Entrepreneur Visa Interview Questions/Advice / Accountants View on Tier 1 ENT

[dnf]

I have seen a number of posts on this forum suggesting that Home Office is now interviewing a number of applicants. It is quite clear that Home Office is conducting interviews to assess genuine entrepreneurship. However, it appears to me that Home Office interviewer is also digging into the applicants previous immigration history.

Remember, you have nothing to fear if you are a genuine entrepreneur.

I have now prepared a list of potential questions that may assist you during your interview:

1. Date of arrival in UK
2. Type of initial entry visa
3. University/college attended (try and have the certificate/transcriptions read)
4. If applied for PSW than what work you did during PSW
5. Why did you start the business?
6. What previous experience do you have in the business you started?
7. Did you conduct any due diligence?
8. Why did you start a limited company (if company)
9. Why is your home office your business address (if you work from home)
10. If you have an office than the office must be able to accommodate the number of employees you have.
11. You must abide by health and safety by laws.
12. If your employees work from home/clients premises than how do you keep an eye on their work or communicate with them?
13. How many clients do you have?
14. Contracts with the clients
15. Invoices that were issued to the clients and possibly the proof of payment via business bank statement
16. More information about clients i.e. where is their business based, how do you contact them, if you have ever been to their office/premises, how does it look like etc.
17. How do you advertise your business with proof?
18. How do you advertise for recruitment with proof?
19. Did you know the employees who work for you before they started the employment for your company?
20. Employee documentation including p45's, passports, proof of addresses, contract of employment, payslips, RTI submissions etc.
21. What was your last 3 years turnover with proof
22. What was your last 3 years profits with proof
23. How much tax did you pay in the last 3 years with proof
24. Accountants detail
25. How did you gather the investment that you used to apply for the visa?
26. Proof that you invested the funds and either used them for business purposes or still possess them in the business bank account
27. If the investment has already been used than what has this been invested in?
28. Insurance documents
29. Proof of salary paid

Document checklist

1. Client contracts
2. advertisement material
3. Business and personal bank statements (at least 3 months)
4. Employment documents
5. Last 3 years accounts or since you started trading
6. Corporation Tax return and payment confirmation to HMRC
7. FPS documents
8. Insurance documents
9. Health and safety certificate
10. Business premises tenancy agreement
11. Invoices issued to clients (at least in the last 3 months)
12. Director Loan agreement
13. Copy of application form submitted

Trick Questions

1. How do you keep track of employees when they work from home?
2. How do you contact employees when they are away from the office?
3. How do you travel from your office to the clients premises?
4. If you work from home, how does your clients meet you?
5. If you work from home, does your landlord know that you conduct business from home?
6. If you work from home, have you informed council as you may have to pay business rates?
7. Your employee appears to live quite far from your office - why did they choose to travel so far?
8. Why don't you have a landline?

The entire list that I have prepared above is from reading this forum and from our experience of inspections conducted by HMRC. It is our experience that the government bodies conduct interviews when either their is a flaw in the information you have submitted or they have doubt on the information submitted. In the end, all you need to make sure is that you are fully prepared.

Please note that a genuine entrepreneur would have answers to all the above questions and to the ones that I may not have listed above. Therefore, all you need to make sure is to be prepared and confident. If you have nothing to hide than there is nothing to worry.

Lastly, entrepreneurs runs their business best suits their needs plus results in the profitability of the business. There is no harm in working from home or allowing your employees to work from their homes but this need to be shown as a commercial decision. You will need to prove the savings you have made after taking this decision or the employees you have motivated by reducing their travel time. You need to follow the law of the land, one of which is that you should be allowed to conduct the business from home by your landlord and have all the necessary permissions including health and safety and business rates exemption from the council.

I would wish you all good luck and hopefully the above would help you all.

[manu2017]

Thanks dnf, great work done by you and it'll help many on this forum

[annoyedatukba]

Thanks for the extensive list of questions, they do help.

I realise that more recently a lot more people are getting these "visits" to the premises, prior to obtaining a decision on their application. It is good to know what they are looking for in order to be prepared with the relevant paperwork.

Thanks again.

[CR001]

This topic has been made a 'Sticky' topic for members to find easily. It is also locked now to avoid it becoming yet another long running thread.

[dnf]

Accountants have an important role to play during the renewal of Entrepreneur visa, which is why as a fully qualified member and a fellow of ACCA, I thought to shed some light on from an accountant’s perspective.

Let’s first prepare a list of mandatory documents, which are required by UKVI for the successful renewal of the visa:

1. Application form
2. Current appointment reports with recent filing history
3. Employee documents i.e. passport copies to prove that they are settled individuals
4. A minimum of the previous 12 months payslips for the employees you are using to gain points
5. A minimum of the previous 12 months FPS report for the employees you are using to gain points. Make sure that you include the FPS reports that indicates the employees start date with the company
6. Director Loan agreement/Share certificate
7. Personal and business bank statements clearly identifying the transfer of director loan from personal account to business account
8. Financial statements indicating the director loan under creditors
9. English language fulfillment documents
10. Personal bank statements to fulfill the maintenance requirement.

I will now discuss the above points step by step. Please note that I will not be discussing English language or maintenance requirements as they are quire self-explanatory. Please note that you should always follow the guidance issued by UKVI and the following should use as a guideline and not to be constituted as advice. As a human, I may have mistakenly omitted a few points so the fellow members are welcome to chip in and make this post as useful as it could be for the fellow applicants.

