Please help! Will my ILR be refused as had a company before?

[tier2man]

Hi all,

I am exactly 1 year away from ILR. I am quite concerned regarding my past immigration history and whether or not this will affect my ILR application.

Background:

Bachelors degree: 2007 - 2011
PSW: 2011 - 2013
Tier 2: 2013 - 2016(July)
Current status : Masters degree, which at the end of it will complete 10 year in UK.

Question:

I had opened a company with a partner and been a director on 2012 (while I was on PSW visa). Unfortunately, the business didn't go anywhere, the company didn't trade, we didn't make any money at all. Received no salary or dividend from it whatsoever. The company was eventually dissolved early part of 2016.

Also, Had opened another company in April 2016 - which I have just applied to close down as well. I also, didn't trade with this company, didn't make any profit, didn't get any salary or dividends.

I was appointed as a director in both companies and held 50% and 100% shares on these companies.

Only recently I found out that you are not allowed to have a company or be a sole trader while you are in tier 2 or tier 4 visa. I didn't know about this before. Admittedly, it is my fault for not checking this before. I have looked at other threads in this forum where it was confirmed that this is not allowed. However, I've also seen that owning a company is not restricted, but getting salary from a company of which I own more than 10% of the share is what is actually restricted. In all cases, I didn't make any profit or salary from any of these companies even though was appointed as the director.

I am now 1 year away from applying for the ILR, now thoroughly looking back at my immigration history, this was discovered. Will this be counted as a breach of immigration condition and as a result will my ILR be refused?

Even if it is a breach, is this a direct decision by the case officer or do I have the opportunity to defend myself by stating that I didn't have any intention to breach the condition and seeing as I didn't pursue any businesses and made no money and didn't trade?

[tier2man]

any advice anyone? Would anyone please direct me to any documentation where I could find some information?

[tier2man]

Hi there,

I have a bit of a complicated question which I was wondering if anyone can give their 2 cents on as I couldn't find the answer anywhere.

I'm in UK on a tier 4 visa. I know that doing business either by owning a company or sole trading is not allowed while you are on tier 4 visa.

I am looking at doing online based source of income which includes money earned from website ads etc. If my payment receiving account was based in my home country, that way, the business I own and any money earned through it will be subject to tax in my home country, would it still be breach of my immigration condition?