T1E extension question: Date of business established

[georgina3499]

Hi Everyone hope all you are well and happy new year.

I got a question about my T1 extension. If anyone could help I will be really appreciate.

I am under T1E visa now and have a business partner who applied the same visa with me as a team. Our company incorporated in Oct 2014. I was appointed as director in Jan 2016. I applied Tier 1 200k in June 2016.

The reason is that my business partner used to hold Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur visa so he registered the company in Oct 2014. In 2016 because of my join he applied the T1E 200k with me as a team. And we both got visa approved at the end.

I just found on Guidance said:

"A business will only be considered a “new” business if you established it no earlier than 12 months (or 24 months if you were previously granted leave as a Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) migrant) before the date of the application which led to your first grant of leave as a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) migrant."

Our business is a restaurant and opened to public since OCT 2016. My question is how the HO consider the date of business established? Is it the date of incorporation of the company, or the date we started running business?

When I applied my initial visa I explained my team situation and handed in CAR, Certificate of incorporation, Corporation tax certificate, Account report ended 31-oct-2015, Account report from 1-Nov-2015 to 10-Jun-2016, Director’s loan agreement, etc. I got my visa approved at the end. Can I understand if my initial visa is successful, it wouldn't be a problem for my extension?

Thanks for the help in advance.

[zimba]

HO will view you as joining an existing business as the date of appointment matters. So You then end up sending those extra documents mentioned in the guide as well for your extensions

[georgina3499]

Hi Zimba,

Thanks for your help. Now I got clearer picture