Verification Letter for Third Party Funding

[BstnMelody]

I am an American applying for an Entrepreneur Visa with third party funding, and I'm currently struggling with this requirement:

If the money is awarded by a third party other than a venture capital firm, seed funding competition or a UK government department/devolved government department, then the letter from the financial institution holding the funds must also include the following details:

For money being held by a third party at the time of your application and not in your possession, confirmation that the third party has informed the institution of the amount of money that the third party intends to make available to you, and that the institution is not aware of the third party having promised to make that money available to any other person;

The third party's bank, Chase, is refusing to sign such a letter (they say it opens them up to legal liability). I've also asked my bank, Bank of America (thinking maybe the 3rd party can transfer the funds into another bank for my use), but BofA has refused. And I called a small local bank in NY, also with no success. I'm wondering how other Americans have dealt with this issue when no bank I've found yet will actually fulfill the requirements of the HO?

[zimba]

The solution is that the third party transfers the money to your personal account (you submit personal bank statements for visa) and then the third party only needs to issue the declaration letter, declaring the funds are available to you.

[BstnMelody]

The solution is that the third party transfers the money to your personal account (you submit personal bank statements for visa) and then the third party only needs to issue the declaration letter, declaring the funds are available to you.

Thank you Zimba for such a speedy response!

Ok, so I can see this:

120. If the money is held in the UK and in a personal bank account, then you can provide
recent personal bank or building society statements covering a consecutive 90 day period of time,
with the most recent statement being dated no earlier than 31 days before the date of your
application
. The statements must be from the UK financial institution holding the funds, which confirms the amount of money available to you or your entrepreneurial team. Please note: if you have held the money for less than 90 days, but you are providing third party evidence as the source of your funds, then the statements do not need to cover a consecutive 90 day period of time.

And I have these follow-up questions:
1. Does that mean I cannot have the funds transferred to my US bank account. Must it be a UK account?
2. At the ideal time of application, I would not have held the funds for the 90 days. Are you sure that the declaration letter counts as the "third party evidence" they are requiring? It just does not explicitly say that, so it's unclear to me.

Also, at the ideal time of application, I also would not have enough time to wait for original statements from my bank. So I would want to use electronic statements, as per this requirement:

Electronic statements: We will not accept printouts of electronic statements without either a
supporting letter from the bank, on the bank’s headed paper, confirming the authenticity of the
statements, or without the official stamp of the bank in question on each page of the statement.

Which leads me to my next question:
3. My US bank would provide official stamps for me (hence my question above if the funds must be in a UK bank), but my UK bank will not. They will only provide a one page statement with my account details and balance, which I think would not suffice?

[marcnath]

57. You or your entrepreneurial team can include money made available by other people (known
as ‘a third party or parties’, and this can include money from your (or your entrepreneurial team member’s) husband, wife or partner). In this case you must also provide a declaration that
the money is available to you and your entrepreneurial team member (if applicable), or to the business that you or your entrepreneurial team are running. You must provide a declaration from each contributor of funds, together with confirmation that the declarations are valid.
58. If you are using money which has been transferred from a third party to you less than 90 days before the application, then you will need to supply the evidence required for third party funding, as specified in the above paragraph.

This can be in non-UK bank account.
The evidence they require refers to paragraph 57, which is the declaration.

Also, at the ideal time of application, I also would not have enough time to wait for original statements from my bank. So I would want to use electronic statements, as per this requirement:

Electronic statements: We will not accept printouts of electronic statements without either a
supporting letter from the bank, on the bank’s headed paper, confirming the authenticity of the
statements, or without the official stamp of the bank in question on each page of the statement.

Which leads me to my next question:
3. My US bank would provide official stamps for me (hence my question above if the funds must be in a UK bank), but my UK bank will not. They will only provide a one page statement with my account details and balance, which I think would not suffice?

UK Banks do provide stamps - I have got them for myself. You should print out the pages you need stamped and go to any branch. They will stamp it for you. I have had a case where they initially said they would only stamp the 1st page, but I found that it was that individual teller's own interpretation which got resolved once I insisted.

[BstnMelody]

The evidence they require refers to paragraph 57, which is the declaration.

I'm getting conflicting feedback from my lawyer. They're telling me I must have a funds verification letter from my own bank in this case. I've called another lawyer to get another opinion. And I'm off to the banks tomorrow to find one that would be willing to sign such a letter, as HSBC is useless.

UK Banks do provide stamps - I have got them for myself.

Which bank are you at? I need to find an accommodating bank. HSBC do not do them.