I have noticed that a number of visa's has been refused after the interview, majority of which has failed the genuine entrepreneur test. I am therefore writing this post to provide assistance to those who are genuine entrepreneurs but were refused due to the interviewers lack of understanding of the business.
Please note that there are no guidelines that indicates the documents you need to provide in order to pass genuine entrepreneur test, which is why you will have to build a case, which clearly proves that you are a genuine entrepreneur.
As a Chartered Certified Accountant, I have been involved in a number of inspections conducted by HMRC and if you are organized, which you should be and not only from the UKVI point of view than you must prepare before an interview. By preparing, I means that you should have many of the following:
1. Your accounts since you started trading
2. All the sales and purchase invoices since you started trading
3. All your bank statements since you started trading
4. Your payroll records since you first employed an individual plus employment contracts
5. Client contracts
6. Lease agreements
7. Insurance documentation
8. VAT returns
9. Advertisement material and how do you ascertain if the advertisement is working for you. It may make it stronger if you could highlight the business generated through the advertisement.
The above and following are not required to be provided with your application but may assist you during the interview.
If you do not have an office
If you are running your business from home than it is prudent that either your tenancy agreement specifically allow you to do that or you have the permission from the landlord. It is therefore important that you look at the tenancy agreement or get the permission in writing from the landlord. If your visa has already been refused than a letter from the landlord indicating that he/she is ok that you have been running the business could save you. You don’t usually have to pay business rates for home-based businesses if you:
1. use a small part of your home for your business, for example if you use a bedroom as an office
2. sell goods by post
So, if you work from home and will be applying for renewal than act on the above. If your visa has been refused than get the letter from the landlord - this may or may not help but worth a try, specially if you plan to reapply.
Employees work from Home
I am not surprised if the interviewer wants to check on how do you control the employees when they work from home. You either contact your employees via phone or there must be some email correspondence. In any case, it is not possible for you to have no contact with your employees. Therefore, you got to be prepared for this question and have some proof i.e. your phone bills showing the calls made to employees or some form of email correspondence.
Email correspondence would solve most of the problems as by searching your email, you will have a number of emails showing your constant contact with your employees.
Also, your employment contract must stipulate the usual place of work for the employee and if it is their home than this is what should be indicated on the contract. If you have bought the laptops for the employees than make sure that those laptops are under assets on the company accounts and you have the invoices to prove that, which you would either way from the accounting point of view. If the employees are required to use their own laptops than the contract must stipulate this.
If you dont communicate via email than it may be prudent for you to start keeping detailed logs of your meetings with the employees. Imagine how the interviewer would feel when you can provide an excel sheet, which will show the date and time you met your employees in the last 12 months.
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During the interview, keep the copy of your accounts and the reports with you. If an employer ask for the advertisement cost than ask them the period they are looking for. As an accountant, if you ask me how much did I spend on advertisement last year than I would not have an answer till I check my records. Therefore, check the records, dont answer them without checking your records. The amount shown under advertisement on your accounts will always be backed up by invoices or at least payments from the business bank accounts.
Clients
If you dont have the contracts with clients than get them now as it is the best business practice anyway. You must also have invoices that you sent to the client and email/phone correspondence - again, email would be the easiest but if you contact your clients mainly by phone than your phone bills would be your best friend.
Other matters
Many of you may never have been inspected by HMRC and if you would in the future than you would know that preparation is the key. You will not give HMRC a number from estimation than why are you doing it with Home Office? Plus, when you are inspected, which is technically what the UKVI interview is than why do you go unprepared? You should reasonably expect all the above to be requested from UKVI and be prepared for the interview.
If you have a virtual office than let the interviewer know from the beginning that you do not conduct your day to day business from here and you only have this to conduct professional meetings. If they ask than tell them how you are allowed to work from home and how do you communicate with your employees.
If your employees mainly work from client sites than you could request a letter from the client confirming that it is agreed between you and the client to send one of your employee on a full time basis to the client and the place of work on the employees contract would than indicate client premises.
If you are VAT registered than this is a bonus and regular VAT filing and payments to HMRC is quite a concrete proof that you are a genuine entrepreneur.
Remember, if you are a genuine entrepreneur than you will have a wealth of options at your disposal to prove your genuineness.
Lastly, why are you scared? Look into the interviewer eye and be excited to share your business with them. If you have nothing to hide than you have nothing to fear. Confidence is the key, so be confident and be prepared.
If you have fulfilled all the conditions but your visa has been refused due to genuine entrepreneur test than get the above and prove the home office during AR on how you think your business is genuine.
Good luck to you all..
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