When you apply for a UK Business visa, you will be asked to fulfill a number of requirements, often related to financing, language, and the nature of your intended employment. If you are applying for a UK Sole Representative visa (formally known as a UK Sole Representative of an Overseas Business), you will also have to submit a business plan. Today’s blog will therefore cover the business plan for the UK Sole Representative visa. Read on to find out what is included in the business plan, for insight into the business plan writing process, and for help answering the interview-related business plan questionnaire. The business plan and also interview questions will be included, as will an overview of the Sole Representative visa.
Sole Representative visa
- The UK Sole Representative for an Overseas Business visa is available to foreigners who seek to come to the United Kingdom for the purpose of acting as a representative of an abroad-based business, which is seeking a UK outpost. In effect, Sole Representatives come to the UK in order to help the company they work for establish their first official presence in the UK.
- Non-UK employees of certain types of foreign media organizations whose company seeks to relocate them to the country for the purpose of reporting from there may also be eligible for the UK Sole Representative visa.
- Applicants seeking a Sole Representative visa need to fulfill the various specific eligibility conditions relating to being a Sole Representative (for example, only applicants who were outside of the country when they were hired by the company that seeks to engage them as a Sole Representative will be considered eligible). Applicants must also fulfil conditions relating to seniority and skillset (in addition to satisfying basic terms, such as the requirement to demonstrate proof of financial subsistence, as well as a degree of English language fluency. The Sole Representative visa business plan requirement will be discussed in greater detail, below.
- If you receive a Sole Representative visa, you will be able to remain in the country for up to three years, with the possibility of extending your total time there to five years (after which period a Sole Representative visa holder may be have the opportunity to settle in the country permanently).
What is included in the business plan?
- Submitting what is essentially a business plan for a Sole Representative visa is just one of several requirements visa-applicants must fulfill in order to be eligible for the visa.
- The purpose of submitting a business plan for a Sole Representative visa is so that the UK officials reviewing your application judge it to be a legitimate operation that is worthy of you receiving a Sole Representative visa for (rather than, for example, a front for illegal or otherwise nefarious financial operations).
- The second purpose served by the business plan for the Sole Representative visa is to demonstrate that the business is not simply a front for you—the seeker of the Sole Representative visa—to immigrate to the UK (the Sole Representative vehicle is not to be used as a vehicle to bring ineligible applicants to the country).
- The business plan writing process should begin with a description of the business, including what is and how it works. Remember, you are writing a business plan for a company that already exists. Because of this, you should provide as much information about the company as possible. Above all, you must demonstrate that the business is extant and is “actively trading” (i.e. currently operational).
- Only would-be UK outposts that are considered “registered branches” or “subsidiaries’ of the abroad-based company are considered eligible; read up on what constitutes both types of establishments, and make sure that your Sole Representative visa business plan clearly emphasizes that the company you seek to represent fits into one of the two categories.
- Discuss the number of people working for the company; this will help the reviewer determine its scale, and whether it meets other eligibility requirements. Another purpose of the business plan, therefore, is to demonstrate that it reflects the various requirements pertaining to your eligibility as a Sole Representative. For example, this plan should reflect the fact that the intended UK outpost is the first of its kind in the country, and that the main company is based outside of the country (abroad), and that the foreign outpost will remain the dominant business branch. You should include information about the company’s intended operations in Britain (i.e. its plan for opening and operating while in the country). In addition, you should include information about your company’s footprint abroad (such as where else it has opened branches, outside of its main area of operations.
- As well as the above, you must include specific information about the money the company holds (i.e. what it is worth, where its monies are kept, etc). Please note that the fulfillment of this requirement often involves the submission of specific financial accounts.
- The writing process for the business plan for the visa for media employees is similar; applicants must submit detailed information about the media company they are working for; i.e. what it does, how it works, the number of people it employees, etc. In addition, you will need to include specific information about the money the company holds (what it is worth, where its monies are kept, etc. The fulfillment of this requirement often requires the submission of financial accounts.
Business plan and interview questions
- Please note that you may be asked to interview as part of the application process for receiving your Sole Representative visa. In the event that you are asked to do so, you will likely be asked detailed questions about your business plan. Therefore, you should make sure you are fully knowledgeable about the business that you seek to represent.
- If, in your interview, you are unable to coherently answer the business questionnaire (i.e. you are unable to clearly articulate what your business plan is) your application will likely be subjected to additional scrutiny, which may affect the UK’s ultimate decision on your application. Therefore, take the time to study your business plan so that you are prepared to discuss it in the event that you are asked to in a formal UK immigration interview.
Asaad