A study reveals that around 14.5% of the UK population is foreign born; however, 39% of the 100 fastest growing businesses in the UK have a foreign born (co)founder.

These statistics are taken from The Entrepreneur Network’s Job Creator 2023 report. 

If you are an entrepreneur or an experienced business person who wants to establish a business in the UK, we detail some of the available visa options below. 

What are some of the UK entrepreneur visa options available?

Innovator Founder – This non-sponsored route allows foreign entrepreneurs to live and work in the UK for 3 years, crucially to set-up and run their business, with the option to extend or apply for indefinite leave to remain.

It replaces former UK entrepreneur visa categories such as the: Tier 1 (Entrepreneur), Start-up and Innovator routes. 

Would be UK entrepreneur visa holders are required to obtain endorsement, following assessment that the business is scalable, viable, and innovative. There is no minimum level of set-up capital required but it is expected to be accounted for in the business plan. 

Scale-up – This option allows UK employers who are in a sustained period of high growth to recruit migrants for highly skilled roles. It requires the UK employer to apply for a Scale-up sponsor licence. 

The initial visa is usually valid for 2 years, with the option to extend and to eventually apply for indefinite leave to remain. There are a number of requirements to be met including minimum:

• period of employment
• salary threshold
• skill level

This offers migrants flexibility after an initial period of sponsorship.

Other options are available, such as the High Potential Individual and Youth Mobility Scheme visas or even as family/ dependency; however, they are not options available to everyone, and there is usually a cap as to how long migrants can spend in these (usually) short-term routes.

How popular are the Innovator Founder and Scale-up routes?

Based on figures from the Office of National Statistics, the uptake of both the Scale up visa and the Innovator Founder visa (first open to applications on 22 August 2022 and 13 April 2023 respectively) have been low. This is especially the case when compared to the historic equivalent, the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa, which was first open to applications on 30 June 2008 and closed to new applications on 29 March 2019.

These figures are quite stark. Whilst not an exact, direct comparison the statistics indicate that the old Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa was more than two times more popular than the current Innovator Founder visa and more than 20 times more popular than the Scale-up visa, even before Brexit and COVID-19. This can be explained, in part due to the complexity of the newer routes.

What more can the UK do to attract foreign entrepreneurs?

In comparison to the former and current UK entrepreneur visa categories, the immigration statistics show that more could be done to better attract more foreign entrepreneurs. This can usually be easily achieved where there is political will.

For example, changes might include:

• Revisiting the rules to allow Student visa holders to bring their family as this is usually the initial barrier for migrants
• Expanding the scope of who can be eligible for existing visas such as the High Potential Individual route (limited to graduates of eligible top 50 international universities) 
• Allowing migrants to combine certain visa categories to count towards their indefinite leave to remain “clock” (currently only available after 10 years)
• Further simplifying the rules relating to entrepreneur migrants

Conclusion

The UK clearly remains an attractive country for foreign entrepreneurs to base their businesses here. However, more could be done to further increase inward investment to the UK with greater and more user-friendly immigration options being a possible solution.

Please contact our market-leading team of immigration lawyers for expert advice and assistance.

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