Upcoming extension, company is still not operating. Chances?

Good evening,

I came here to get a reality check from the members. I kindly ask you to reply with out any bias.

My Tier 1 Ent visa is due to expire is October this year and I was wondering how much in advance should one apply for the extension?

Second question is if I've got any chances to get the extension despite not having any business activity. I have 2 UK settled people hired (my relatives) and the company has around £100k in cash. Apart from that, unfortunately, I never managed to get any revenues on the business, costs only (admin, salary + tax). Will I have any chances to get visa extension? Maybe very persuasive future business plan might help?

Any ideas very welcome
Thank you!

Edit: Does premium service still increase probability of positive outcome?

What type of business do you run?
Certain types of businesses take longer to generate revenue.

Hello it's a must you should have business activity
. You must be successful engaged in a business activity
. Also you do say you have only overheads ? That means you are doing something right ? The company may
result in loss but it's okay as long as there Is work going on. If the employees are registered on Paye . Yes I suppose


Hopefully you have been paying taxes

And I think you can apply 28 days before In advance
But please check with senior members.

Go for it with sincere intentions. You might succeed

Premium service Iam not sure about its existence. Heard about here and there but doubt it.
It will not guarantee you anything as they still stick to their procedure . So you still would have to go through their documentation and evidence etcc.

If you think it does exist and still want it give it a shot

The PSC (Premium) service isn't available under Tier 1 Entrepreneur.

7. When you can't use the service (includes):
applying under Tier 1 (Entrepreneur)

https://www.gov.uk/ukvi-premium-service ... he-service

If no business activity and relatives employees and only 100k lying idle in bank than your chances of getting visa extension are Zero i will be very surprised if you get extension sorry don't want to give you false hope.

You enjoy your time in UK till oct than plan to go to another country after they reject your visa

sm12 wrote:What type of business do you run?
Certain types of businesses take longer to generate revenue.

Professional advice services. Fairly easy to start revenue generation to be fair, but didn't quite work out for us.

Vish79k wrote:Hello it's a must you should have business activity
. You must be successful engaged in a business activity
. Also you do say you have only overheads ? That means you are doing something right ? The company may
result in loss but it's okay as long as there Is work going on. If the employees are registered on Paye . Yes I suppose


Hopefully you have been paying taxes

And I think you can apply 28 days before In advance
But please check with senior members.

Go for it with sincere intentions. You might succeed

Well, I actually tried but it just didn't work out. I had rent until last December and have 2 people hired that are my relatives and help me with ad-hoc tasks. All employees are PAYE registered of course. I am considering making last leap of faith, I've got couple of month before application. Maybe a good plan would help?

Vish79k wrote:Premium service Iam not sure about its existence. Heard about here and there but doubt it.
It will not guarantee you anything as they still stick to their procedure . So you still would have to go through their documentation and evidence etcc.

If you think it does exist and still want it give it a shot

As per below message, it turns out to be unavailable.

Casa wrote:The PSC (Premium) service isn't available under Tier 1 Entrepreneur.

7. When you can't use the service (includes):
applying under Tier 1 (Entrepreneur)

https://www.gov.uk/ukvi-premium-service ... he-service

Thank you. Would be possible to hear your opinion on my case? I know it's not great, but what's best approach? Any changes to rescue the situation?

Thank you

businessmen aces wrote:If no business activity and relatives employees and only 100k lying idle in bank than your chances of getting visa extension are Zero i will be very surprised if you get extension sorry don't want to give you false hope.

You enjoy your time in UK till oct than plan to go to another country after they reject your visa

I now want to consider any options to save the situation. But yes, chances are not ideal.

So you actually do have business activity and expenses to show, and it's a case of the business not succeeding? You can move from one business to another, so that's an alternative. You could set up and start developing another business if this one isn't working out.

sm12 wrote:So you actually do have business activity and expenses to show, and it's a case of the business not succeeding? You can move from one business to another, so that's an alternative. You could set up and start developing another business if this one isn't working out.

Yes, sir, that is correct - I might have been unclear before. It's just that we can't seem to 'start' it!

Expiry is in October, hence application is in September. Do you think that if we switch activities now (say 1st of June), 3 months of work (if successful) could increase my chances?

zimba88 wrote:It is difficult to say what a genuine business means from HO perspective but revenue is certainly not a must as long as you have business activity.
However to me your business practices show that you do not have a genuine business at the moment. Hiring relatives is usually a sign that you are not serious about your business practices. You must change the course of business if it is not working for you and if you can do that by October you might be able to pass as a genuine business. Get some contracts, make some changes, generate revenue, change the direction of the business.

Thank you very much for a a little hope here. That is the plan I think. Ditch the relatives, hire UK kiddos and do some work

From reading the forum I understand that golden rule is that it should be investment (basically you buy property for your business and in the name of your business) and NOT an existing business. I.e. "Truck, soft ice cream machine, popsicles" - OK, "Ice Cream Truck" - NOT OK. Any chance you have some idea in your head?

I agree with Zimba. To me the biggest red flag is hiring your relatives. A lot of people on this forum have gotten extension by having little or no revenue and 3 years of losses. If it was me, I would immediately change the course of business, fire my relatives and hire 2 British citizens. Try to have at least a little bit of revenue. but that's just me. Make sure your insurance and tax affairs are up to date as well. I don't think HO canmreject you because of failure in previous business, a lot of startups fail but you should not have employed your relatives. Huge red flag.

zimba88 wrote:Also remember that generally it take several months before you could be interviewed by HO. You might have almost a year to fix your business practices and turn the ship around.

