made up of several jobs across different months, but when combined, it is required to be equivalent to two full-time jobs. You will be expected to submit all necessary evidence in accordance with standard job creation requirements, for each employee you are relying upon in order to satisfy this requirement.
Time when your employees were furloughed will count towards the 12-month period, provided that they have been paid 80% of their normal salary throughout their furlough period.
If – by the time of your current Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa’s expiry – you have not been able to employ staff for 12 months, you will be permitted to extend your stay for an additional two years, if you can show:
To apply for the additional leave, you should submit a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa extension application along with all associated evidence as normal, with an exception under the job creation requirement, and with the understanding that the extension will be limited to two years.
When you are approved for an extension on this basis, you will be expected to demonstrate that you have satisfied this requirement, in addition to the job creation requirement for that application.
If you are applying for an extension or ILR as a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa migrant, you are required to provide a summary of the steps you have taken to put your business plan into action. If these plans have been disrupted by the pandemic, it may be advisable to provide the Home Office with an explanation and evidence of this.
Applicants for ILR via the Entrepreneur visa route are also expected to satisfy a period for continuous residence –specifically, they must not have been absent from the UK for over 180 days during any consecutive 12-month period.
The Immigration Rules do allow caseworkers to potentially disregard excessive absences if these arose due to particular circumstances beyond the control of the applicant. However, the Home Office is yet to update these rules to include absences caused by coronavirus-related travel restrictions.
While clarification on this point is awaited from the Home Office, it is a good idea for any T1 Entrepreneur visa holders who are presently abroad – and unable to return to the UK – to retain evidence of their circumstances, so that this can be included with any future application to settle in the UK.
Once you reach the stage of applying for ILR as someone who already holds the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa, you will simply be expected to prove that you have invested, or caused investment to be made by one or several third parties, amounting to a minimum of £200,000 in cash directly into one or multiple UK businesses. If you were awarded points for £50,000 funding or investment in your last grant of leave, this investment requirement is £50,000.
As an applicant for ILR through this route, you will not be required to provide evidence of this investment if the Home Office awarded you points for this investment in your last successful Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa application.
Presuming you have obtained indefinite leave to remain (ILR) – which you can apply for as a Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa holder if have satisfied the Home Office’s other requirements – you will be entitled to apply for British citizenship, provided that you satisfy the following criteria:
The 12-month wait requirement does not apply to those who are married to a British citizen. Those wishing to apply for citizenship as the spouse or civil partner of a British citizen will be eligible to do so immediately, as long as they have ILR and have lived in the UK for the last three years.
For more information about our service in relation to the Entrepreneur visa and other aspects of personal and business immigration, please call 0208 215 0053 today.
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