Our business visa shoppers usually ask us whether or not they are allowed to carry shares within the company that they own and/or work for. during this post, we glance at the varied immigration rules on belongings for those that would like to return to the UK for business or work purposes.
Read also: Parent of a Child Student Visa Application Guide
Share possession and the Sole Representative of a remote Business Visa
The Sole Representative of a remote Business visa class is for businesses that would like to send a senior worker to the united kingdom so as to determine a poster presence for the corporate within the kingdom.
Initial applications
In order to qualify for a Sole Representative visa, you may ought to be a senior worker within the overseas business. the house workplace recognises that belongings will usually indicate seniority. However, the Immigration Rules state that candidates should not hold over 500th of the shares within the overseas company.
For an initial application candidates should offer a duplicate of the parent company’s share register showing the distribution or possession for the previous year.
Read also: How to get a Visitor Visa for UK
Even if you hold but five hundredth at the purpose of your initial application (e.g. as a result of you have got sold-out a number of your shares within the months beforehand), you may still ought to satisfy the house workplace that you simply don’t otherwise own or management the overseas business.
This assessment appearance at the nature of the relationship between the applicant and therefore the overseas company.
Therefore, although you’re a minority shareholder, you must not be a part of a meeting whereby you management over five hundredth of the selection rights, or square measure effectively the most beneficiary of the business. you ought to offer proof that the remaining shares aren’t control by a partner.
Additionally, if you would like to bring your dependant spouse, civil partner, or single partner to the united kingdom with you, then they have to conjointly not hold a majority stake in, or otherwise management or own the overseas business that you may be representing.
The house workplace should be happy that the headquarters for the overseas company can stay outside of the united kingdom.
Extensions of keep
In order to qualify for an extension of keep as a Sole Representative of a remote Business the united kingdom company should be a branch or subsidiary that is wholly-owned by the overseas company. you may not be permitted to carry any shares within the United Kingdom company.
Other Business Immigration Routes
The following business immigration routes allow candidates to hold as several shares in their company as they wish:
- Investor
- Start-Up
- Innovator
- Skilled worker
- Entrepreneur
In the event that visa holders in these classes would like to transfer or sell shares to different people, there are no restrictions on who these people should be or how many shares is also transferred.
Share possession and therefore the kingdom investor Visa
The Tier one capitalist visa class is for people who are ready to build a considerable money investment within the kingdom. so as to qualify for a kingdom investor visa you may ought to have access to a minimum of £2 million and be willing to invest your funds in actively commerce kingdom corporations.
In order to qualify for an extension of keep or indefinite leave to stay, you may ought to have created the investment within the style of share or loan capital. it’s doable to take a position in an energetic and commerce business (or businesses) that you simply own. However, as we tend to checked out in a very previous post, structuring such an investment would require careful coming up with.
Shareholding and therefore the Start-Up & trailblazer Visas
The Start-up visa and trailblazer visa classes square measure for people who are seeking to determine an innovative, viable and scalable business within the UK.
Although there are not any belongings needs for these routes, candidates ought to bear in mind that for the Start-Up and trailblazer visas some endorsing bodies (see the lists here for Start-Up and here for Innovator) elicit a share of equity within the company before granting an endorsement. If you are doing not would like to produce this, you ought to instead apply to an endorsing body that solely needs the payment of a fee to join their mentoring theme.
Entrepreneur Visa stockholder needs
Although the bourgeois route is currently closed to new candidates, once applying for an entrepreneur visa extension of keep or indefinite leave to stay candidates have to be compelled to demonstrate that they need genuinely operated their kingdom business and shall still do thus.
Holding shares within the company won’t be spare to demonstrate genuineness in itself. candidates ought to offer any proof to indicate however they need met these needs (e.g. correspondence between the human and different staff and/or clients).
Skilled Worker Visa Share Holding Rule
The trained worker visa is receptive people of all nationalities (except British and Irish) who have a proposal of an eligible sure-handed job within the kingdom from a Home Office-approved sponsor.
Whereas the previous Tier a pair of General skilled flyway needed migrants to not have a belongings of over 100% in their sponsoring company, the trained worker route doesn’t embrace this restriction.
However, once applying for a talented employee visa, candidates should demonstrate that the job could be a real vacancy and at an applicable talent and regular payment level. this could be questioned if the human holds an oversized proportion of the shares in the business, or if the share price is high however the regular payment is low.
Therefore, candidates ought to offer proof beyond their belongings of why they’re required for the role, which it’s suitable supported their qualifications and knowledge. If the house workplace think about that the duty provide has been created mainly in order that the human will apply for permission to be within the United Kingdom, the desired take a look at won’t be met.