Entrepreneur Team sharing Investment

[REYAD]

Hi,

I would like to thank you in advance for your advice and your response to my queries.

Me and my partner are about to apply for the the entrepreneur visa and have the following quick queries.

1. I have the entire £200k (plus the maintenance) available in my personal account - I understand that I will need a letter from the bank confirming that I have these funds and mention the name of my team mate on the letter. My question is that would that be enough, considering my team mate is relying on the investment which is in my personal account and his name is not on the account?

2. I will be applying from UAE and my partner who is on a student visa will be applying from UK. We understand that we need to mention each others name on the application confirming the team - As per the guidance, it appears to be fine - my question is, do you experts see any problems with this?

3. I have had a UK qualification in 2010 so assume that would suffice the English language requirement and my partner has a recent masters degree from UK so hopefully that would suffice his English language requirement. My question is that would the 2010 degree (8 years old) would suffice my English language requirement?

4. The bank documents that I have gathered through the guidance is last 90 days bank statement showing that I have always had the required £200k plus the maintenance. My partner would provide his personal statements to show his maintenance. The funds are kept in my UAE account so I believe I will need a letter from the bank confirming that the funds are disposable and could be transferred to UK. Plus confirming that I have formed an entrepreneur team following the format on the guidance - Am I missing anything?

5. I have read the guidance quite thoroughly but I am writing this post to ensure that I haven't made any human errors of understanding. The list of documents we are planning to provide is as follows:

Filled application forms by each applicants

Business plan

My bank statements showing that the £200k has been in my account for a consecutive 90 days

The same statements showing the maintenance plus the £200k

A letter from my bank confirming that I have the funds, they are disposable in UK and I have formed an entrepreneur team and mentioning the name of my team mate following the exact format on the guidance. I will request 2 originals of this letter to ensure my partner has the original. Plus will also provide the original statements to my partner so he can show the investment

My partner will provide his bank statements during the application showing the maintenance

We will both provide our UK degrees for English language requirement

In summary, have I got everything covered?

[marcnath]

1. I have the entire £200k (plus the maintenance) available in my personal account - I understand that I will need a letter from the bank confirming that I have these funds and mention the name of my team mate on the letter. My question is that would that be enough, considering my team mate is relying on the investment which is in my personal account and his name is not on the account?

This is a grey area. There is a requirement that both team members have "equal level of control over the funds", which would not be satisfied in this case. It might make sense to show 100K of your money as a third party funding for your partner and prepare the documents accordingly.
Remember that, eventually, that remains the case. The investment has to be in made equally between the two of you, so effectively you will be giving half the money to your partner (there may also be tax implications for your partner since he is in the UK and getting a gift).

2. I will be applying from UAE and my partner who is on a student visa will be applying from UK. We understand that we need to mention each others name on the application confirming the team - As per the guidance, it appears to be fine - my question is, do you experts see any problems with this?

Yes, it should be.

3. I have had a UK qualification in 2010 so assume that would suffice the English language requirement and my partner has a recent masters degree from UK so hopefully that would suffice his English language requirement. My question is that would the 2010 degree (8 years old) would suffice my English language requirement?

As long as you qualification is a graduate degree or higher, which I assume it is, you are fine.

4. The bank documents that I have gathered through the guidance is last 90 days bank statement showing that I have always had the required £200k plus the maintenance. My partner would provide his personal statements to show his maintenance. The funds are kept in my UAE account so I believe I will need a letter from the bank confirming that the funds are disposable and could be transferred to UK. Plus confirming that I have formed an entrepreneur team following the format on the guidance - Am I missing anything?

5. I have read the guidance quite thoroughly but I am writing this post to ensure that I haven't made any human errors of understanding. The list of documents we are planning to provide is as follows:

Filled application forms by each applicants

Business plan

My bank statements showing that the £200k has been in my account for a consecutive 90 days

The same statements showing the maintenance plus the £200k

A letter from my bank confirming that I have the funds, they are disposable in UK and I have formed an entrepreneur team and mentioning the name of my team mate following the exact format on the guidance. I will request 2 originals of this letter to ensure my partner has the original. Plus will also provide the original statements to my partner so he can show the investment

My partner will provide his bank statements during the application showing the maintenance

We will both provide our UK degrees for English language requirement

In summary, have I got everything covered?

See my reply to 1.

[REYAD]

Thanks Marcnath.

Correct me if I have understood the investment part right:

Investment proof for me

1. Bank statements to show that the £200k had been in my account in the last 90 days
2. Letter from the bank confirming the required plus mention that £100k is available to my teammate. I am wondering if I should not mention my team members name on that letter at all as I will be providing him the third part letter (below)

Investment proof for my teammate

1. I will provide him with the declaration that I have made £100k available to invest in my teammates business
2. I should not mention my name as a team member on the third party letter as I will not be relying on that £100k

We both should than provide a cover letter explaining that I have had the required £200k, out of which I was relying on £100k for myself and issued a third party letter for my team member.

My concern is, would Home Office consider me as a third party when I will also be partner in the business? Do you have any suggestion to make this case stronger?

[REYAD]

One point that I am concerned about is:

In all cases you cannot score points for funds in any of the points tables from any of the following:

2)Money that has been made available from a third party where that third party is another Tier 1(Entrepreneur) migrant.

It is evident that I will be applying as an entrepreneur myself, together with my team member but will also be providing £100,000 as third party funding to my team member.

The question here is if this would create a problem even though my bank statements and letter from the bank would clearly show that I have more than £200k available out of which £100k is allocated as investment for me and the other £100k is allocated as third party funding from me to my team member?

I believe that the home office is concerned if an entrepreneur uses £200k for his own visa and uses the same £200k as third party funding to assist another entrepreneur which is clearly not the case - perhaps a covering letter will be required to explain this glitch?

[marcnath]

One point that I am concerned about is:

In all cases you cannot score points for funds in any of the points tables from any of the following:

2)Money that has been made available from a third party where that third party is another Tier 1(Entrepreneur) migrant.

It is evident that I will be applying as an entrepreneur myself, together with my team member but will also be providing £100,000 as third party funding to my team member.

The question here is if this would create a problem even though my bank statements and letter from the bank would clearly show that I have more than £200k available out of which £100k is allocated as investment for me and the other £100k is allocated as third party funding from me to my team member?

I believe that the home office is concerned if an entrepreneur uses £200k for his own visa and uses the same £200k as third party funding to assist another entrepreneur which is clearly not the case - perhaps a covering letter will be required to explain this glitch?

This does not apply to a team member.
You have to make it clear it is 100K for yourself and 100K for your partner's third party funding.
As I mentioned, it is a grey area and so would definitely need a clear explanation in the cover letter. But I can't see anything in the immigration rules that would prevent that.

[REYAD]

This does not apply to a team member.
You have to make it clear it is 100K for yourself and 100K for your partner's third party funding.
As I mentioned, it is a grey area and so would definitely need a clear explanation in the cover letter. But I can't see anything in the immigration rules that would prevent that.

Appreciate your input Marcnath