TIER 1 ENTREPRENEUR VISA AFTER REGISTER AS COMPANY DIRECTOR AND START INVESTING IN BUSINESS

[justnavi]

Dear Brothers/Sisters,

Made my First Application Tier 1 Entrepreneur Visa (Initial) Outside UK access to £200000 route. Got Refused.

Its my first post in the forum sorry if anything wrong.

Background:
We incorporated Limited Company in UK on 13 Apr 2018, Myself - One of three directors and significant controller with 210000 shares £1/share in company (Indian resident), my two cousins Husband and wife British Indian are other two directors with 4575 shares.

With my instructions my cousins done documentations for register company in Companies House, Got Property Lease, got premises license, business bank account, registered intellectual properties for logos and trademark. Now we got lease signed and got key to build up fittings for our Restaurant Business.
Upon arrival I will be running the business as they do not have knowledge of running business and they got their own responsibilities.

I applied for Entry Clearance from India on 05 Nov 2018.
Visa got rejected on 06 Dec 2018
Got my refusal letter on 15 Dec 2018
Applied for AR on 02 Jan 2019
AR unsuccessful on 12 Feb 2019.

AR AS FOLLOWS
"Access to £200,000
Original Points claimed Original Points awarded AR Points awarded
25 0 0
Administrative Reviewer Comment:

Your application has been refused as the Entry Clearance Officer was not satisfied that you had access to £200,000.00 as required under Appendix A, as you had not provided the specified documentation.

Within your administrative review, you state that the Entry Clearance Officer’s decision is incorrect, as you have not yet invested the money in the business and therefore, your application should have been assessed under Table 4 of Appendix A, rather than table 5 – which the Entry Clearance Officer assessed your application under.

You claim that for the purposes of UK Immigration Law invested means spent directly for setting up the business, which you have not yet done.

You further submit that if you have already invested the funds in to the business, you would only have to create 2 full time jobs in the business to be eligible for leave to remain in this route, which is not what was intended by the migration advisory committee.

Further to the above, you explain that the Entry Clearance Officer’s wrong interpretation of your application has led to the Entry Clearance Officer refusing your application on the wrong grounds and requiring the wrong documentation from you.

You state you have provided all the necessary documentation for your application to show that you have access to no less than £200,000.00.

Whilst the above is acknowledged, I note that the funds you are claiming are available to you are in the form of share capital in the business you state you intend to invest in. Therefore, you have invested in this business by the way of share capital. This means that the Table and Paragraph the Entry Clearance Officer used are correct.

As per the modernised guidance at page 15:

“Money already invested in your business
If all or part of the money you intend to use in your application has already been invested in your business within the 12 months immediately before your application (or 24 months if you are switching from Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur), then you must provide:

all of the specified documents set out in the Investment: Specified Documents section of this guidance, to show the amount of money invested.”

Page 28 of the same guidance confirms the specified documentation which must be provided as:

“(e) If you have made the investment in the form of share capital, the accounts must show the shareholders, the amount and value of the shares (on the date of purchase) in your name as it appears on your application. If the value of your share capital is not shown in the accounts, then a printout of the company’s register of members from Companies House must be provided.
(f) The accounts must clearly show the name of the accountant, the date the accounts were produced, and how much you have invested in the business.”

Therefore, I am satisfied that the decision made by the Entry Clearance Officer is correct.

Based on the above, I have upheld the Entry Clearance Officer’s decision to refuse your application.

Funds held in regulated financial institution - 25 Points Awarded
Funds disposable in UK - 25 Points Awarded
English language - 10 Points Awarded
Maintenance - 10 Points Awarded
General Grounds for Refusal
Administrative Reviewer Comment:
N/A
Genuineness: Meets the requirements of Paragraph 245 DB (f) of the Immigration Rules
Not assessed."

Plan
Now, I am preparing to make my second application with additional documents
1) Unaudited Account/Management Accounts
2) Reference Letter from Certified Charted Accountant
3) Shareholder Certificate
4) Updated CAR

Experts please advice any other documents relevant to my case scenario.


Thanks in Advance

Nav

[marcnath]

Clearly you made a mistake in the original application if you did not provided the certified accounts. So the only additional document needed is the unaudited accounts accompanied by the accountants certificate.

