Changes to the Immigration Rules - Important News

After months of changes, u-turn's and rumours the Home Office have announced changes to the Tier 1 visas with the changes affecting the Investor and Entrepreneur Visa routes to the United Kingdom.

There are also changes to other areas of the law.

Tier 1 Investor Visas

In a statement from the Home Office, they announced that "Applicants will be required to prove they have had control of the required £2 Million for at least two years, rather than 90 days, or provide evidence of the source of those funds".  It is thought that these changes will help fight against those looking to illicit money flowing into the UK through the investor route.

London is attractive to foreign investors for its stability, rule of law and the standard of education which consequently attracts a large sums of money from abroad.

Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visas

In December 2018, Caroline Nokes MP announced the scrapping of the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa at the same time as introducing the Innovator visa.

For applicants who want to apply for an Entrepreneur Visa they have until the end of this month (29 March 2019) to do so.

Anyone contemplating making an Entrepreneur Visa application should take urgent legal advice. It is vital that visa applicants get specialist advice as Immigration laws and visa options are changing so quickly. 

You cannot afford for mistakes to be made on visa applications when the rules are being changed and visa options scrapped or suspended.

Entrepreneur Visa eligibility

If you want to apply for an Entrepreneur Visa before they are abolished then the eligibility criteria for a Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa is:

You want to set up business in the UK ;
You are from outside the EEA;
You have access to £50,000 of investment funds that are held in a regulated financial institution and are disposable (free to spend on a business in the UK) ;
Meet the English language requirement;
You are able to support yourself;
You are over the age of 16.
Different rules apply if you have £200,000 to invest.

The immigration rules surrounding Entrepreneur Visas are complex. With the government announcement about the abolishment of Entrepreneur Visas and limited details of the new visa schemes entrepreneurs may not be able to afford to delay their visa application.

The new visa routes for Entrepreneurs

With the scrapping of the Entrepreneur Visas, the Home Office have introduced the "start-up" and "innovator" visas to replace the entrepreneur visa routes.

For both these routes, applicants will be expected to demonstrate that they are:

(i) endorsed by trusted organisations in the UK; and
(ii) stay in contact with those endorsing bodies regularly
(iii) show that they speak English at level B2 (higher than the current required level B1)
(iv) that their business plans are “credible” (Applicant's could be called for interviews to test this)
(v) that they have held £945 in their account for 90 days prior to the application (although these funds can now also be provided by the endorsing bodies).
 
Statelessness

In future there will be an initial grant of five years leave if they succeed in applying to stay in the UK for lack of any other nationality (up from 30 months today). But applicants now have to show that they cannot acquire another nationality in order to succeed. Paragraph 403 of the Rules now includes a requirement that an applicant for leave to remain as a stateless person:

(c) has taken reasonable steps to facilitate admission to their country of former habitual residence or any other country but has been unable to secure the right of admission.

and

(e) has sought and failed to obtain or re-establish their nationality with the

appropriate authorities of the relevant country; and

(f) if, in the case of a child born in the UK, has provided evidence that they have attempted to register their birth with the relevant authorities but have been refused.”

The immigration minister describes these as “minor changes” designed to “protect the integrity of this route and deter abusive applications”.

EU Settlement Scheme

With the Brexit deadline fast approaching, there are a number of changes to Appendix EU which take effect on 30 March 2019, which contains the detailed rules on settled status for EU citizens.

Significant points to highlight are:

- It will be possible to apply under the scheme from outside the UK.

- Non-EEA citizens will be able to apply for an “EU Settlement Scheme Family Permit” to join or accompany an EEA citizen who was been granted leave under the settlement scheme. Those Family Permits will be valid for six months.

- Applications made under Appendix EU will be free of charge. (This will be implemented by secondary legislation.)

- Zambrano carers and other non-EU citizens with “derivative” rights of residence in the UK will be able to apply for settled status. As well as Zambrano cases, “Chen carers’”(the primary carer of a self-sufficient EEA citizen child) and “Ibrahim and Teixeira” cases (a child of a former EEA citizen worker who is in education in the UK and their primary carer) are covered.

- The date by which EEA nationals must have been continuously resident in the UK, and certain family relationships will need to have been formed, will be 31 December 2020 if the UK leaves with a deal, or 29 March 2019 if the UK leaves without a deal

- EU citizens who have been working for the UK government or armed forces abroad (“Crown service”) can count this towards their residency for settled status.

- It will be possible to submit national ID cards as identity documents for EEA nationals, and biometric residence cards for non-EEA family members

There is a lot to take in and it is important that anyone affected by the above should seek legal advice urgently.