Visa approved within 17 days. Glory to the Lord

Seems like their processing time has really improved!!

Thanks to everyone on the forum who has shared their experiences, and continue to share advice with others. This is the second time in 3 years this forum has come to my aid (previous was PSW) and hopefully I can help others too.

OK, let's start with basics. I am an Engineer, and my business is providing consultancy engineering services. I did not use a solicitor. I am not stopping anyone from using them, just saying with careful preparation, you might not need one.

My timeline was as follows:

Application: 5th November
Money taken: 7th November
Request for Biometrics: Printed 8th, received 12th.
Biometrics done: 13th
Acknowledgement of Application letter: Printed 7th, received 14th
Cards from DX and Royal mail (attempted delivery): 27th.

Approval letter was typed on the 22nd. I've picked up my documentation from Royal Mail, I'll have to arrange re-delivery with DX at some point for BRP.

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List of Documentation

Passports (including previous one) and BRP, and passport photos.

Current Appointment Report (called Companies House and ordered it for 3 pounds) with invoice

Two of my most recent contracts with my current clients. First one was in February, and it has been continuous. Both were in accordance with policy guidance

University degree

Bank Statements:
1) Personal Savings account for maintenance: This went back since February, showing my account never dropped below 900

2) Personal savings account for maintenance: This had been built up over a few weeks preceding my application. The final few payments of about 10K to reach the 50K were made within a few days (5 or 6) of the application.

3) Business Bank account: This covered my business transactions from July till October, and obviously showed monies from the company I had a contract with paid regularly.

All the bank statements were original copies posted by the bank, not electronic printouts. I also had them stamped. Not necessary, but whatever makes one feel better eh?

Website Print out and adverts with local newspapers, and GumTree (in adherence to the policy guidance)

Personal CV

Company Insurance documentation.

Welcome to Business Banking (Barclays)

Signed timesheets from my client. I also included a number of invoices

A Business plan. The plan itself is about 20 pages long, with 10 to 15 pages extra of financial information. If you want good information/templates on building a business plan, try http://www.bplans.co.uk/. There are plenty others, Google is your friend. I also used a web based software "MyBusinessWorks", which Barclays provided to me when I opened my business account (for a monthly fee, of course). It was worth it though, the create a business plan section really, really helped me with creating the plan I did. It also provides tools for book keeping (on its own about 25 a month), and for help with legal stuff. Especially generating the financial section. I ended my subscription, though.



Items I added, which I didn't feel were necessary but might help my application:

Reports and Accounts for my Company's previous financial year, generated by my accountant. This is basically like a balance sheet, showing total ins and outs, i.e. total turnover, operating profits, liabilities, dividends, etc. Only 2 pages long.

Company tax return (2012-2013) acknowledgment from HMRC. This is basically a document from HMRC saying they have received your company tax return, and showing what I owe.

Business cards of my business banker, and the manager at my client's office.

Certificate of membership to my professional body (IChemE)

Cover letter. This just said who I am, what I do, why I am applying.


Things I did to try to make my application smooth: Use lots of post it notes. Can't have too much. Explain what each document you are sending is on post it notes. You know them easily because they are yours, a stranger who is looking might be confused.

Separate each document into folders. You can buy them at your supermarket / bookstore, those transparent soft folders for holding paper.

Whichever way you feel you can make life easier for the case worker, think about it and try to implement.

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I have tried to put as much information here so as to help others who are looking to make their application, without them needing to ask more questions. However I appreciate some more questions will come up; I probably missed a couple of things. However, I will not provide you with my business plan, so don't waste your time asking me. If you have questions, please do so in the thread proper as opposed to PMs, as it might help someone else, and prevent repetition.

Good luck!

Perfect !
Congo mate and thanks for sharing this info.
Cheers !

congo bro...very well done and very well written too )

Congrats! And thank you for being so helpful, explaining very clearly and thoroughly your application package.

Thanks!

Wazobia
Your packaging is as perfect as to warrant even a dumb caseworker to hurriedly grant you your visa. I must say you did an excellent job, well done and congrats

Congrats mate

Thanks everyone. Like I said, it really helped that I was able to read through this forum. Heck I didn't even know this opportunity existed for PSW holders until September 1st, when I checked this forum out of curiosity. Since then I had been greedily assimilating knowledge.

Well done mate.

Thats one of the best T1 Entrepreneur Application Description that I have seen on this forum.

Congrats

Thank you, El Cholo.

I had a pm from someone on this board, and I think it'll be best to share here, in case anyone else has the same questions, and it might save repeating the same thing again

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1) Can you plz tell me what is Engineering consultancy service?
2) I am interested in stepping into Business Consultancy service.

Can you give me any guidance as to how the consultancy firms start their business?? Since you are already running a consultancy business, I am very sure you know the art of acquiring the clients.

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To answer the questions:

1) An consultancy service means providing advice / solution to a client's problems. The term 'consultant' is often used by professionals, as opposed to say, people who don't have professional qualifications. There is nothing special about it really. In my case, the solutions I offer to the clients are of an engineering type.

2) If you want to set up a consultancy, you need to form your own company. You can go to companies house http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/ and spend some time reading through. It's not the hardest thing really, and it doesn't cost much to register a company name. You'll also need to register with HMRC for things like corporation tax and VAT. If all this is too much, hire an accountant and they'll do it for you. It's normally in the region of about 100 pounds a month. But like I said, it's something you can do yourself.

In terms of getting clients, that's different for each company. I get my clients through recruitment consultancies. They do all the work in connecting me to clients. Other people might have other ways of getting clients, you'll have to look around.

Hi Wazobia,

I'm also planning to use a contract I got through a recruitment company. It's a 1 year contract. Do you think it is ok to show as part of my application?

I also have another contract which is direct through a company.

I don't know why, but I'm not sure how the UKBA would feel about using recruitment companies.

Thanks!

misskin wrote:Hi Wazobia,

I'm also planning to use a contract I got through a recruitment company. It's a 1 year contract. Do you think it is ok to show as part of my application?

I also have another contract which is direct through a company.

I don't know why, but I'm not sure how the UKBA would feel about using recruitment companies.

Thanks!

Misskin,

I was a bit worried myself about UKBA and recruitment companies, but then that's how most contractors here get work these days. Go ahead and show it; both contracts I used as part of my application were through a recruitment company, not direct. So if it worked for me, I see no reason why it should be a hindrance to you.

Good luck!

That's great Wazobia, I will definitely be using the contract from the recruitment company. Thanks for your reply.

A few more questions:

How long was your company active?
Did you register for it more than 3 months before applying?

I thought you had to be registered within the three month period.

Thanks!
misskin

Misskin,

The requirement is that your company has to have been active for the last three months. The wording from UKBA is a bit confusing, but the important thing is that in the past three months the company has been trading, as opposed to being dormant.

My company had been actively trading since May of last year.

Oh, I see! yes, the wording UKBA has provided is very confusing. That is great to know.

Thanks again!
misskin

Hi Wazobia,

Can I ask whether u apply inside UK or outside UK?

Thanks

Hi huehue

I applied from within the UK

Hi Wazobia....did you show any director's loan agreement for the evidence of your source of 50k funds or you just submitted only your personal account with your 50k.....

Congrats and thanks for your contributions.