Tier 1 Extension Preparation

[piercebody]

Hello Macrath & Experts,
HNY 2019
With all your support and guidelines I got my Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa and later I got approved for my family as well and settled in UK and and concentrating full focus on my business. Even though I have long time to worry or plan for the extension I just want to get certain things cleared to avoid any tension/frustration in the last time. I am fully aware of Investing 200K and creating local jobs. I see lot of posts regarding the extension like complex, and takes long time for any further decision making.

Can you please suggest me how the HO decide a business as complex, longer processing time for the extension. If I know these in advance I will make sure to not give any chance in running my business and I am trying to avoid any further interview as well. Running really a successful business with reliable investment and having enough job creations and proper bank accounts and Tax & VAT filing in the best way to save this frustration in the extension time..??

I hope you have seen many cases. In the initial application the HO may suspect everyone and they don't have the proper record to track and differentiate a genuine application and some application for the purpose of staying in the UK. But in the extension it is not going be like this as they have a proper track of any business we do in the UK. Can you please suggest/advise in what ways we keep our business profile as very strong to avoid any inconveniences in the extension.

Appreciate your thoughts from your experience so that I will follow from now onwards to run the business in the proper style to not worry too much about the extension.

Thanks in advance.
Matt.

[marcnath]

Hello Macrath & Experts,
HNY 2019
With all your support and guidelines I got my Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa and later I got approved for my family as well and settled in UK and and concentrating full focus on my business. Even though I have long time to worry or plan for the extension I just want to get certain things cleared to avoid any tension/frustration in the last time. I am fully aware of Investing 200K and creating local jobs. I see lot of posts regarding the extension like complex, and takes long time for any further decision making.

Can you please suggest me how the HO decide a business as complex, longer processing time for the extension. If I know these in advance I will make sure to not give any chance in running my business and I am trying to avoid any further interview as well. Running really a successful business with reliable investment and having enough job creations and proper bank accounts and Tax & VAT filing in the best way to save this frustration in the extension time..??

I hope you have seen many cases. In the initial application the HO may suspect everyone and they don't have the proper record to track and differentiate a genuine application and some application for the purpose of staying in the UK. But in the extension it is not going be like this as they have a proper track of any business we do in the UK. Can you please suggest/advise in what ways we keep our business profile as very strong to avoid any inconveniences in the extension.

Appreciate your thoughts from your experience so that I will follow from now onwards to run the business in the proper style to not worry too much about the extension.

Thanks in advance.
Matt.

HNY

It is impossible to say what makes HO decide a case is complex - I doubt if there is anything you can do in your business to try to avoid it.

I personally suspect it is just a way overloaded CWs meet their KPIs. Once a case is declared complex, it does not need to meet the standard service times.

I believe what helps is clear organised applications without a lot of documents, etc. But with the online applications, I believe this will happen anyway and we will see lesser number of complex cases

[piercebody]

Thank you Marcnath for your as usual great suggestions. I got your point.
Let us keep this post as a useful note to all Entrepreneurs who is planning ( pre) for their Tier 1 Ent Extension. Experts who got succesfully extended,other experts please correct/add your suggestions. Today I discussed with a solicitor and got few points.

For the Succesful T1 Ent Extension ECO will make the process easier if we follow the below rules/guidelines.

1.Keep your application clean with fewer necessary documents. Dont miss any important document and dont add any document which is not asked or not useful which may add the application to a complex status.
2.HO value your business based on the Tax ( including all Employees, business taxes) you pay back. More you pay you will get more "LOVE"" from HO.
3. VAT also plays as an important factor. I hope all these business payment factors trigger a favour in the visa extension.
4. Try your agreed investment 50K/200K as soon as you can. Dont wait for the last 6 months and transfer to your company which will clearly expose that you invest just for the visa extension.
5. Profit/Loss also plays a major factor. Losses are accpeted but provided with valid explanation from accountant/experts to prove it is as a temporary loss.
6. Try your best to apply with any good experienced solicitor.If you do it on your own you may miss out anything or it may delay your application.
7.Dont travel a lot and stay in other countires to count your 180 days. The more you stay outside may affect in negative way unless your outside stay is a must to run your business.
8.In terms of features, There is no big difference between Tier 1 Investor and Tier 1 Entrepreneur. Tier 1 Ent visa has everything with 10% of the Tier 1 Investor fund and the investment goes to your own business. So the HO office expect the proven business in the extension time rather than trying business.
9.Try to strict with your initial business plan.You are free to start any business but it should be an extra business or initialy you should have tried with the proposed business. If your business plan is about opening an IT company and after the visa if you immediately start a restaurant business it will affect your extension no matter how well your business is running.
9.Keep your credit check at your best without any criminal offenses.

