Mrs C, a Non-EEA national, entered the UK on Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa after deciding to invest over 200,000 GBP into a local business in the United Kingdom. During her stay in the UK, Mrs C not only established a local business, but she also created over 2 full-time and part-time jobs for settled workers.
Mrs C and her 3 dependents were approaching the end of their 3 years leave to enter as a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) and PBS dependents, so they sought legal advice to apply for either settlement or extension, depending on meeting Immigration requirements. Mrs C approached a high street firm to advise and assist with the next steps and she was informed by these legal representatives that she could apply for settlement on an accelerated route.
Note: Applicants can only apply for the accelerated route of settlement if they have evidence that a minimum of 10 full-time jobs for settled workers have been created, or investments in the business have resulted in a net income increase of at least 5 million GBP during the 3 years of his/her leave as a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur).
With the high street firm’s recommendation, Mrs C relied on the requirement for the creation of 10 full-time jobs and applied for accelerated settlement. To demonstrate that she was meeting the requirement, she gathered an abundance of evidence with regards to the creation of jobs. A settlement application for her and dependents was filed with the Home Office. This application was refused with a right to apply for an Administrative Review. As the PBS applicants no longer qualified for an in-country right of appeal, the only way to challenge the PBS refusal was via Administrative Review. In these cases, submission of additional documents is restricted and most challenges fail unless the applicants can show that a caseworker error occurred at the time of considering the application.
In Mrs C’s case, the Administrative Review was not her best option as there was no caseworker error, but rather a failure by her previous legal representatives to advise appropriately and submit the specified evidence required for a settlement application.
As she lost trust in her previous legal representatives, Mrs C decided to seek a second opinion and contacted A Y & J Solicitors. We had a telephone consultation with Mrs C and we identified that she did not qualify for accelerated settlement route because she did not create 10 full-time jobs during her initial period of leave as a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur). The jobs created were a combination of full-time and part-time employment and did not satisfy the Home Office creation requirement of 10 full-time jobs. During the consultation, our experts also identified that the specified evidence required for job creation had not been submitted in the application.
A brief example is that passport copies of the settled workers were not submitted, HMRC full-payment submission was not submitted, and for some workers, their start date of employment was not available. This combination of errors led to the initial settlement refusal.
The refusal of Mrs C’s application not only created distress to her and her family but also affected her business as she was not able to travel abroad for business. The family was also in the process of completing the purchase of a family home, but due to the refusal of their application, this process was on hold and they were on the verge of losing their dream home.
Our experts at A Y & J Solicitors assured Mrs C that although she did not qualify for the settlement, she did qualify for an extension. To protect her and her family’s legal status, we advised her to file an Administrative Review (AR) with a purpose. The pending AR allowed her the opportunity to gather all the required evidence for an extension application and she submitted a new application for an extension during this time.
We provided Mrs C with an extensive list of documents required for the extension application and we maintained contact with her throughout the process. We also maintained contact with her instructed accountant to ensure that all the evidence regarding investment and the creation of jobs contained the specified information required by the Home Office. As part of the extension application, our legal representation submitted a full response to the previous reasons for refusal and addressed each document submitted to demonstrate she had satisfied all the extension requirements.
A Y & J Solicitors supported Mrs C and her family through every step of her Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) extension application and maintained regular contact with her while the application was pending.
Within a short time, the extension application was approved without further documents or information requested from the Home Office. We were very pleased to assist Mrs C and her family to continue to remain lawfully in the UK and be able to run her successful UK business.
Hello everyone it’s a great place to get ur immigration matters done. AY&J solicitors got most experienced staff who helped me in getting my enterpreneur extention. They are very professional and honest, they advised me in a right way and gave me confidence in all the steps of my entrepreneur extention.