Sandra35 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 4:54 pm
Hi, Thank you for your comments. Apologies for lack of clarity.
This loan was not mentioned at the time of the application.
At the initial application stage the applicant had all the relevant documents from a third party funder. He has not actually used the third party funds but had some personal funds which he has used as part of his £200k investment. (i'm not sure why he could not rely on his personal funds at the time, perhaps they had not been in his account for long enough but in any event they were not sufficient)
He is now short of funds to invest and has the possibility of a personal loan from a lender who is in fact a limited company based in Cyprus. The loan would be paid into his personal UK account. I appreciate this is not straightforward.
My worry is that the Guidance says that the funds should have been available to him at all times and if he's now taking out a loan that would say otherwise. On the other hand the Guidance seems to say that at the point of extension, the applicant essentially needs to show that they have invested the relevant £200k in the business.
Sorry this is so long but would appreciate any guidance
So, this is for someone else?
You are right in that there is only the requirement to provide evidence of the actual investment.
However, there are a couple of subtleties.
1) One of the conditions of the visa award is that the applicant retains access to the funds UNTIL it is invested into the business (as you pointed out). There is no requirement to evidence that until the applicant is specifically asked for it as additional information. So it is just useful to have the evidence ready just in case.
2) The only evidence needed is to show transfer of funds from applicant to the business, and that would be satisfied by moving it from the personal account to the business account. However, HO has previously asked for the source of funds, which means they are interested in verifying that this is a genuine personal investment. There are no clear guidelines on what exactly they look for here.
My comments are in no way meant to be advisory. I have no professional knowledge of immigration. These are based on my own experience, convictions and personal interpretation of publicly available information.