( all the above points given to me from the Solicitor. Please keep adding any extra points or correct anything.)

Thanks.

[marcnath]

Thank you Marcnath for your as usual great suggestions. I got your point.
Let us keep this post as a useful note to all Entrepreneurs who is planning ( pre) for their Tier 1 Ent Extension. Experts who got succesfully extended,other experts please correct/add your suggestions. Today I discussed with a solicitor and got few points.

For the Succesful T1 Ent Extension ECO will make the process easier if we follow the below rules/guidelines.

1.Keep your application clean with fewer necessary documents. Dont miss any important document and dont add any document which is not asked or not useful which may add the application to a complex status.
2.HO value your business based on the Tax ( including all Employees, business taxes) you pay back. More you pay you will get more "LOVE"" from HO.
3. VAT also plays as an important factor. I hope all these business payment factors trigger a favour in the visa extension.
4. Try your agreed investment 50K/200K as soon as you can. Dont wait for the last 6 months and transfer to your company which will clearly expose that you invest just for the visa extension.
5. Profit/Loss also plays a major factor. Losses are accpeted but provided with valid explanation from accountant/experts to prove it is as a temporary loss.
6. Try your best to apply with any good experienced solicitor.If you do it on your own you may miss out anything or it may delay your application.
7.Dont travel a lot and stay in other countires to count your 180 days. The more you stay outside may affect in negative way unless your outside stay is a must to run your business.
8.In terms of features, There is no big difference between Tier 1 Investor and Tier 1 Entrepreneur. Tier 1 Ent visa has everything with 10% of the Tier 1 Investor fund and the investment goes to your own business. So the HO office expect the proven business in the extension time rather than trying business.
9.Try to strict with your initial business plan.You are free to start any business but it should be an extra business or initialy you should have tried with the proposed business. If your business plan is about opening an IT company and after the visa if you immediately start a restaurant business it will affect your extension no matter how well your business is running.
9.Keep your credit check at your best without any criminal offenses.

( all the above points given to me from the Solicitor. Please keep adding any extra points or correct anything.)

Thanks.

This was an highly misleading post. All of those highlighted portions are incorrected.

And clearly there is a self serving advice from a solicitor to use a solicitor.

It is quite disappointing you decided to post a third party advice here as though it was useful for others given your own experience where, if I recall correctly, solicitors were not the ones who helped you out.

Will appreciate if you don't do this in future.

[piercebody]

Thank you so much for your corrections.
I felt the same way after posting it and I will not just post others advice.
My initial application was success purely because of the suggestions from you and all others experiences in this forum. Thanks a lot.

[piercebody]

Hi,
I am running my business successfully after the Initial Tier 1 Approval. Now I am thinking of investing 200K now to secure the points in the extension which is due in 2021.

Can you please clear this point as I don't want to make any mistake.
1. Can I transfer 200K from my personal account to my company account as Director Loan/Capital Investment. ( any valid remarks/descriptions to add.?
2.Basically I don't need this fund to be kept in my company bank account for any expansion or additional expenses as everything can be covered with my current sales. If it is case can I take back the money or will it cause a problem again..?? If can be taken back please suggest the best way to do it.

Thanks in advance.

[businessmen aces]

You will have to invest 200K into business and spend this money on your business that's the condition of your visa. If money is lying idle into your bank account for 5 years till you get ILR you may fail genuine entrepreneur test and further extensions might be refused. You should be able to prove that full 200K was invested into uk business and was used in UK business

[marcnath]

Hi,
I am running my business successfully after the Initial Tier 1 Approval. Now I am thinking of investing 200K now to secure the points in the extension which is due in 2021.

Can you please clear this point as I don't want to make any mistake.
1. Can I transfer 200K from my personal account to my company account as Director Loan/Capital Investment. ( any valid remarks/descriptions to add.?
2.Basically I don't need this fund to be kept in my company bank account for any expansion or additional expenses as everything can be covered with my current sales. If it is case can I take back the money or will it cause a problem again..?? If can be taken back please suggest the best way to do it.

Thanks in advance.

1. You NEED to transfer 200K from personal account to company account to meet the requirements for extension. There are specific evidence that you need provide depending on whether it is a Director loan or share capital - read the guidance.
2. Any money you withdraw from your investment can be deducted from the investment amount. After investing your money, if your company is continuing to get other income from sales, you can withdraw those amounts without being in conflict of immigration rules.

