Tier 1 Entrepreneur Refused and appealed-Please Help

[kash333]

I request to all members, senior members, experts and Gurus: Please kindly help, advise and guide us as to the success of our appeal.

I and my team member applied Tier 1 Entrepreneur(£50K route) on 25 October 2012.
Interview on: 10 June 2013
Refused on: 20 December
Appealed on 31 December 2013
Hearing Date 17 July 2014

Refusal reasons:

1. Business is not Genuine as per Genuinness test Paragraph 245DD.
2. One Contract (contract with a limited company) submitted with the application on 25/10/2012 include the contract starting date at one place as 17 October 2012 and at the second place as 22/10/2012(typing error).
Answer: But Although later on, as we realised that starting date of 22/10/2012 at second place is typing error and updated this contract on 22 May 2013 (confirming the starting date as 17/10/2012) and submitted at the interview on 10 june 2013, but in the refusal letter the case worker have not considered and mentioned this updated contract .

3. The second contract submitted at the interview on 10/06/2013 does not include the name of the client's company or his nature of business.
Answer: This contract is actually with a self employed individual (client) who does not have any company but we did not mention his nature of business in the contract as it is not one of the the mandatory requirements for the contract as per Tier 1 Entrepreneur Guidance Policy.

4. Neither contract inlude contract price

Answer: we have mentioned in the contract that contract price will be calculated according to the hours of services needed and requested by the client as to be worked on, but we have not mentioned any fixed hourly rate in the contract as it is not one of the the mandatory requirements for the contract as per Tier 1 Entrepreneur Guidance Policy.

5. Both contracts are vague in the nature of consuiltancy services provided.

Answer: We have mentioned the same and correct consultancy services description as are mentioned in the Tier2 SOC List but still then the case worker mentioned the services as vague.

6. Market Research is simply generic and statistical information which is too wide reaching and does not specifically relate back to the chosen field of business and simply dwonloaded from internet.

Answer: We sumitted these downloded documents as a refernce to the source of information and scope of our chosen field of business but we also sumitted A Business Plan which also inludes the following information .

1. Is our business going to be viable in the UK market ? (means are there any clients/customers in the UK for my business)
2. What is the research we have done to conclude my business will succeed?

3. Who will be our target market (which clients/customers we are going to focus on?

4. What strategy we are going to use to target the market?
4 Ps of marketing strategy -
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
a. What are our services and the features of the services.
b. What is our pricing strategy? How will we decide at what price we are going to sell our services.
c. How I will enter the market? (promotion)

5. who are our competitors? what is our competitive advantage.

6. SWOT analysis -
S - strength - what are my strengths
W - what are my weaknesses
O - what opportunities do I have
T - what are the threats
How will I make use of my strengths and the opportunities to overcome my weaknesses and the threats.

7. The revenue forecast in the business plan submitted at interview on 10/06/2012 does not match to the actual earnings.

Answer:Buisness Plan submitted at interview on 10/06/2012 include revenue forecast from July 2013 to june 2013 only and not from from July 2012 to june 2013 but the case worker compared this forecast to our declared revenue from september 2012 to our interview date on 10 June 2013.
And infact the actuall revenue from July 2013 to june 2013 is also going to be different and less as compared to the forecast from July 2013 to june 2013 as mentioned in the business plan submitted at interview on 10 june 2013 because we could not manage to win enough contracts because of our uncertain immigration status as our visas being in process.

We really appreciate your expert opinion and advice in refernce to our preparation for our appeal Witness statement and bundle!!!

[Princess of Ammi]

its well detailed entailing that cover all aspects in your case.
you apparently got the right answers and what would back up your answers are the trading activities. make sure you are well active in providing services to an extended level. contracts are not mandatory these days a confirmation from the bank that business is trading does all wells appeals normally are seen and decided however up on documents you provided at the time of application.

you need good lawyer such cases are beyond an applicant's caliber specially when hes suffering as a suffering can not properly pay attention to every area and aspects involved within case.

[kash333]

@Princess of Ammi Thank you very much for valuable advice and help.

This forum has been a great source of information and guidance and I would like to thank all of those who took time to read my post.
We are of course appealing through a solicitor and are going to send our appeal bundle in a few days.
But we still need some more suggestion and guidance in reference to the refusal reasons.

Please suggest your views about the refusal points if they are very strong and common reasons of refusal and how can we make our arguments and preparation strong?

[rehan01]

Business trading activity is the answer to the genuinity of ur business and rest of the refusal only u can answer as u knw the quality of documents and material provided eg market research, forecast etc

My suggestion is to concentrate on business and prepar urself very well for hearing as u r expected to be cross examined big time that is what happend with me but u can over come this with business activity ... Providing business bank account statement as ur clients r paying u on time into business acccount....... Poofs n ur explanation of it will help satisfy the judge ....

Look like you have good answers to specific refusal point so concentrate on business activity.


Good luck
Regards

[kash333]

@rehan01 :

First of all Many Congratulations to you for receiving your BRP and Thank you very much for your kind reply.
I have been following your posts and learned a lot from it and greatly appreciate your efforts to help others.

But while going through your posts, I could not find any details about the cross questions they did ask you in your hearing.
in the light of your experience, Please suggest what are the normal procedural interview questions and a kind of cross questions one can expect in the hearing ?

In terms of focusing on the business activities, I am updating my website and doing some more on line advertisement. I am receiving regular payments from one valid contract with a self employed consultant who is running his consultancy business and outsource some of his work to us on an ad hoc basis and second contract is already expired.

Please suggest whether a contact of such nature is acceptable and in accordance with the immigration rules and that having only one contract but receiving regular payments is enough and satisfactory?
And which regulatory trading body (for marketing consultancy business) I can choose to register with?
And for the hearing, what any other actions I should take in terms of knowledge based oral preparation and any more documented evidences?

Kind Regards,

[kash333]

Can any one please reply and comment to the above mentioned query !