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Tier 1 (Entrepreneur)

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Scoring points for investment in UK business

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

You will score 20 points if:

  • you have invested, or had invested on your behalf, not less than £200,000 in cash directly into one or more businesses in the UK; or
  • you were awarded points in your initial application because you had funds of £50,000 from registered venture capital firms, entrepreneurial seed funding competitions or UK government departments, and you have invested, or had invested on your behalf, not less than £50,000 in cash directly into one or more businesses in the UK.

You will need to send us evidence to prove that you meet this requirement. The Documents required section explains what you will need to send.

You must show that the full amount in cash has already been invested in business in the UK.

If you have moved on to other activities and are no longer involved in the business or businesses in which you initially invested, you must still send this evidence.

The investment should not:

  • include the value of any residential accommodation or property development, or property management (see below); or
  • be in the form of a director's loan, unless it is unsecured and is subordinated in favour of the third-party creditors.

If your initial application under Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) was as part of an entrepreneurial team using the same investment funds, you and the other applicant can both use the same investment evidence to score points in your extension applications. The date used for the date of investment for both extension applications will relate to the earliest application.

Excluding the value of residential property from the investment

If you have bought property which includes residential accommodation for yourself and your family, the value of this part of the property will not be counted towards the investment. The value of this part of the property should be deducted from the amount of the business investment.

You must provide an estimate of the value of your living accommodation if it is part of the premises also used for the business, from a surveyor who is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). This valuation must be produced no more than 3 months before you make your extension application.

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