[piercebody]

Just want to double confirm this.. I hope the jobs we create before we make an investment of 200K also considered as valid jobs right..?? Or Do we need to create the Jobs after our investment..?

I read this and confused. Please confirm this..
When must the Tier 1 Entrepreneur qualifying jobs be created?
After your start-up or new business is set up, or after you have taken over or invested into an existing business
The jobs are created as a direct result of your £200,000 or £50,000 Tier 1 Entrepreneur investment

Thanks a lot.

[marcnath]

Just want to double confirm this.. I hope the jobs we create before we make an investment of 200K also considered as valid jobs right..?? Or Do we need to create the Jobs after our investment..?

I read this and confused. Please confirm this..
When must the Tier 1 Entrepreneur qualifying jobs be created?
After your start-up or new business is set up, or after you have taken over or invested into an existing business
The jobs are created as a direct result of your £200,000 or £50,000 Tier 1 Entrepreneur investment

Thanks a lot.

For jobs, it is not about investment. Only jobs created after you were nominated as Director counts.

[piercebody]

Hello @Marcnath/Experts,

I am going through the compliances service check in a regular interval to make sure my business follows all the Tier 1 Extension guidelines properly to avoid any last time rush. I have a question about "Real Time Payment FPS Submission".

I am using Xero software for my accounts and my accountant offered the XMl file of FPS submission for each month and HMRC responses. All are XML format and I hope no one can figure out the details from it as it is not easily readable. Can you please help me do we need to submit these XML files..?? or Login to HMRC portal and it has details for the year and for each month it has some details also.

I read failing to submit these causes trouble in the decision. Can you please advise me what is the best format submit with my application..?? So that I will start preparing it for every month to use it in the time of my extension.

Stay safe and thank you all for your great supports.

Kind Regards,
Matt.

[marcnath]

Hello @Marcnath/Experts,

I am going through the compliances service check in a regular interval to make sure my business follows all the Tier 1 Extension guidelines properly to avoid any last time rush. I have a question about "Real Time Payment FPS Submission".

I am using Xero software for my accounts and my accountant offered the XMl file of FPS submission for each month and HMRC responses. All are XML format and I hope no one can figure out the details from it as it is not easily readable. Can you please help me do we need to submit these XML files..?? or Login to HMRC portal and it has details for the year and for each month it has some details also.

I read failing to submit these causes trouble in the decision. Can you please advise me what is the best format submit with my application..?? So that I will start preparing it for every month to use it in the time of my extension.

Stay safe and thank you all for your great supports.

Kind Regards,
Matt.

You are required to submit FPS submissions and the guidelines specify what information should exist in them - Gross pay, deductions, etc. So, check the documents and choose the one that has all that information as specified.

[piercebody]

Hi Marcnath & Experts,
I hope you are doing well. I have a basic ( may be one more beginner question again ). Please suggest your best. I am doing my best and invested money and fulfilling the required job specifications for my next year extension with my main company.

Now I have started my second company ( my own brand company) and getting reasonable sales. In the extension time can I show the turnover from both companies or HO will consider only one one company.? I have my investments and jobs on my main company. If they don't consider the sales, VAT, Corp Tax Paying on my second company ( I mean if it don't add any value to my application) I can concentrate/merge most of my sales with my main company.

Please suggest how HO office will consider the applicant activities ( all companies I am being a part) or only one company where my investment and have employment.

Thanks again for your genuine supports.

[marcnath]

Hi Marcnath & Experts,
I hope you are doing well. I have a basic ( may be one more beginner question again ). Please suggest your best. I am doing my best and invested money and fulfilling the required job specifications for my next year extension with my main company.

Now I have started my second company ( my own brand company) and getting reasonable sales. In the extension time can I show the turnover from both companies or HO will consider only one one company.? I have my investments and jobs on my main company. If they don't consider the sales, VAT, Corp Tax Paying on my second company ( I mean if it don't add any value to my application) I can concentrate/merge most of my sales with my main company.

Please suggest how HO office will consider the applicant activities ( all companies I am being a part) or only one company where my investment and have employment.

Thanks again for your genuine supports.

Unless you are going for accelerated ILR, company Turnover is not a criteria in Tier 1 Entrepreneur route.