Current Appointment reports with recent filing history

This is a report, which shows the company details, the details of the directors and their respective appointment dates and also show the recently filed documents to companies’ house. I have noticed that some of the applicant’s visas were refused because the wrong report was provided by the accountant. It is vital that you ask your accountant to provide you with the current appointments report with recent filing that could be ordered through companies’ house, previously web check process. Every accountant is aware of this report and need to be specifically told as to what is required. If you ask the accountant for the generic report than he/she may provide a report that will cover the above but it may not be the current appointment report generally accepted by UKVI. Accountants letter confirming the above WOULD NOT fulfil the requirement. Also, you cannot blame the accountant as not many accountants are aware of the UKVI requirements.

Employee documents

As per the requirements, you are only required to show that the employee is a settled worker in UK and the employees start date. However, as we have recently noticed a sudden influx of interviews at the applicants business premises, which is why it may be prudent (not required) to provide extra documents. The extra documents I would suggest are the documents, which every business usually request from the employee and provide to the employee. Those documents could be:

1. Passport copy to prove the workers status
2. Proof of address
3. A signed employment contract

You can request your accountant to provide you with a P11 that indicates the employees start date, which would be in line of the employment contract. The extra documents that I have outlined above are usually requested from the applicant during the interview.

Payslips

A minimum of the previous 12 months payslips for the employees you are using to gain points. You may also choose to attach the payment confirmation print out from your bank showing the wages payment made to each employee and attach it with the payslips. This is not required but is usually requested from the applicant during the interview.

You may also choose to sign each payslip and payment receipts attach to those payslips.

FPS Reports

A minimum of the previous 12 months FPS report for the employees you are using to gain points. Make sure that you include the FPS reports that indicate the employees start date with the company. Your accountant should be able to provide you with these.

You may also choose to attach print outs from HMRC website that will show the figures submitted to HMRC, which will match the FPS reports and the payments made to HMRC, which is not required but is usually requested from the applicant during the interview. Your accountant should be able to help you with this.

Financial statements

It is an absolute must that the financial statements are prepared by a qualified accountant who is a member of a qualifying body such as ACCA, ICAEW, CIMA etc. It is also important that the accountant is allowed to practise as an accountant by their bodies. You should ask your accountant if they hold a valid practicing certificate. You may decide to request the copy of your accountants practicing certificate, which is again not required but may be requested during an interview.

The financial statements must clearly indicate your full name under company information, director’s report, and balance sheet and under notes in front of director loan. The financial statements must be signed by both you and the accountant. You will sign the director report and balance sheet while the accountant would sign the accounts compilation report.

You may request a letter from your accountant, confirming their membership number and if they hold a valid practicing certificate. The letter may also indicate that you are the director and shareholder of the company and have introduced the director loan. The letter should also confirm that they are your accountants and prepared the financial statements. It is important that the letter mentions that the accountant is willing to confirm the contents of this letter on UKVI request. This is again not a requirement but may be requested during an interview.

You do not have to provide the last number of year accounts but the latest accounts that shows the full amount of director loan. In certain cases, your application renewal date may come before your company yearend. If your previous accounts shows the full director loan than you can provide the previous year accounts. If they do not than you can ask your accountant to prepare management accounts from the first day of your company accounting year till the last date of the month, just before you send your application.

If you have invested in the form of share capital than you should ask your accountant to make sure that your name is clearly mentioned as a shareholder on the accounts and in front of the shares issued and paid. Your accountant should also be able to provide you with the shares certificate and the confirmation statement/annual return (previously) showing the amount invested in shares.

Genuine Entrepreneur

Home office is now very keen to ascertain if you are a genuine entrepreneur, which is why you should insure that the following documents are provided. Please note that some of the following documents are not required by UKVI. However, genuine entrepreneur has a vast definition and the following would assist you to prove UKVI that you are a genuine entrepreneur. Also, the following may not be required by UKVI but are requested if an interview is conducted.

1. Copies of VAT returns if you are VAT registered with the proof of payments
2. Copies of corporation tax return with the proof of payment if any tax was due. You are not required to provide the tax return but are required to provide any documents issued by HMRC confirming that the company is registered for corporation tax purposes indicating the UTR.
3. Copies of your employer’s liability insurance. If you have employees than you are required by law to have employers liability insurance
4. Copies of your public liability insurance.
5. Copies of your professional indemnity insurance if you are involved as a professional in an advisory role such as an accountant.
6. Any advertisement material, which could include the print out of your website, any SEO that you pay for or any other advertisement.
7. Copies of the contracts between you and the client.
8. Copies of some invoices issued to the client and the confirmation of payments received in your business bank account.

I mentioned some above but have prepared an extensive list that may assist you during your interview, which you could check at uk-tier-1-entrepreneur-visas/entreprene ... 39738.html

In the end, I would strongly suggest that your accountants and your lawyers are your best friends but you should not accept any advice blindly and should ensure that you compare the information provided to the UKVI guidance and the wealth of information provided on this forum.

I wish you all good luck and remember, the case worker is as mortal as you are and if you are a genuine entrepreneur than the above may require time to gather the documents but would give you a peace of mind that you are genuine entrepreneur.

Lastly, write a detailed cover letter explaining your business, which is al though not, required but would enormously assist you with your case. Please make sure that you organize the documents in a way that you include the mandatory documents together and extra documents separately, which will make the case workers life a little easier and as the human nature suggests, may result in your case being approved.