

Ask HN: Has anyone successfully moved to the UK on a Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa? - jlangenauer

It strikes me, looking at the requirements for this visa, that it would be almost impossible to get.<p>So has anyone actually done it? If so, what was your story?
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nkoren
Yes, I've just done it. I was already based in the UK, on a Tier 2 (sponsored)
visa, but was wanting to turn my side project into a full-time job, which
meant switching to Tier 1. The £50k threshold isn't available for people
switching from Tier 2, so I had to raise £200k for my startup. Having done
that (with 3 days to spare before my old visa expired!), I then submitted for
the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur), and received it about 2 months later.

~~~
druml
Many thanks for sharing your experience. May I ask if you register your
company while you were still on Tier 2? Was there any legal restriction about
that?

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DrJokepu
There is no such restriction in place. Your company will need to have a UK
address as registered address. Anyone can be a company director as long as
they're over 16, not disqualified from being a company director and not
undischarged bankrupts.

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GFischer
I didn't know about it.

It does seem like the investment requirements might be a bit tough (50.000
pounds, disposable), but at least they allow them to be applied to the entire
team.

I think the "impossible" part is:

"You can apply if your investment funds come from one or more of the
following:

a venture capital firm registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

a UK entrepreneurial seed funding competition endorsed by UKTI

a UK government department making funds available for the purpose of setting
up or expanding a UK business"

~~~
new299
If you don't have a job in the UK you need 60K GBP in cash to get a spouse
VISA. So that requirement is in line with current Immigration policy. My guess
is as another commenter points out, those are just some possible sources and
as long as you have the cash you fulfill the requirements (I'd be interested
in hearing otherwise though).

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blowski
Contact @techhub on Twitter - I think there are quite a few people there who
got visas, and some startups who arranged them as well.

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revorad
Which bit of the requirements do you think is impossible?

~~~
jlangenauer
The seed funding part, as most of the incubators on the list do funding at
levels below £50k.