[piercebody]

Hi,
One of my staff completed her one full year full time and I wish to continue her for another year.
If I continue her with the same job title, it will be considered as one full time job for 2 years.

To make her count as another job, Can I change her job title and may be with a salary revise is a good idea..?
I don't want to hire a new one with a new title just for the sake of following guidelines..?
Please advice how to deal this scenario..??

Thank you.
Matt.

[marcnath]

Hi,
One of my staff completed her one full year full time and I wish to continue her for another year.
If I continue her with the same job title, it will be considered as one full time job for 2 years.

To make her count as another job, Can I change her job title and may be with a salary revise is a good idea..?
I don't want to hire a new one with a new title just for the sake of following guidelines..?
Please advice how to deal this scenario..??

Thank you.
Matt.

If you are affected by Coronavirus, the job criteria has been relaxed and you just need the equivalent of two FT jobs. Not actually two jobs. So, you wouldn't need to manipulate things.

[piercebody]

Hi,
I am preparing the documents for my Tier 1 Extension due in Nov'21.
Is it advisable to merge the PDfs for the casework officer to easily read or have to be separate.?
ie. Employee 1 Pay slips 22 pay slips. Can I merge as a single PDf or each one has to be separate.?
FPS reports around 36+ and HMRC Submissions. Can I group the similar files into a single PDF..?? like each employee as one PDF.?

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
Matt.

[marcnath]

Hi,
I am preparing the documents for my Tier 1 Extension due in Nov'21.
Is it advisable to merge the PDfs for the casework officer to easily read or have to be separate.?
ie. Employee 1 Pay slips 22 pay slips. Can I merge as a single PDf or each one has to be separate.?
FPS reports around 36+ and HMRC Submissions. Can I group the similar files into a single PDF..?? like each employee as one PDF.?

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
Matt.

Entirely up to you

[piercebody]

Hi Marcnath / Experts,

My checklist before submitting my application asking these.

Companies House documentation demonstrating your business involvement
- Is this just director appointment report from company house or anything else..??
HM Revenue & Customs documentation demonstrating your business involvement
- Any idea what is this document..??
Evidence of your access to Miss XXXX, such as a written agreement between both parents or a child arrangement order
- I have birth certificate but this is little confusing..? Tried google and got more confused.
Please support. Thanks.

Kind regards,

[marcnath]

Hi Marcnath / Experts,

My checklist before submitting my application asking these.

Companies House documentation demonstrating your business involvement
- Is this just director appointment report from company house or anything else..??
HM Revenue & Customs documentation demonstrating your business involvement
- Any idea what is this document..??
Evidence of your access to Miss XXXX, such as a written agreement between both parents or a child arrangement order
- I have birth certificate but this is little confusing..? Tried google and got more confused.
Please support. Thanks.

Kind regards,

Not sure what a director appointment report is.
The document specified is -"a printout from
Companies House of the company’s filing history page of your personal appointments
history, showing the date of your appointment as a director or member".

Any Tax document from HMRC.

The child document is only relevant if you are a single parent with custody for your child

[jocksta]

I have just successfully completed my tier 1 (200k) extension. Some thoughts:

1/ Thank you Marcnath and others who provide their thoughts and experience on this bulletin board. It's a big deal for us people trying to navigate the vagaries of this system. Greatly appreciated.

2/ Having used two different lawyers (one for initial application and one for the extension) and spoken to several others, it is clear to me that talking to five different lawyers will often lead to five different sets of advice/opinions. Their incentive is to get you the visa, so they will advise as conservatively as possible, meaning they will ask for documentation that will often be well and truly above and beyond what is required. They need to cover their backsides basically.

3/ These people (lawyers) are also doing things based on the template they have used for a long time. They don't necessarily have great understanding or insight into what goes on inside HO and they interpret the guidelines based on what has worked for them in the past. This can be different for different people. Of course it goes without saying they have a far better understanding of the HO than us though, so it is worth listening to them. For my own benefit and use in the future I am going to make sure I am better read on the guidelines so I know when to challenge my lawyer. I gave one lawyer a bad review online because they were basically presenting their requirements as those of the HO. They were not. They were their own requirements and above what was required. I expect a lawyer to be clear on what is required by HO and to communicate what is discretionary or grey.

