The Home Office announced significant changes this month to the UK Immigration Rules which include updates to both Tier 1 Entrepreneur and Tier 1 Investor visa categories (golden visa).
The new rules come into effect as of today 29 March 2019.
The Tier 1 Investor visa currently remains open to new applicants and also for extensions.
Here are the most important changes in eligibility criteria.
- Applicants to the Tier 1 Investor visa will have to demonstrate that they have held funds of GBP 2 million for at least a two-year period prior to application, rather than the 90-day period currently in place.
- Investment in UK government bonds is being excluded to incentivize Tier 1 (Investor) migrants towards other forms of investment which have greater need to attract additional investment funds.
- A clarification is also being made to confirm that “price of the investments” means the price the applicant paid for the investments, not the face value (which does not in itself demonstrate that an applicant has invested GBP 2 million in the UK, as required by the rules).
- The basic requirement stipulating that applicants open a UK bank account before making a Tier 1 Investor application is being tightened to ensure that banks confirm that they have carried out all required due diligence checks and Know Your Customer checks before a visa application is processed.
New Startup visas
- The Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) and Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) categories are being replaced by the new Start-Up and Innovator categories. Applicants will be required to have an endorsement by UK trusted bodies. The investment requirement is much lower in each case, at GBP 50,000 but there could be greater uncertainties when applying.
Exceptional Talent
UK wants more talent. As a part of new measures the Exceptional talent visas has been doubled to attract talented leaders and promising future leaders. The visa granted for 5 years 3 months and can be extended to another five year term.
UK still attractive destination
Despite Brexit, the UK remains attractive destination for investment among wealthy HNWI population especially chinese and indians.
UK passport
The UK passport has the fifth powerful passport in the world, with visa free access to 185 countries in the Q2 update of Henley 2019 passport rankings.
