Tier 1 Entrepreneur - a.k.a. 'Business Visa' [16 Jun 2016]

Alright, so the House of Commons' Briefing from December 2015 shows a fairly comprehensive and clear picture of the 'business trends' in the UK. A quick glance at the 'business births' (new businesses) and 'Business deaths' (ceased trading) since 2000 shows a steady incline in the number of businesses (i.e. 243,000 rising to 351,000 in 2014) and the rate of increase (12% rising to 14% in 2014), while the 'business deaths' rate is at an all time steady at 10-11%  since 2001.

What I really wanted to talk about is just how you can 'get in on this action' if you are not from the UK, but you want to come over and start your own business.

Many of you will know about the Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa route. Yes, the one which requires you to have either £200k of your own money to invest, or £50k or venture capitalist funding, or UKTI (UK Trade and Investment) endorsed 'Seed Funding Competition' or other UK government department which makes available from time to time some money for start ups...

There are many 'Seed Funding Competitions' around but which of these are actually 'endorsed' by the UKTI, right? Well, look no further! Here they are, fresh off the press (updated 19 April 2016) :