Tier 1 Money Available in a business bank account

[oks]

Hi,
I am switching from Tier 1 graduate to Tier 1 entrepreneur and found lots of cases to show money is available to you or your business. My question is if I have a business that started with my grad entr visa and have the 50k available under this business bank account, which funding/investment category is this considered to be? and what are the documents that I need to show?
I am the sole director of the business btw
Will a business bank statement with the money and a prove that I am the sole director from companies house be enough?

[marcnath]

Hi,
I am switching from Tier 1 graduate to Tier 1 entrepreneur and found lots of cases to show money is available to you or your business. My question is if I have a business that started with my grad entr visa and have the 50k available under this business bank account, which funding/investment category is this considered to be? and what are the documents that I need to show?
I am the sole director of the business btw
Will a business bank statement with the money and a prove that I am the sole director from companies house be enough?

The requirement is You must also have £50,000 of your own money available to make a fresh investment into business in the UK.

So, money generated in the business does not count towards that.

Your business can be the third party providing you access to the funding, but note the following section in the guidance:

Additional content for a business acting as a third party
 If the money is coming from another business in which you are also self-employed or a director of, you must provide confirmation of your status within that business and that you are the sole controller of that business’s finances. If you are not the sole controller of that business’s finances, the letter must be signed by another authorised official of the business. Please note: for the purposes of your Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) application, the business acting as a third party cannot be the same business for which you wish to score points for investment.

[oks]

Thanks for that.
They also mention lots of other sources (beside own funds) especially for graduate entrepreneur:

"The funds must continue to be available to you until they are invested in a business or businesses, or spent for the purposes of your business or businesses. ‘Available to you’ means that the funds must be in one of the following:
1) in your own possession,
2) in the financial accounts of a UK business which you are running as a member of a partnership, or as a director, or
3) available from the third party or parties named in your application (if applicable)."

So I was thinking of 2 instead of 3?

[marcnath]

Thanks for that.
They also mention lots of other sources (beside own funds) especially for graduate entrepreneur:

"The funds must continue to be available to you until they are invested in a business or businesses, or spent for the purposes of your business or businesses. ‘Available to you’ means that the funds must be in one of the following:
1) in your own possession,
2) in the financial accounts of a UK business which you are running as a member of a partnership, or as a director, or
3) available from the third party or parties named in your application (if applicable)."

So I was thinking of 2 instead of 3?

This paragraph is applicable to all T1E applicants and the part here is the phrase - must continue to be available . Once access to funds is shown, it has to remain accessible until it is invested (which is the point 2)
But you need to show access to funds first, which has to be your own, venture capital, seed fund, third party funding, etc

[oks]

Yes, and since the business can not be considered as a third party providing the money to the same business, then I believe a letter from the bank (business bank) can be used as follows:
"You can provide a letter from a financial institution holding the funds, to confirm the amount of money available to you, your business" right?

[marcnath]

Yes, and since the business can not be considered as a third party providing the money to the same business, then I believe a letter from the bank (business bank) can be used as follows:
"You can provide a letter from a financial institution holding the funds, to confirm the amount of money available to you, your business" right?

Now I am not sure what you mean by that.

Are you going to try to get a letter from the bank your business has a bank account with to state that the money is available to your business ? That does not make sense as the money is already in the business.

One of the objectives of the T1E visa is to get external investment into a business to help that business grow. So, the rules have been drawn up pretty well to ensure that money generated by the business is not treated as external investment into the business. Which makes sense. There are no easy ways around it.

Now, if the business pays you the money as salary/dividends and you hold it in your personal account for 90 days, then you should be able to use it as your own funds. Short of that, I can't see any means of using money in the business as an investment into the business.