Sorry, don't think I understand that. It's May now, Visa expires mid October. That means that the earliest I can apply for extension is mid September (28 days, correct?). Obviously the decision will have to be made within that period of time until October happens, including HO interview. How come a year? Might be my understanding is just rubbish.

Thank you

Mate if in case they decide to pull you for an interview and thereafter etc.. this will get dragged.

My suggestion is stick to whatever you can which can spin this in the right direction and give it your best shot

Make sure you document all as per the application form and submit all your evidences. Listen to all the advices give to you. You may have a shot. You have come this far so go that extra mile and put your best effort

Vish79k wrote:Mate if in case they decide to pull you for an interview and thereafter etc.. this will get dragged.

My suggestion is stick to whatever you can which can spin this in the right direction and give it your best shot

Make sure you document all as per the application form and submit all your evidences. Listen to all the advices give to you. You may have a shot. You have come this far so go that extra mile and put your best effort

Thanks mate, I will be cracking my pants to get that done. I'm just unsure about the timeline.

Wonderberry wrote:

zimba88 wrote:Also remember that generally it take several months before you could be interviewed by HO. You might have almost a year to fix your business practices and turn the ship around.

Sorry, don't think I understand that. It's May now, Visa expires mid October. That means that the earliest I can apply for extension is mid September (28 days, correct?). Obviously the decision will have to be made within that period of time until October happens, including HO interview. How come a year? Might be my understanding is just rubbish.

Thank you

There is no rule that HO must make a decision on your application before your visa expires. Tier 1 Ent applications can take many months even after your visa expired. It doesn't affect you though as long as you submitted your application before visa expired, your visa conditions continue.

CR001 wrote:

Wonderberry wrote:

zimba88 wrote:Also remember that generally it take several months before you could be interviewed by HO. You might have almost a year to fix your business practices and turn the ship around.

Sorry, don't think I understand that. It's May now, Visa expires mid October. That means that the earliest I can apply for extension is mid September (28 days, correct?). Obviously the decision will have to be made within that period of time until October happens, including HO interview. How come a year? Might be my understanding is just rubbish.

Thank you

There is no rule that HO must make a decision on your application before your visa expires. Tier 1 Ent applications can take many months even after your visa expired. It doesn't affect you though as long as you submitted your application before visa expired, your visa conditions continue.

That is a very helpful reply - I didn't know that. Thank you. So that means I can apply 1st of Oct. That gives me much more time to fix my business up!

Yes you are right your business leads lot of fixing

Hello everyone,
I've recently consulted with you guys on saving my wife's Tier1 Entrepreneur visa (on which I'm listed as dependant). The responses were great and very helpful, but unfortunately it looks like we couldn't get anything running and won't be able to do so until we are due to extend the visa in mid-October this year. There is some sort of activity, but not enough to say it's a successful business. I'd say that we still have around 30-40% chance to extend.

I'm also employed by big firm and could ask them to get me working Tier2 visa and then make my wife dependand instead.

My question is, what's the best sequence of actions? Should we wait until October to try our luck with extension and then (if we fail), apply for my work visa? Or should we try to apply for extension early (July-August), risking of being couple of months short upon ILR, and then applying for work visa in case we are denied with extension?

I'm also interested if I will be allowed to stay in UK with my wife while my employer will arrange a visa for me? Say, we don't get extension on Tier1 in October, I go and ask for Tier2, but it will take some time to attange it(I am not from EU, so I guess employer will have to advertise the position etc etc). I assume there will be a couple of months until this is sorted. Will I be able to continue working in UK?

I also thought if maybe I should apply for Tier2 right now and keep my wife on her Tier1. If everyting works out for her, she will get ILR and Passport in 2-3 years and then I can apply for citizenship as a husband. But if she is denied in October, she will be able to jump on my visa. Is that even sane?

Thank you!

Wonderberry wrote:Hello everyone,
I've recently consulted with you guys on saving my wife's Tier1 Entrepreneur visa (on which I'm listed as dependant). The responses were great and very helpful, but unfortunately it looks like we couldn't get anything running and won't be able to do so until we are due to extend the visa in mid-October this year. There is some sort of activity, but not enough to say it's a successful business.

There is no requirement that it should be a successful business. Even in the guidelines, they acknowledge that the business may no longer be there. 80-90% of start-ups fail, that is unfortunately the nature of Entrepreneurship.

Wonderberry wrote:I'd say that we still have around 30-40% chance to extend.

But there is a requirement that the business is a genuine entrepreneurial one and having read your previous thread, you may be facing challenges there. I am assuming when you refer to the 30-40%, you feel you can get the attribute points but would fail the genuine entrepreneur test.

Wonderberry wrote:I'm also employed by big firm and could ask them to get me working Tier2 visa and then make my wife dependand instead.

My question is, what's the best sequence of actions? Should we wait until October to try our luck with extension and then (if we fail), apply for my work visa? Or should we try to apply for extension early (July-August), risking of being couple of months short upon ILR, and then applying for work visa in case we are denied with extension?

I'm also interested if I will be allowed to stay in UK with my wife while my employer will arrange a visa for me? Say, we don't get extension on Tier1 in October, I go and ask for Tier2, but it will take some time to attange it(I am not from EU, so I guess employer will have to advertise the position etc etc). I assume there will be a couple of months until this is sorted. Will I be able to continue working in UK?

I also thought if maybe I should apply for Tier2 right now and keep my wife on her Tier1. If everyting works out for her, she will get ILR and Passport in 2-3 years and then I can apply for citizenship as a husband. But if she is denied in October, she will be able to jump on my visa. Is that even sane?

Thank you!

If possible, the last option is best. Have separate Visas and when either of you become eligible for ILR, you can choose who the main applicant can be.