4/ The thing that caught me up was the FPS statements. My lawyer wanted FPS statements for each individual employee being used on the application. Like someone else on this thread we use Xero for my company. Xero doesn't allow the downloading of XML files and nor does it provide inidividual FPS statements, only a green mark showing that the FPS has been successfully submitted each month. We got around this in the end thanks to a second company I am part of but I am going to research this some more to see what is the minimum required of FPS statements. I get that they need to show tax amounts, gross pay, etc', but are XML files acceptable for the employee group, or do they need individual data? We also provided screenshots of the HMRC PAYE gateway showing all the data points for each monthly payment, however this didn't include individual level data. The HO emailed us asking for more information, which we provided, followed quickly by granting of the extension but I was a bit concerned there for several days. I find it surprising that the HMRC Gateway data is not sufficient. It almost feels as if the HO is using FPS as an excuse to reject an application, thereby creating a filter to let less people in. I'd be pretty annoyed if that was the case, as I play an integral role in both my businesses and they would likely fail without me.

Having written all that I'm sure Macnarth and others will shoot down some of my thoughts, which is fine. I offer them to add to the discussion and raise our collective understanding.

[marcnath]

I think you have valid points in there, so not much to shoot down.
But, in general, the rules and guidelines are pretty good, written in plain language (especially the guidelines) so relatively easy to follow.
Most questions here are due to overthinking the issues and worries about making mistakes.
The main point I'll shoot down is the feeling that HO tries very hard to reject. I appreciate that the perception comes from the number of rejections seen in this forum. People miss the point that most people who ask questions here are the ones with issues - that number is a very small proportion of the number of applications processed.
Lawyers also have a role that we can't fulfil. As with all laws, not all scenarios are set out and they are then interpreted by courts when challenges are brought before judges. That is something we will find it difficult to find and understand. But, again, this is not for the basic things. It is when something is not clear from a point of law.
My beef with HO is more generally that they have very silly requirements. FPS is one of them, though to be fair it was worse when I went through the process. Some of these are clearly drawn up by people who do not know what happens in real life. Fortunately it is not too many. There definitely is no requirement for individual FPS data (no system I know generates those) and XML has definitely been accepted. The thing to remember is that HO can only do a box checking exercise for these requirements. They cannot add new requirements.

[jocksta]

Thanks again Marcnath. Yes the XML issue for FPS is interesting. My lawyer did not want to use XML files as he had never used them in the past, but I suspect they are what got us over the line. His reasoning was that XML is basically unreadable and even if opened in a browser it's just code that could be changed or made up. My (belated) reading of the rules is that we have to be able to demonstrate that all taxes have been paid for employees used in the application. The only way to do this is with individual FPS data or XML. Or you could submit rolled up data for all employees (not just the ones in the application) and let HO do the maths. Not ideal of course. It's a tricky one but I will pay more attention to this in the future.

[piercebody]

Hi,
Thanks for making this post helpful to others. I am still waiting for my application outcome to add more of my experiences. I submitted my online application on 3 December and submitted biometric on 13 December and got this email on exactly 28 January, which is the last day of the 8thweek completion. Can you please suggest from your experiences that this is just a trick to justify the delay to show that they responded in 8 weeks or an issue.? If it really is an issue, it is not my fault; after paying so much for a biometric appointment ( Paid the maximum options), will they respond to me quickly to resolve it, or treat it as a complex application to respond on their convenient time. Kindly share your thoughts.? Thanks

Home Office reply as below
Although we would normally decide your application within eight weeks from the date it was submitted, unfortunately this is not going to be possible in your case.
This is because there has been an issue with your biometric enrolment.
I am sorry for the delay in dealing with your application and for the inconvenience this is causing. Please be assured that we are doing all we can to make a decision on your case as quickly as possible.

[marcnath]

Hi,
Thanks for making this post helpful to others. I am still waiting for my application outcome to add more of my experiences. I submitted my online application on 3 December and submitted biometric on 13 December and got this email on exactly 28 January, which is the last day of the 8thweek completion. Can you please suggest from your experiences that this is just a trick to justify the delay to show that they responded in 8 weeks or an issue.? If it really is an issue, it is not my fault; after paying so much for a biometric appointment ( Paid the maximum options), will they respond to me quickly to resolve it, or treat it as a complex application to respond on their convenient time. Kindly share your thoughts.? Thanks

Home Office reply as below
Although we would normally decide your application within eight weeks from the date it was submitted, unfortunately this is not going to be possible in your case.
This is because there has been an issue with your biometric enrolment.
I am sorry for the delay in dealing with your application and for the inconvenience this is causing. Please be assured that we are doing all we can to make a decision on your case as quickly as possible.

I suspect the reason they have stated is probably genuine.

The general excuse for delays is "the case is complex".