Are you planning to travel to the United Kingdom to benefit from business opportunities? If yes, you’ll be glad to know that several options are open to you. To find out which option suits you will depend on your nature of business and your entrepreneurial experience.
So which visa should you opt for? Let’s find out by taking a quick look at the available visa types.
Start-up Visa
This visa type is aimed toward individuals without business experience who wish to establish a business that covers the requirements of the UK market. To verify this condition, you must receive confirmation from an endorsing body that your company is founded on a new concept, is innovative, and has the prospect to develop. If your application is successful, you will be issued a two-year visa to the UK to launch the business. Following this, you will need to shift to a new visa route to stay in the United Kingdom.
Innovator Visa
This visa route is quite similar to the start-up visa and is aimed at business entrepreneurs who are more established and experienced. An endorsing body must verify that your business is new, feasible and innovative. Furthermore, you must also maintain £50,000 to invest in the business. The initial visa is issued for three years and is extendable.
UK Expansion Worker Visa
This visa permits a senior manager or specialist employee of a current overseas business to enter the UK to establish a new branch or subsidiary. The employer will require an expansion worker sponsor licence to sponsor the senior manager or specialist to receive the visa. The visa will be issued for a maximum of 12 months and is extendable for another 12 months.
The business and employees will then have to revise the licence and visa to another category, generally for the Skilled Worker route.
Sole Representative and Investor Visas
Although the Sole Representative of an Overseas Business and Investor categories are not available to new applicants, they are available for individuals currently in the UK under these routes to extend their visas.
Other Visas
There are a few other types of visas based on personal relationships or connections to the United Kingdom. These visas, such as a family visa or an ancestry visa, permit the bearer to launch a business in the UK, such as a . While they are likely to be open only to a slim number of applicants, it is still worth looking into these routes.
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