I am Krishna from India. I am a newbie on this forum, which looks like a friendly place to ask questions and share experiences. The senior forum members seem to be very friendly and generous with their responses and helpful comments.
Before I start with my queries, a bit about my background. I have a Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech.) degree in Metallurgical Engineering from JNTU, Hyderabad (campus), India, and MS in Mechanical Engineering (with thesis and 2 publication in an international journal) from University of Maryland (UMD or UMCP) - College Park, USA. I worked in a reputed flash memory storage company in the US as an Electronics Packaging R&D Engineer for a couple of years. And in Shanghai, China, for the same company and job, for another couple of years. I gained a very good network of contacts in China in various fields (I can even speak a little Chinese). Later, I wanted to follow the entrepreneur route, so I quit my job and opened an import-export company in India. I specialise in sourcing from original manufacturers, various products based on customer requirements. My main focus is in dealing with excavator spare parts, I also have the required casting knowledge on how to develop some ground engaging tools (G.E.T). My wife is an Electronics Engineer with a bachelor's degree from JNTU, India and an MS degree from North Carolina State University (NCSU) - Raleigh, USA. She worked in US for about 4 years and now working in India as a Sr. Physical Design Engineer - ASIC.
I hope my introduction would help members give an informed advice or suggestion.
We want to move to the UK and tried looking for jobs related to our backgrounds, but couldn't find any offers that can provide sponsorship. So, we are thinking about the only other alternative in our reach, which is the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) Visa through the £200K route. I have searched through this forum and found most of the answers to my questions. However, I still have some questions unanswered here. I would highly appreciate if anyone could provide answers to any or all of the following:
For the said visa, I am supposed to have a business plan. However, I would like to know if there are any agencies/consultancies that network SMEs who might also be looking for investing partners. This would be very helpful to me. (I am open for business ideas.)
In a few posts I read that to apply for an extension after 3 years, the business should have created 10 new full-time jobs or £5M in revenue. But, on the latest Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) policy guidance I only see the condition as to create 2 new full-time jobs (for 12 months) only and nothing about the revenue generated. Can anyone please clarify?
If I have a team member willing to share the investment and supposing we are granted the visa, what happens to my visa if my team member drops out after getting the visa? The assumption is I can still invest the entire amount myself even without the team member. Will my visa still be valid? Is there any procedure to intimate the authority concerned about the same?
After I get the visa by showing the entire fund in India, is it imperative that I have to transfer the entire amount FROM India or is it OK if I transfer half of if from India and another half from a third party in UK? (I have a friend settled in the UK who is ready to invest half of the amount either as a third party or as a partner. But, I would like to show the full amount in India to simplify the documentation for visa.)
Can I apply dependent visas for my family (wife and kids) along with my visa application (full eligible fund maintenance in place)?
I might add more questions later in this post, but all advice and suggestions to make the process even a tad bit easier will be taken with gratitude.
Thanks,
Krishna.