Entering UK as tourist with Entreprenuer visa

[cheesecake99]

I applied for and was granted an Entrepreneur Visa in January 2014. I applied from outside of the UK. My original plan was to move to the UK and get started on the business in May of this year. However, my current employers managed to convince me to stay in my current job until the end of the year. Now my intention is to move to the UK in early Jan 2015. However, I wish to visit the UK as a tourist this July. Will my entry into the UK 'activate' my Entrepreneur Visa, or can I enter as a tourist? If the former, this would be worrying as under the terms of the Entrepreneur visa, I can't work for any business apart from my own business. However, after my holiday in the UK in July, I would be returning to New Zealand to work in my job until the end of the year as an employee.

I can't find anything about this in the guidance. My presumption is that my visa gives me the 'right' to live in the UK and start a business, and therefore that the requirement wouldn't be forced upon me, but I could be wrong. Can anyone offer me any insight?

Many thanks

[kayess1984]

You need proper information, I would recommend you to consult a solicitor for this. They will charge £20 and will advise you properly. As far as I know, you do not need a tourist visa and if you gonna apply for a tourist visa, the UKBA will ask you the reason or may interview you. Where did you apply your Entrepreneur visa? Also wait for others input.

[BlackBirdSSG]

Also, there's a reason they give 3 years and 4 months of visa for outside UK applicants as compared to exactly 3 years for inside UK applicants. If you take fairly longer period of time, they may stop you at border and question you!

You will have to re-apply again

[Olasunkanmi]

@ cheesecake99, in order not to complicate your case, you can decide to enter UK in July 2014 with your holiday plan, but also make plans to start your business by doing the initial registration required like opening a company, registering as director and other necessary stuffs for your business without telling anyone about your real intension. You can then travel back to New Zealand to continue your other job till December 2014 if your present employer can change your terms of employment to contracting rather than as an employee.

Since you are allowed to spend 180days each calendar year outside the UK as a Tier 1 entrepreneur visa holder, you should have no problem when coming back to UK in January 2015, but make sure that your payment for your job in New Zealand between July 2014 - December 2014 are paid into your business account in UK as a contractor in order to show that your business was active while you were away in New Zealand. A Tier 1 entrepreneur visa holder can work from anywhere in the world, but they must spend 180days in UK each year in order to qualify for settlement after 5years or 3years if business can either employ 10 full-time worker or make annual income of £3million.

This is just my opinion but better to seek expert advice.

[kayess1984]

Your advices are no less than professional help Olasunkanmi. You're a real diamond member1
1 thing I would like to ask, where can you check the status of applications on the UK website (for all the countries)? Hard time finding the status as am not able to find out and they have changed their website completely and its so confusing also. Any help like a link would be much appreciated. If country specific, I need to check status of Indian application applied from Delhi. (Business Visit UK Visa)

Thanks!

[kayess1984]

1 more thing, are there any age restrictions in the Tier 1 200k Visa? Restriction as in any criteria or any preference given to youngsters or vice versa?

[cheesecake99]

Many thanks for your responses everyone. You have all been very helpful.

Olasunkanmi - I spoke to my NZ employers but nope, unfortunately they aren't willing to pay me as a company as that would be breaching tax rules. It was a great suggestion though.

As for the 180 day rule, and please correct me if I"m wrong, I'm not certain there is an actual requirement for being in the UK for 180 days in a year. It is, however, a condition for obtaining settlement. Under my current scenario, I could not obtain settlement at the end of 5 years as I wouldn't meet the 180 day rule, but I could (I think) apply for another Entrepreneur Visa and then seek settlement at the end of 3 years (so I would do the initial 3 years 4 months, 2 years extension, then 3 years on new visa before I could settle). If anyone can see any glaring flaws in my understanding/ logic, please let me know.

The issue with being in the UK as a tourist on an Entrepreneur Visa is that my Entrepreneur Visa says I can only work for my business. However, I would be breaching the terms of my visa in that I would still be working for another employer. If I"m able to enter the UK without 'activating' my EVisa, that would be great but I suspect it won't be possible.

[Olasunkanmi]

@ kayess1984, I think that the best way to check the status of your application is to call the embassy were you submitted your application.

Also in regard to age restriction on Tier 1 entrepreneur visa, HO just added a section on 06/04/14 for applicants that are 16yrs old.

Its actually a silly addition because, how do you expect a 16yrs old applicants who also need to proof evidence of care arrangement to be able to run a business.

HO refuses some graduate simply for not having a qualification in their chosen business area and now allow a 16yrs old who need a carer to apply for Tier 1 entrepreneur visa. It just shows that the people writing HO requirement are silly.

So to answer your question, the minimum age requirement according to HO is 16yrs.

[Olasunkanmi]

@ cheesecake99, once you have been in UK for 5years on the Tier 1 entrepreneur visa and if you haven't spend more than 180days each year during the period outside the UK, you should get your ILR visa.

If you enter UK around 1yr after your first 3yrs, 4months visa was issued, then you will need to extend twice (first extension for 2yrs and also second extension for another 2yrs). You will then qualify for ILR once you have spend the first 8months of your second extension. You don't have to complete the whole 2yrs of the second extension before submitting your ILR application.

You should talk to a tax adviser to see if UK taxation will have any issue with New Zealand employment tax. I think that your employer think that your contracting payment should not be paid to a UK company, but you can seek professional tax advice on way of avoiding the clashes in tax issue.

If you can sort out the tax issue, then you should be fine by following the plan.

[kayess1984]

Thanks Olasunkanmi.. I wasnt worried about the minimum age requirement, I was for the maximum age restriction if any. Is there any max age restriction for Tier 1 visa via 200k route?

Also about the status, in India UKBA is more interested in making money and every free service which were there are no longer active. It was confirmed by a VFS guy that they no longer provide status updates on the UKBA website. Either you have to take sms service which is paid or just wait for the email which is always slow. They asked me to leave the feedback at the time of collection but who cares about the feedback.

UKBA claims that the UK visas are cheap by comparing their visas with USA visa. They said we charge 85£ in India whereas counties like USA charge £100. But they forgt to mention that USA is giving 10 years visa and not just 6 months. The reporter was stupid who wasn't aware of this & reported that UK visas are reasonably priced.