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Tier 1 (Entrepreneur)

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Additional requirement for students with financial sponsorship

This page describes the additional requirement that you may need to meet when you make an initial application under Tier 1 (Entrepreneur), if you have recently been receiving financial sponsorship as a student in the UK.

You can make an initial application in the UK (including switching) under the Tier 1 (Enterpreneur) category if you are in the UK with permission to stay as a:

  • Tier 4 migrant;
  • student nurse;
  • student;
  • student writing up a thesis;
  • student re-sitting an examination; or
  • postgraduate doctor or dentist.

You must have access to £50,000 or more from one or more:

  • registered venture capital firm regulated by the Financial Services Authority;
  • UK entrepreneurial seed funding competition (endorsed by UK Trade & Investment); or
  • UK government departments or devolved government departments in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, which are for the specific purpose of establishing or expanding a UK business.

Your financial sponsor must give their unconditional consent for you to re-enter or remain in the UK. If they do not give unconditional consent, or give their consent for a limited time, we will refuse your application.

The consent must be given in writing, on the organisation's official letter-headed paper or stationery. It must bear the organisation's official stamp, and must have been issued by an authorised official of the organisation.

You must meet this additional requirement if a government or an international scholarship agency has given you financial sponsorship, which has wholly covered your course fees and living costs, to study in the UK during the past 12 months:

  • under Tier 4 (General) of the points-based system; or
  • as a student, student nurse, student re-sitting an examination, student writing up a thesis, postgraduate doctor or dentist, an overseas qualified nurse or midwife or a student sabbatical officer.

You do not need to provide your financial sponsor's consent if you have received private financial sponsorship during your studies (from an employer or a relative, for example).