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Tier 1 (Entrepreneur)

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Evidence that you have created new employment

This page describes the documents that you must provide as evidence that you have created new jobs, if you want to extend your permission to stay in the UK under Tier 1 (Entrepreneur).

For more information about this requirement, see the Scoring points for creating new jobs page.

You may use evidence from your activities as a self-employed entrepreneur, or as a director, or from both roles.

You must prove that you have created 2 new full-time posts for people who are settled in the UK. You must therefore provide evidence of:

  • the employees' settled status in the UK; and
  • the employment dates and working hours of the employees.

You must also provide other documents if you have taken over or joined an existing business - see under 'More information' below.

Settled status

Evidence of an employee's settled status in the UK may be:

  • passport pages containing their personal details;
  • passport page containing the UK government stamp's or endorsement, if appropriate; and/or
  • their birth certificate.

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Employment dates and working hours

To prove the employment dates and working hours of each employee in a new job, you must provide:

  • a duplicate form P11 signed and dated by you; and
  • duplicate wage documents (pay slips) issued to the employee covering their full period of employment.

You must also state the hourly rate of each employee who is part of your claim for points. If the hourly rate has changed, you should list the changes and the dates when they happened.

If the P11 form does not show the employee's start date, you must also provide an original form P45 or P46 for the employee. The employee must provide these to an employer on starting a job, and they contain the starting date of the employment. 

If you are currently in the UK under Tier 1 (Entrepreneur), your documents must show that both new posts involve at least 30 hours' work per week and have existed for at least 12 months of your current permission to stay.

If you are currently in the UK as a business person or an innovator categories, your documents do not need to show that the posts involve at least 30 hours' work per week and have existed for at least 12 months.

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Real Time Initiative (RTI) pilot

The Real Time Initiative (RTI) is a new scheme that will be piloted by 300 employers from April 2012. All employers will be involved from October 2012. Under RTI, information about tax and other deductions will be collected and transmitted to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) every time an employee is paid.

Employers using RTI will no longer be required to provide information to the HMRC using forms P35 and P14 after the end of the tax year, or to send forms P45 or P46 to HMRC when employees start or leave a job.

If you are taking part in the Real Time Initiative (RTI) pilot, you should provide a print out of the Full Payment Submission (FPS), sent to HMRC, which includes the start date of the employee. This forms part of submission under the RTI. In this case you should initial each of the print outs.

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More information

  • Additional documents if you have taken over or joined an existing business

    If you have joined an existing company as a director, and you want to claim points for employment created by that company, you can only provide details of employment created after you joined the company. We will use information from the Companies House current appointment report to check that, at the time when a settled worker was employed, you were a director of the company that employed them.

    If you are self-employed, we will compare the details of the business with your evidence (including the date when you became self-employed, the names on the P11 and bank account, and the business address) to check that it was a UK business.

    If the business employed workers before you joined it, you must provide the following extra evidence to support your claim for points:

    • a duplicate form P35 for the year before the jobs were created and the year when the jobs were created; and
    • an original accountant's letter confirming that the new posts have been created.

    Form P35 is the annual return listing the names of a business's employees. If you provide an online copy of the business's P35 return to HM Revenue & Customs, you must sign and date the copy. The P35 forms must show a net increase of 2 posts. If other posts were lost while new posts were created, we will not award points unless the total number of posts increased by the number claimed.

    If the posts were created too recently for a P35 to have been produced, you should supply a draft that has been signed and dated by you.

    The accountant's letter should verify that there has been a net creation of jobs, and confirm the number of posts. It must contain:

    • the business's name and contact details;
    • your status in the business;
    • the number of posts created in the business;
    • the dates of the employment created;
    • the accountant's registration or permission to operate in the UK; and
    • the date when they created the letter on your behalf.

    The accountant must be a member of:

    • The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW); or
    • the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland (ICAS); or
    • the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI); or
    • the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA); or 
    • the Association of Authorised Public Accountants (AAPA).