TIER 1 INVESTOR

• 1. The Government will overhaul the existing immigration route for high net worth investors in April 2011. The route exists to allow high net worth individuals to be able to come to the UK after investing sizeable sums in the UK. The numbers using the route are low at present, just 280 Investor visas were granted in 2009.
• Existing requirements
  2. Currently investors are expected to invest at least £1m in the UK. They will become eligible for settlement after five years, provided they have spent no more than 90 days in each year outside of the UK and no more than 6 months absent in total. We do not differentiate settlement policy on the basis of the size of investment.
• 3. To qualify for entry the investor must:

• (a) have money of his own under his control held in a regulated financial institution and disposable in the UK amounting to not less than £1 million; or

• (b) (i) own personal assets which, taking into account any liabilities to which they are subject, have a value exceeding £2 million, and

• (ii) have money under his control held in a regulated financial institution and disposable in the UK amounting to not less than £1 million which has been loaned to him by a financial institution regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

• 4. Applicants can extend their initial grant of leave where they have invested £750k within three months of entering the UK or being granted leave to remain as an investor.
Proposals
• 5. Feedback is that prospective users of this route are international businessmen who want:

• A faster and more certain route to settlement; and

• More freedom to travel outside of the UK while using it as a base for business or simply to live here. They also want more certainty around settlement.

• 6. We are therefore proposing to:

Allow absences of up to 180 days outside of the UK in any 12 month period to retain eligibility for settlement, instead of 90 (the period will have to be slightly less than half a year for tax purposes).

Shorten the qualifying period for settlement from the current five years, depending on the size of the investment:

• 5 years for an investment of £1m-£5m

• 3 years for an investment of £5-10m

• 2 years for an investment greater than £10m

• 7. Additionally, we propose making the route available to the wealth creators as well as those who are already personally wealthy. We would do this by allowing migrants to qualify to enter through the route when they have a suitable level of funding from a registered venture capitalist.
• 8. We do not propose amending our criteria for naturalisation.
• 9. At present the fee for a Tier 1 Investor visa is £750. We propose raising this to £5,000.
Issues
• 10. Will the proposed investment levels and qualifying periods attract larger investments and larger numbers of investors?
• 11. Would opening up the route to those with funding from venture capitalists attract more investment to the UK? And how should we define a registered venture capitalist?
• 12. Are there any other changes to the existing requirements that would make the route more attractive to high net worth individuals?