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Tier 1 (Entrepreneur)

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Scoring points for being engaged in business activity

This page explains how you can score points for being engaged in business activity if you are applying to extend your permission to stay in the UK under Tier 1 (Entrepreneur).

You will score 15 points if you are engaged in business activity at the time of your extension application, and you can prove that on a date no more than 3 months earlier you were:

  • registered with HM Revenue & Customs as self-employed; or
  • registered as a new business in which you are a director; or
  • registered as a director of an existing business.

You are are working in an occupation which appears on the list of occupations skilled to National Qualifications Framework level 4 or above, as stated in the Codes of Practice in Appendix J of the Immigration Rules and the Codes of Practice for Tier 2 Sponsors and you provide the specified evidence in paragraph 41-SD.

You do not need to be engaged in the business in which you were originally working, but you must still be engaged in business when you make your extension application.

You can change from being self-employed to being a director, or from director to self-employed, but you must be engaged in business in the UK as one or the other.

You must send evidence that you are self-employed or a director of a company. If you have acted in both capacities, you can choose which evidence to send, but we will only award points for 1 registration. The evidence must be dated no more than 3 months before the date when you make your extension application. The Documents required section explains what you will need to send.