Innovator Founder visa: no income threshold, but only a few bodies can give the endorsement you need first

The first step is an endorsement, and only three organisations on the Home Office list take new applicants, plus a government programme that endorses founders it has already invited; the rest are legacy bodies the Home Office tells new founders not to approach. Apart from the personal savings shown above, there is no income or tax threshold to enter: the endorsement costs the fee above plus VAT, its letter must be under three months old when you apply, and the revenue and investment figures are tests for settlement after three years.

A firm that sends you to a body from the legacy part of the list is sending you to a body that cannot endorse new founders, and paying an adviser to prepare the visa application before an endorsing body has agreed to back the business pays for the second step first. The Home Office only considers an application supported by an endorsement letter, and the rules require that letter to have been issued no earlier than three months before the date you apply. Home Office guidance lets a refused applicant reapply on the same endorsement only while those three months last.

The fee above goes to the endorsing body, not to the Home Office. The Home Office fee table lists it excluding VAT, so the amount you pay may be higher once VAT is added.

No minimum investment, but funding is still tested

Since 13 April 2023, when this route replaced the Innovator visa, there has been no minimum funds requirement for a new business. Instead, you must prove to the endorsing body that you have enough funding for your plan and where it came from, and its letter must confirm it has no concerns about the source of the money. Home Office guidance tells endorsing bodies not to treat a business as innovative when its innovation is largely outsourced to a third party, which matters if a firm offers to build the product for you.

Separately, you must hold the savings figure shown above in your bank account for 28 consecutive days before you apply, and money set aside for the business cannot count toward it. A partner and each child add an amount of their own.

Where the revenue and job numbers come in

After three years, settlement needs a new endorsement confirming the business has met at least two of seven tests, among them money invested and actively spent on the business, a level of annual revenue, and jobs created for settled workers. One of those tests sets an average salary, but for five people you employ, not for you.

Charges by recipient

Paid to the Home Office:

• The visa fee, per person, higher when you extend or switch from inside the UK.
• The immigration health surcharge, per person, for each year of the visa.

Paid to the endorsing body, plus VAT:

• The endorsement fee shown above. Extending and settling each need a new endorsement, so ask what that one costs.
• A fee for each contact-point meeting, held at least twice during the visa.

Kept by an adviser or lawyer:

• Business plan writing, application preparation and any other service, each priced on its own line.

Questions worth asking any firm:

1. Is the endorsing body one of the three that take new applicants (UK Endorsing Services, Innovator International, Envestors Limited), or the Global Entrepreneurs Programme because it invited you?
2. Does the quote show the endorsement fee with VAT, apart from the firm's own charges?
3. Does any line call a minimum investment a requirement? Ask which rule sets it.
4. Who will carry out the innovation, your business or someone the firm brings in?
5. Will the visa application go in within three months of the endorsement letter?

The box below gives information only: in the UK, advice on your own application should come from an adviser registered with the Immigration Advice Authority, or a regulated lawyer, and the adviser finder it links to shows whether a firm is registered.

General information, not legal advice.