RVS Solicitors succeed in securing Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) leave for a migrant with previous refusals

By Dr Lusine Navasardyan

Dr Lusine Navasardyan is Director and Head of Corporate and Business Immigration at RVS Solicitors. Dr Lusine studied at Yerevan State University and the Bucharest University of Economic Studies. She is also a published author and a member of the Bucharest Bar. As a Director of RVS Solicitors, she is instrumental to the operation of the law firm, and as Head of Corporate and Business Immigration, she helps our clients to forge new futures in the UK.

We have recently assisted a client with his Tier 1 Entrepreneur application and have amanged to successfully obtain leave to remain for him and his family in the UK via Tier 1 Entrepreneur Route.

Background

The client, a successful business person from Middle East, was looking to relocate his business to the UK and establish the centre of his operations here. He had previously applied twice and failed on both occasions. He approached Dr Lusine, seeking advice on the best route to achieve his goal.

Eligibility criteria for Tier 1 Entrepreneur

• Intend to establish a new business or take-over an existing business
• Have access to £200,000 to invest in the above-mentioned business
• Be a genuine entrepreneur by demonstrating a credible business idea
• Be at least of age 16
• Be able to show sufficient funds to maintain themselves and their dependents (separate from the investment funds)
• Be proficient in English

Reasons for previous refusals

The client’s application had previously been refused for different reason on each occasion.
On the first occasion, the client’s previous solicitors had failed to advise him correctly on the mandatory evidence required with the Tier 1 Entrepreneur applications. This is a common reason for refusal. Very often, applicants fail to grasp the exigency of the specified evidence, in particular regarding evidencing the funds they rely on for the purposes of the application. In other instances, the legal advisers who assist applicants do not have the in-depth grasp of understanding all the nuances of the required evidence, leading to refusals. Due to its very technical aspects, Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) application is considered one of the most difficult applications and has a refusal rate of nearly 50%. Therefore, it is always recommended that you work with specialist lawyers who have the skills and expertise to handle these types of applications.
In the case of the second refusal, it was due to failure on part of his legal representatives to understand the business the client wanted to operate and present it accordingly, leading to creation of a business plan that was not reflecting of the actual business the client intended to undertake. This kind of issues occur quite often due to the fact that many providers of immigration services, do not have the right background and experience to understand the business side of the application. This is the reason that at RVS Solicitors our Business Immigration department is headed by Dr Lusine Navasardyan who has over 8 years’ experience in commercial law and as such, strong understanding of not only the Immigration Rules, but also insight into the business itself.

Routes considered

The client approached Dr Lusine seeking to look at alternative routes for establishing his business in the UK. After two refusals, he was of the opinion that he had no chance of securing a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa and wanted to discuss alternatives.

Tier 1 (Investor)

Predominantly, the client was interested in Tier 1 (Investor) route. He had already sought legal advice from other providers and was told that Tier 1 (Investor) was the only route for him at that point.
Tier 1 (Investor) route is the least sophisticated one and due to the lower scrutiny over it, at least at that time, it was and still remains the preferred option of most of the Immigration specialists.
The Eligibility criteria boils down to:

• Having no less than £2million to invest in a UK
• Be at least 18 years old

There are no requirements of being a genuine business person, of being able to show adequate maintenance or knowledge of English language.
The Tier 1 (Investor) route has traditionally been used by HNW individuals who wanted to relocate to the UK,  but did not wish to face much scrutiny about their activity in this country. Recently, the scrutiny over the source of funds has made it slightly more difficult to achieve successful outcome with this route a well, however it remains very popular route.

Our advice

After considering the previous refusals and what the client wanted to achieve, Dr Lusine advised him against using the Tier 1 (Investor) route, as commercially it made little sense for the client to divert £2 million in funds into a specific type of investment in the UK to qualify for this type of visa. Instead, he was advised to make a third attempt at Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) route, which suited his needs better and while was more difficult to achieve, commercially made more sense, leaving his funds free to invest in his business as he saw fit, making the money work for him.

Our Success

Following a detailed consideration of the two refusals, an action plan was put in place to address all the concerns raised during the previous applications, as well as any other potential issue. Once all the evidence was prepared and all potential weaknesses accounted for and addressed the application was submitted, together with a detailed business plan setting out the timeline for the investment, business development, the market research that was carried out on behalf of the applicant, as well as the financial data relevant for assessing the proposed business plan.
The application was a success and our client has already started implementing his plan in the UK.

Follow-up support

Our team will continue working with our client to ensure that he and his business remain fully compliant with the Immigration Rules to ensure that their extension application and indefinite Leave Application will also be successful. In our experience the majority of extension and ILR applications fail, because the Applicants did not have the correct advice from the onset. We, therefore work closely with all our clients to monitor and advise them on all details.

If you require assistance with your application of Tier 1 (Entrepreenur), please contact us on 020 3870 2451 or complete our online form to make an appointment.