Tier 1 Investor Requires Visa Extension

A Y & J Solicitors assisted an Investor in securing her extension for a further period of two years as a Tier 1 (Investor) in the UK. Mrs J arrived in the United Kingdom as a Tier 1 (Investor) Migrant with the purpose of investing 1 million UK pounds in qualifying investments. Having been granted initial leave under the above Immigration category before 06 November 2014, she was required to show at the time of the application for an extension that:

• she did not have less than 1 million in the UK, in her name and under her control
• she had invested 750,000 GBP in qualifying investments
• she had invested the balance of her 1 million in specified ways, and
• she had invested the total amount within 3 months of the specified date and maintained it for a continuous period throughout the period of her leave.

Expert Review Identify Gaps in Required Documentation for Tier 1 Investor Visa

While preparing Mrs J’s extension application, our team identified that she had invested over 1 million pounds in the UK, however, part of her investment could not be demonstrated with the documents she was given by her investment agent. Despite investing such an enormous amount in the UK, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) expects applicants to tick each box of the Immigration Rules for a grant of extension.

As part of her investment, Mrs J had invested at least 750,000 GBP of her capital in the UK through UK government bonds and share or loan capital in the UK registered active and trading companies. The remaining 250,000 GBP was considered the balance of funds and represented the amount of money needed to bring the total funds invested and held by Mrs J up to 1 million.

We prepared a bespoke list of documents for Mrs J according to her investments and offered to liaise with the investment agent to ensure that all the documents required contained the specified criteria as required by the Home Office.

While requesting additional information and documents, our team of experts identified that part of the investment was not conducted within 3 months of the specified date, i.e. her date of entry in the UK.

As part of the extension requirements, the quarterly investment reports must be certified as required by UKVI guidance, but most investment companies are reluctant to so. Further, to provide evidence that the investment was conducted within the specified period, our team advised our client to include additional evidence not part of the UKVI list of documents. With the experience and knowledge of our team, the extra documents that were produced along with the investment reports assisted our client showing that she had invested within the specified period as required by the Immigration Rules.

Careful Preparation Gains Tier 1 Investor Visa Extension for Client and Family

We also offered Mrs J the opportunity to proceed with a Super Premium Appointment where a decision is made within a few days of submitting the application. The benefits of the service are that we have access to the contact details of the assigned caseworker, we are updated on a regular basis on the progress of the matter, our clients have their biometrics recorded at our office, and their original documents are collected from our office.

Mrs J and her family had their applications approved within 2 days and we are content that we were could assist this family with their Tier 1 (Investor) extension application.