The Tier 1 Investor visa is for individuals who can invest £2,000,000 or more in the UK.

To apply in this category, the £2 million must be under your control although you can rely on money that belongs to your spouse or partner. It must be held in a regulated financial institution and it must be free to spend in the UK. You will need to open a bank account in the UK for the purpose of investing the £2 million.

You cannot use assets or possessions such as property as evidence of your funds for investment

You will be granted permission to enter and stay in the UK for a period of 3 years (plus an additional 4 months if applying from outside the UK).

Investor visa holders are allowed to work, study or engage in business activities in the UK.

Switching

You can switch into this category if you already have a visa from the following categories:

• Highly skilled migrant
• Tier 1(General) migrant
• Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) migrant
• Tier 2 migrant
• Student (specific conditions apply)
• Child student

Extending your visa

Once you have been granted an Investor visa, you will have three months to invest the full £2,000,000 into a portfolio of qualifying investments.

The requirements for extending your visa vary depending on when you were initially granted a Tier 1 Investor visa:

1. If you were granted an Investor Visa before 6^th November 2014 you must:

• Have at least £1 million under your control in the UK
• Have invested at least £750,000 of this in qualifying investments
• Have either invested the balance (i.e. the amount needed to bring the funds up to £1 million) in the UK by purchasing assets or maintaining the funds
• The level of investment was maintained for the whole of the period of your permission to stay in the UK

2. If you were granted an Investor visa after 6^th November 2014 you must:

• Have invested £2 million in qualifying investments
• The level of investment was maintained for the whole of the period of your permission to stay in the UK

You will be granted an extension of your Investor visa for 2 years.

Qualifying investments

The money should be available to be invested in share capital or loan capital in active and trading UK registered companies. If you were granted an Investor Visa before 29 March 2019, you can invest in UK government bonds.

You cannot invest in companies mainly engaged in property investment, property management or property development.

Indefinite leave to remain (Settlement)

You will normally be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain after 5 years of continuous residence in this category.

The Tier 1 Investor Visa offers a fast-track to settlement in the UK depending on the level of your investment.

You could qualify for settlement after:

• 2 years – if you have at least £10 million pounds invested in the UK
• 3 years – if you have at least £5 million pounds invested in the UK

There are also additional requirements to meet.

You will also need to demonstrate that you have sufficient knowledge of English and life in the UK. Once you are granted settlement you can thereafter qualify for British.

This category has a points-based system. The criteria for this application is very specific and the documents you need will depend on you individual circumstances.