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Immigration Rules Appendix Start-up

Home Office

November 9
11:12 2022

The person must have an innovative, viable and scalable business idea which is supported by an endorsing body approved by the Home Office.

A person on the Start-up route can bring a dependent partner and dependent children to the UK.

Start-up is not a route to settlement. A person may be eligible to progress from Start-up to the Innovator route, which is a route to settlement.

Validity requirements for Start-up route

SU 1.1. A person applying for entry clearance or permission to stay on the Start-up route must apply online on the gov.uk website on the specified form as follows:

Applicant Specified form
EEA national with a chipped passport Either:
Start-up or Innovator using the UK Immigration: ID Check app (when available); or
the forms listed below for applicants outside or inside the UK (as relevant)
Applicants outside the UK Start-up or Innovator visa
Applicants inside the UK Start-up or Innovator permission to stay
  1. SU 1.2. An application for entry clearance or permission to stay on the Start-up route must meet all the following requirements:
    1. (a) any fee and Immigration Health Charge must have been paid; and
    2. (b) the applicant must have provided any required biometrics; and
    3. (c) the applicant must have provided a passport or other travel document which satisfactorily establishes their identity and nationality; and
    4. (d) the applicant must have been issued with an endorsement letter by an endorsing body dated no more than 3 months before the date of application and that endorsement must not have been withdrawn.

SU 1.3. The applicant must be aged 18 or over on the date of application.

SU 1.4. If the applicant has in the last 12 months before the date of application received an award from a Government or international scholarship agency covering both fees and living costs for study in the UK, they must provide written consent to the application from that Government or agency.

  1. SU 1.5. A person applying for permission to stay must be in the UK and must not have, or have last been granted, permission:
    1. (a) as a Visitor; or
    2. (b) as a Short-term Student; or
    3. (c) as a Parent of a Child Student; or
    4. (d) as a Seasonal Worker; or
    5. (e) as a domestic worker in a private household; or
    6. (f) outside the Immigration Rules.

SU 1.6. An application which does not meet all the validity requirements for the Start-up route is invalid and may be rejected and not considered.

Suitability requirements for the Start-up route

SU 2.1. The applicant must not fall for refusal under Part 9: grounds for refusal.

  1. SU 2.2. If applying for permission to stay the applicant must not be:
    1. (a) in breach of immigration laws, except that where paragraph 39E applies, that period of overstaying will be disregarded; or
    2. (b) on immigration bail.

Eligibility requirements for the Start-up route

Entry requirements for the Start-up route

SU 3.1. A person seeking to come to the UK on the Start-up route must apply for and obtain entry clearance on the Start-up route before they arrive in the UK.

SU 3.2. A person applying for entry clearance on the Start-up route must, if paragraph A39 and Appendix T of these rules apply, provide a valid medical certificate confirming that they have undergone screening for active pulmonary tuberculosis and that this tuberculosis is not present in them.

Points requirement for Start-up

SU 4.1. The applicant must be awarded a total of 70 points from the table below.

Requirement (mandatory) Points available
Business is innovative, viable and scalable. 25
The applicant has not previously established a business in the UK 25
English Language at level B2 10
Financial requirement 10
Total number of points required 70

Innovative, viable and scalable business requirement for Start-up route

  1. SU 5.1. An applicant will meet the innovative, viable and scalable business venture requirement if all the following requirements are met:
    1. (a) the applicant has a genuine, original business plan that meets new or existing market needs and/or creates a competitive advantage; and
    2. (b) the applicants business plan is realistic and achievable based on the applicants available resources; and
    3. (c) the applicant has, or is actively developing, the necessary skills, knowledge, experience and market awareness to successfully run the business; and
    4. (d) there is evidence of structured planning and of potential for job creation and growth into national markets.

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