Tier 1 application #food #200k #advice

[agentfourty7]

Hi all,

It is my first post after having followed the forum for years. I hope I am doing this right.

I am a U.K. citizen (via long stay route) since 6 months now. My parents live in India.

I have a market food stall and wish to expand the business into something like a cafe, takeaway or a restaurant. I therefore thought of getting my parents over as they have been involved in fast food chain business in India, for over 5 years now. Tier 1 seemed like a legitimate option for us here.

As we are new to this and there is a lot of grey area (we've been told), I just wanted a few getting started tips.

1) If we bought a property (commerical space), shop, cafe, restaurant - can that be bought from the £200k investment that is to be shown? Even though it won't be all used, only lease transfer from old owner to us + recurring rent each month? How does it work? We are well confused with how to justify £200k investment for extension, so that we get an extension. The business will be legitimate and genuine btw.

2) My parents can arrange for £200k in Indian account. But I have heard the money needs to be transferred into a U.K. bank account and needs to remain so until extension?

3) Is £200k the only right route for us? Given that no venture capital will invest in a "yet another" Indian fast food business?

Thaks!

[zimba]

1) If we bought a property (commerical space), shop, cafe, restaurant - can that be bought from the £200k investment that is to be shown? Even though it won't be all used, only lease transfer from old owner to us + recurring rent each month? How does it work? We are well confused with how to justify £200k investment for extension, so that we get an extension. The business will be legitimate and genuine btw.

Money paid to takeover/purchase a previous business is not accepted for investment. You can invest in a commercial property but you need to be able to justify it and show that your business is genuine.

2) My parents can arrange for £200k in Indian account. But I have heard the money needs to be transferred into a U.K. bank account and needs to remain so until extension?

You can get visa with money in an Indian account. However the money must be transferred to UK business bank account and invested in the UK business for extension.

3) Is £200k the only right route for us? Given that no venture capital will invest in a "yet another" Indian fast food business?

Unless you have more money over £2m. A fast food business plan will not be looked favourably by HO. There are many of those here and I am not sure how a kebab shop take over can be called entrepreneurship. This route has been a used by some families to move to the UK, so Home Office is quite aware of this and unlikely to accept such business plans.