Home Office Amendments for the Sole Representative Visa Criteria

The immigration process for a sole representative visa had been working quite well since before 2008, when the new point-based system was introduced. It is a relatively simple category that enables foreigners to start a business in the UK.

The route works so well because of the simple principle requirements that are not too prescriptive. The category was designed for senior employees of any overseas business so they can come to the UK and set up a wholly-owned subsidiary or branch of that business in the UK.

The requirements stipulated that the business representative should not be a majority shareholder, and the business should not already have an active branch, representative, or subsidiary in the UK. And finally, the headquarters of the business must remain outside the UK.

Changes and Amendments to The Sole Representative Visa

The latest changes to the sole representative visa were proposed in May of 2020, and are aimed at preventing potential abuses of this category. While the changes have been designed around the existing requirements, they do add more restrictions, more complexity, and requirements to the process.

According to the statement of changes released by the Home Office on 14^th May 2020, the new changes come into effect starting 4^th June 2020. The gist of the changes and amendments are as follows:

• Express clarification is required to prove that the parent business is active and trading and intends to keep operating outside the UK.
• Clarification that the representative is a senior employee of the parent business and will not start their own business or represent any other business located in the UK while on a sole representative visa.
• A requirement to prove the genuine intentionof the business to establish a subsidiary or branch in the UK by sending a representative.
• The applicant must have the skills, knowledge, authority, and experience to represent the parent business in the UK.
• A majority stakeholder in the overseas business cannot enter the UK as a civil partner, same-sex partner, unmarried partner, or dependent spouse of the representative of their own business.

The changes in the rules have been made to ensure that the applicant does not use this visa route as a loophole category to avoid the more stringent requirements of the innovator and start-up categories.