Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa 2017 fund requirement

[Ze1]

Hi

My friend is looking to apply for entrepreneur visa in 2017 however is concerned that minimum funds requirements may go up in 2017 from current 200k. Please advise what is the general expectation of changes in this category of visa. If the expectation is that funds requirement may go up then he will need to apply immediately before March which is nearly impossible for him.

Appreciate a response

[CR001]

No such increase in funds requirement as far as I am aware. Nothing published or even mentioned by HO.

[noajthan]

Nothing concrete.
But T1 is on HO radar as you would expect under due diligence and good governance.

As the £200,000 threshold would continue to apply to those entrepreneurs without any third party endorsement, the MAC believes that this threshold
should remain at this level to deter speculative or low quality applications.
The threshold could in fact be raised slightly given that it has been unchanged for a long period of time and has therefore been falling in real
terms

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... eur-routes

Stand by.

[seasky]

T1-ent is being very much abused (it seems) this is to the detriment of the serious entrepreneurs who have to handle never ending bureaucracy and lack of discretion when it should be applied. So who knows maybe it will be changed, but as mentioned nothing at all known or hinted from HO.

But in your case what are you worrying about? Applications have to be strong these days and if your friend is not ready in March to give a strong application better not to apply with a weak one.

Personally I would not change the investment minima £200K is a strong amount. (I would for example change the employment criteria to at least double the minimum wage, and put more limits on types of business to try and get higher value businesses)

There was talk of separating the Entrepreneur visa from a 'start-up' visa and support companies working on new technologies