The only representative, or Representative of Overseas Business, visa route is affected by the most significant changes. After the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa was closed, the path gained popularity, therefore it is to be expected that the Home Office is trying to tighten the screws.
Most significant alterations:
Applications will now contain a "genuineness assessment," which will determine if the single representative truly plans to abide by the Rules. The applicant's ability to "genuinely" meet the requirements will now be evaluated subjectively by the Home Office/UKVI, according to the top immigration lawyers in UK.
The branch or subsidiary cannot be "established solely for the purpose of facilitating the entry and stay of the applicant," according to the most recent version of the Rules.
According to the Rules, the candidate must possess "relevant skills, experience, and business knowledge." Naturally, the Home Office will evaluate this in light of the presented evidence.
The regulations that formerly confined sole representative visa applications to majority shareholders alone no longer allow partners of someone holding a majority shareholding to apply. This modification was anticipated and fixes a glaring error in the initial draft.
A senior employee of an international firm may enter the UK with a Sole Representative of an Overseas Business visa in order to establish and manage a UK branch or wholly-owned subsidiary of the international parent company. After five years, the Representative of an Overseas Business visa category allows for the acquisition of indefinite permission to remain (ILR).
To be eligible for an Overseas Business visa as a Sole Representative, you must meet the requirements set forth by UK Visas and Immigration regarding your foreign company.
- is a trading company that operates internationally;
- has its main office and headquarters outside of the United Kingdom;
- possesses no other operating branch, affiliate, or agent within the United Kingdom;
- plans to open a fully-owned subsidiary or registered branch in the UK that will engage in active trading in the same industry as the foreign company;
- The lone representative will not be selected or the overseas business founded primarily to facilitate the sole representative's admission or stay;
- intends to keep its offshore operations center.
Modifications to Innovation and Startup Visas
The Home Office has always taken the stance that the endorsing bodies should handle the business assessment because that is their area of competence, ever since the Start-Up and Innovator visa paths were established. Once the endorsement has been obtained, the Home Office will make the final application decision. This was a much-needed shift, especially in light of the way that Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visas were being unfairly denied for many years.
Regretfully, this assessment division is currently coming to an end. Now that the endorsing requirements have been met, the Home Office can request additional information and supporting documentation from the endorsing body as well as the applicant. Should the decision-maker determine that the requirements have not been met, the application may be denied. The goal of the endorsing bodies is somewhat defeated by this modification, since the Home Office will now further encroach on the evaluation of the business's viability—an area of competence that we all too well know they lack.
The ability of higher education institutions to recommend applicants for both innovator and startup visas is a more positive trend. It appears that the Home Office was "concerned" about how the universities might recommend applicants for Innovator visas, so they proactively granted themselves more authority to investigate applications further even after the recommendation had obtained.
The Conclusion
The stated modifications made it abundantly evident that the Home Office wishes to maintain the authority to evaluate applicants in a subjective manner and reject applications that the officer in charge of making decisions deems unworthy. Immigration lawyers will be very afraid of those changes because refusal rates always rise when the Home Office adds new subjective standards to its application evaluation process. With the now-closed Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa path and its historical above 50% refusal rate for all applicants, this was all too evident.
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