UK Innovator Founder Visa
Start up your business in the UK with the Innovator Founder visa.
We are specialist UK immigration advisers to entrepreneurs and business owners.
UK Innovator Founder Visa
If you’re an overseas entrepreneur looking to start a business in the UK, you may need to apply for the new innovator founder route.
What is the UK Innovator Founder Route?
The innovator founder visa opened in April 2023 for non-UK residents to come to the UK to set up a business.
It effectively replaces the Innovator route and Start up visa, and is now the primary visa category for foreign entrepreneurs looking to set up a business in the UK.
To be eligible, the business must be endorsed by proving it is based on an innovative, viable and scalable idea that the applicant has either generated or significantly contributed to.
The innovator founder visa could be seen as offering the most attractive parts of both of its predecessor routes, including:
To be eligible, the business must be endorsed by proving it is based on an innovative, viable and scalable idea that the applicant has either generated or significantly contributed to.
What does the innovator founder visa allow?
The innovator founder route allows successful applicants to come to the UK to put their business plans into practice.
As an innovator founder visa holder, you’ll be permitted to work for the business that you have established, and undertake additional employment, provided that employment is in a role that requires a skill level of not less than RQF Level 3, equivalent to UK A Levels.
You will also be allowed to undertake a course of studies alongside running your business.
Innovator founders are initially granted permission to live and work in the UK for a maximum period of 3 years, at which stage, provided you meet the relevant requirements, you can apply for indefinite leave to remain, otherwise known as settlement.
Your immediate relatives can also accompany you or follow on and join you in the UK under a dependant visa. This includes your partner and any dependent children. As dependants, your family members will be permitted to undertake any type of work during their stay, including self-employment and voluntary work, except as a sportsperson or coach. They can also pursue any studies.
How to apply for the Innovator Founder visa
As with an application for either a start-up or innovator visa, under the new innovator founder route the applicant must have been issued with an endorsement letter by an authorised body no more than 3 months before the date of application. This letter, together with any other documentation, must be submitted in support of an online application.
As such, the application process for the new innovator founder route does not depart too much from the previous start-up and innovator routes, although the endorsement letter must confirm that the applicant’s business idea or business meets the new requirements, including a requirement to state there are no concerns over legitimacy of source of funds.
