Business visas are designed to cover a wide range of circumstances for business people. This may include successful business owners and investors who are committed to owning and managing a business in the United Kingdom. Business visas also include visas that are for a limited time and allow business people; individuals or employee’s to conduct business or training in the United Kingdom for a set period of time.
Partner’s and children who are under 18 years old are allowed entry to the United Kingdom as dependants and can make their application at the same time as the main applicant.
There are four types of visa available to highly skilled business people who need to stay for an extended periods of time: Business, Business Visitor, Investor and Sole Representative.
Business Visa
The Business visa category is specifically aimed at those persons who intend to own and manage their own business in the UK. Major conditions of this visa include a minimum investment of £200,000 into your business and the creation of two jobs for the UK nationals or permanent residents.
Investor Visa
The Investor visa is also known as the ‘Rolls Royce’ category for the reason that each applicant must at the very least establish he/she has £2,000, 000 (two million pounds), three-quarters of which must be allocated to specific investments and one-quarter of which may be freely invested in any way the Investor chooses.
Potential investors may not work beyond what it takes them to manage their investments. However, after the first year, Investors may be permitted to stay for a further three years and after this period of time seek permanent residency, which may then lead to naturalization as a British citizen.
Sole Representative Visa
The Sole Representative visa is a category aimed at those companies, which have a major base of operations outside the UK and wish to establish a base or extend operations in the UK. A restriction of this visa is that the sole representative must not work in the UK outside of what is required to set up the branch or wholly owned subsidiary of the foreign corporation.
The visa is initially granted for one year, and may be extended for a further 3 years. After this, the sole representative may apply for permanent residency, which may then lead to citizenship.