I assume you did submit CAR, tax registration and bank statement

[justnavi]

Clearly you made a mistake in the original application if you did not provided the certified accounts. So the only additional document needed is the unaudited accounts accompanied by the accountants certificate.

I assume you did submit CAR, tax registration and bank statement

Thank you for your reply marcnath.

We just transfered funds into business accounts as share capital instead of directors loan, but not made any investments into business at time of original application. So my solicitor said we claim points from TABLE 4 for investment funds access to £200000 for which Bank statements of Personal accounts of all three directors and business account showing all funds in the account. Third party declaration, legal representative letters, CAR, PSC01, CS01- showing Shares of each shareholders, share agreements of our company.

ECO consider TABLE 5 for funds and refused. Not sure which is right Table 4 or Table 5

Submitted Corporation Tax - CT41G, No VAT reg yet as trading not started.

Please advice on
1. Accounts Compilation Report is mandatory or not for less than 1 year old company (Incorporated Company on 13 April 2018).

2. We agreed lease of the property and about to start work do I need to submit any insurances in showing business activities.

3. Will HO will check our business accounts as we will be using funds for purchase of materials and paying labour cost for works.

Thank you.

[marcnath]

Invested is invested. The immigration rules clearly specify "invested or spent", so they are two different things.

In your AR, you seem to have argued that
Within your administrative review, you state that the Entry Clearance Officer’s decision is incorrect, as you have not yet invested the money i...

That seems to have been incorrectly stated as you had invested in the business.

But if you used the amount in the business account as third party funding and provided the appropriate documents for that, I am not sure why it was not approved. It would depend on the exact documents you provided.

But to your questions:

1. Accounts compilation report is mandatory if you are claiming money invested. The age of the company does not matter.
2. No
3. No. Since it is money already invested, there is no need to show money in accounts any more.

[justnavi]

Invested is invested. The immigration rules clearly specify "invested or spent", so they are two different things.

In your AR, you seem to have argued that
Within your administrative review, you state that the Entry Clearance Officer’s decision is incorrect, as you have not yet invested the money i...

That seems to have been incorrectly stated as you had invested in the business.

But if you used the amount in the business account as third party funding and provided the appropriate documents for that, I am not sure why it was not approved. It would depend on the exact documents you provided.

But to your questions:

1. Accounts compilation report is mandatory if you are claiming money invested. The age of the company does not matter.
2. No
3. No. Since it is money already invested, there is no need to show money in accounts any more.

Thank you for reply marcnath.

At time of my original application we got our business account opened, so we push all funds into business account. So, Money Available to business rather to me individual, for which we submitted all documents likely Personal Accounts statements of all three, business account statement and letter from bank, third party declaration, legal representative letter, Companies House letter - Me as one of director and significant controller, CAR, PSC01, CS01.

Its my understanding from my solicitor, to business accounts funds only can be transfered either by Share Capitals or Directors Loans not just from individuals for no reason. So we have chosen Share Capitals. For which we got our company shareholders agreement mentioned our share values and allotments, shares confirm statement of Companies House.

As Table 4 states (a) At least £200,000 is available to the applicant or their business, or has been invested in their business due to their activity

We claim no money has been invested its just in our business account, so we argue Table 4 is appropriate for my case not Table 5.

But now my circumstance has been changed as we paid for Lease of Property Deposits, Accountants and lease solicitors fee. So will be submitting additional documents management accounts, letter from accountant, account compilation report, share capital certificates, updated CAR, Original Lease of Property Agreement, Board of Meeting Minutes and forwarding letter from solicitor

Please advice any other documents needed with your level of expertise.

Thanks in advance.

Nav

[marcnath]

I have already replied on the documents needed - the only document you missed in the initial submission was the accounts with the compilation report.

Its my understanding from my solicitor, to business accounts funds only can be transfered either by Share Capitals or Directors Loans not just from individuals for no reason. So we have chosen Share Capitals.

Once you chose share capital, the money has already been invested. It is not money available.

Your solicitor does not appear to have a proper understanding of the requirements, unfortunately.

[justnavi]

Ok, Thank you marcnath for your clarity reply.

Its been bit confusing so far.

I am in process to reapply will update post in future.

Once again thank you very much for your replies.

Thanks

Nav