Entrepreneurs

Points Based System

The migrants in this sub category are unable to seek employment and must take over, join or establish a UK business.  They must gain 75 points in the following way:

-          access to £200,000 – 25 points

-          money held in a regulated financial institution – 25 points

-          disposable in the UK – 25 points

In order to satisfy the maintenance requirement an applicant must obtain a pass mark of 10.  The applicant must show that he has access to a certain level of funds to maintain and accommodate himself and any dependants while in the UK.  

Each overseas applicant must show a minimum of £2,800 for himself and for the first dependant 2/3 of £2800 and each subsequent dependant would require 1/3 of £2800. 

The applicants must obtain 10 points by demonstrating sufficient English language competency.  This can be shown in one of the following four ways:

• come from a majority English speaking country (Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, New Zealand, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the USA) or

• have taken a degree taught in English (verified using National Academic Recognition Information Centre Data) or

• have passed an English language test equivalent to level C1 of the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework for Language Learning (equivalent to grade C or above at GCSE).

Extension

Migrants already in the UK under the business persons immigration category were able to extend their stay under the old system until the entrepreneur subcategory came into force in 2008, when they had to extend their stay under the new system.   The extension test differs from the one that applicants need to pass to come in the UK.  In order to extend leave to remain in this category applicants must score 75 points in the following way:

-          20 points for the following:

• have invested, or had invested on their behalf, not less than £200,000 in cash directly into one or more businesses in the United Kingdom. The investment should not include the value of any residential accommodation or property development or property management and should not be in the form of a director’s loan, unless it is unsecured and is in favour of the business (third party creditors).

-          20 points when within 3 months of entering the UK in this category, the migrant must either have:

• registered as self-employed with HMRC or
• registered a new business in which the applicant is the director or
• registered as a director of an existing business.

-          15 points if the migrant is engaged in business activity at the time of their application for further leave.

-          20 points:

• where they have established new businesses, an aggregate of 2 new full time equivalent paid posts had been created for at least 2 persons settled in the United Kingdom across the businesses for at least 12 months each or

• where they have taken over or joined existing businesses, their services and investment have resulted in a net increase in the employment provided by the businesses to persons settled here to the extent of creating an aggregate of at least 2 new full time equivalent jobs across the businesses for at least 12 months each.

There is no need to provide further evidence of the English language requirement if the applicant has already proved once before they had the required level for the sub-category.

There is no need to provide further evidence of maintenance either if the applicant is extending in the category in which their current leave is expiring.