How important is it to have a business office?

[fatguyslim]

Hey everyone, in June I will be applying for my ILR after completing 5 years on Tier 1 (entrepreneur) category. I applied under the £200k category. Both in my initial application and extension I did not provide any cover letter or any supporting documents other than what was asked in the application. In both cases I got the visa in less than 8 weeks.

The business I run is entirely based online. My employees and I work from home and all our communication happens over the phone or online. For a business like mine I really don't have any need for an office. Plus I live far away from where the employees are based. The business expenses are by nature very frugal as most of the money is generally spent on upgrading the computer equipment.

The question I have doubts about is the genuine test. What documents should someone like me provide to the Home Office to support the case of genuineness? I mean I am paying them wages and pay PAYE every month etc. But surely Home Office can't expect all businesses to have offices right? Also would really appreciate if someone can attach some links to the posts where I can see what documents people are sending for their application these days. I wasn't asked for any of these things in my extension visa so just making sure I have everything before I apply this time.

Thanks again in advance and I look forward to your replies

[sm12]

Well, there have been a couple of extension cases where people got their permits despite having virtual offices. I suppose it all comes down to the nature of the business?

[sm12]

As for documents, have a look at Marcnath's thread:

uk-tier-1-entrepreneur-visas/an-example ... 34487.html

If they require documents for genuineness, they will ask you.

[seasky]

As an online business I see no issue at all with being virtual. I am sure you meet your team often. A brief explanation in covering letter is worthwhile.

[seasky]

If they require documents for genuineness, they will ask you.

In the current environment, I would not agree. Do not leave things to the imagination of CW. In covering letter you can say for genuineness test I have attached xxx xxxx . Don't over do it and make sure documents are separate from the rest of application

[fatguyslim]

Thanks for the quick response guys. The employees who work for my business are long term friends so can do most of my work by speaking with them online. As far as I am aware there is no rule about not hiring your friends is there? With the type of business I have I cannot employ just any random person. It requires a great deal of trust more than skill to do what I do but I just hope there is no rule in there about employing any friends.

[seasky]

Thanks for the quick response guys. The employees who work for my business are long term friends so can do most of my work by speaking with them online. As far as I am aware there is no rule about not hiring your friends is there? With the type of business I have I cannot employ just any random person. It requires a great deal of trust more than skill to do what I do but I just hope there is no rule in there about employing any friends.

As far as I am aware there is no rule about not hiring your friends is there?

There is no such rule. Genuineness is not about meeting rules. It is about looking at the big picture and making sure it makes sense. We have seen cases that it seems people are paying their BC relatives (likely some of the money funnelling back) as a cheap way to gain ILR.

As your friends, I am sure you are paying them multiples of min wage? As they are working full time if HO investigates it would be clear they are not working a lot elsewhere?

What is so special about the type of business that you have to trust more than skill? In my business we make a safety critical item. So I should hire "friends" not skilled engineers? (and again as trust is so important, you are paying them £30 an hour? because it is evidenced that people on min wage are mobile
between jobs (you can get a min wage job easily...)

Again the comments above may make you think about your application and make it stronger

[fatguyslim]

As your friends, I am sure you are paying them multiples of min wage? As they are working full time if HO investigates it would be clear they are not working a lot elsewhere?

Soon after I got my extension one of my employees left and I took on 2 more of my friends. All three of them worked for my business on min wage for 1 year. My business lost one of its banking partners so I had to let them off go after a year. I had to then change my business strategy and then employed 2 of my friends back. And they are now getting paid more than min wage. One of them is part time else where so I she can easily do 30 hours a week from home for me.

What is so special about the type of business that you have to trust more than skill?

I run a bitcoin brokerage in the UK. Selling bitcoins doesn't require a lot of skill as I spent a whole year before building up my client base. I don't need technical engineer or any other kind of engineer as such. What I need is trust more than anything as I have to hand over my bitcoins to my employees to sell. We sell our bitcoins on a third party platform so I do not have much control over my wallet and monitor its transactions. I run a brokerage that sells 24 hours and have a team in India (again close friends) that does all the basic selling and my employees over here are like supervisors.

(and again as trust is so important, you are paying them £30 an hour? because it is evidenced that people on min wage are mobile
between jobs (you can get a min wage job easily...)

No I don't pay them £30 an hour. Both my employees are over 60 and one of them is a pensioner while the other one does part time where she use to be full time for many years. You are right about min wage and workers being mobile but up here in the North where they live there are not many jobs that they both can do physically. Whereas with me they can get paid slightly over the min wage, work from home plus they get to choose their hours. There are a lot of factors that are at play in this case other than just money.