UK Investor Visa – No more

The UK investor visa is still on the lips of many wealthy individuals who are exploring ways to come and live in the UK by making investments.

This is the UK investor visa archive to help to capture some of the most important features of the UK investor visa immigration route.

Sadly, the UK Investor visa was abolished last year. The government became fearful that a UK investor visa allowed unsuitable individuals to immigrate to the UK.

It proceeded to change this and thus, the visa was abolished on the spot. This raised a number of difficulties for individuals willing to relocate to the UK.

Relocating to the UK became much harder

UK investor visa provided an opportunity where it was otherwise non-existent. For instance, it could facilitate a number of different categories of individuals who met the criteria and wanted to apply.

PARENTS

Even if you are a British citizen, it is nearly impossible to bring your non-British parents to the UK. A UK investor visa provided such a relocation opportunity, provided the requirements were met.

Post-Brexit, it is not as easy for EU nationals to bring their own parents even if they are EU nationals. From January 2021, EU nationals and their parents who have not secured settled or pre-settled status, are no longer eligible to come and live in the UK without their appropriate visa.

PARENTS WITH YOUNG CHILDREN IN EDUCATION IN THE UK

The UK is an attractive schooling destination for overseas young children. Usually, parents want to be near their children. They do not want their children to feel abandoned in a foreign country.

A UK investor visa made this type of arrangement possible.

STUDENTS

The British government recently recognised the unintentional brain-drain it has been creating by not allowing fresh graduates to pursue employment in the UK.

However, it still did not resolve the problem for the international students. The student visa does not allow you to settle in the UK.

This restriction could have been overcome by applying for a UK investor visa instead of the student visa. A lot of wealthy parents preferred this solution.

MEDICAL DOCTORS AND DENTISTS

Medical doctors and dentists formed their own category under the UK investor visa option.

As the suitable response, the government created special UK visa categories to entice health and care professionals to the UK.

UK investor visa facilitated entry to the UK without having to satisfy the necessary salary requirements, which may be challenging for some of the healthcare professionals.

When was the UK Investor visa right for you?

The main requirement for the investor visa application to be successful was the level of the investment required.

It was not sufficient to make the necessary level of investment, these were needed to be the qualifying investments for UK investor visa purposes.

Unfortunately, a number of private banks got this requirement wrong, which ended up successful investor visa applicants being sent back to their home countries and reapplying again. This time they were observing the law to the letter.

A UK Investor visa was a good choice for you if you satisfied the requirements.

More importantly, you may have had some leverage if you chose Guernsey or Jersey as your destination over mainland UK.

What’s next for the UK?

It appears that the UK turned away from facilitating its own equivalent of Golden visa or citizenship by investment UK immigration routes.

The current focus is to favour the individuals who can bring new scalable business opportunities and create more jobs in the UK.

The government also reviewed additional sectors where additional workforce is required, such as healthcare professionals.

Students are allowed to seek out UK based employers under the Graduate visa route.

There are other UK immigration routes available as alternatives to UK investor visa.

Need Professional Advice to help you to relocate to the UK?

Book a call with me to discuss your Global Wealth Strategy and necessary UK immigration, tax and global wealth tax planning strategies to protect your global wealth as you relocate. You may submit your enquiry here.

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You may submit your UK immigration enquiry here.

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Saule Voluckyte, M.A.E.S, LL.B, FAIA

I have been working exclusively with UHNWI in Mayfair, London since January 2008. I built specialist knowledge and expertise required to serve ultra high net worth individuals investing, operating and relocating to the UK or Switzerland.

Within the industry, I am the single adviser who is able to traverse the different areas of expertise and bring a comprehensive approach across: global structuring, UK immigration, international taxation and FOREX to develop their global wealth strategy, while they build, grow and expand their wealth worldwide.

Previous experience as one of the senior advisors for the government, made me a go-to person when delicate and uncomfortable scenarios involving heads of state need to be handled with care and preserve privacy.