The UK Government has announced that it intends to introduce a new “start-up” visa for people who want to start up a business in the UK.

Encouraging Entrepreneurs to the UK

According to the Government, this new route aims to make the visa process faster and smoother for entrepreneurs coming to the UK. It will replace a visa route that was exclusively for graduates, and therefore should open it up to a wider pool of talented business entrepreneurs; however people applying for this new visa will need to have an endorsement from a university or approved business sponsor, including accelerators.

“The UK can be proud that we are a leading nation when it comes to tech and innovation, but we want to do more to attract businesses to the UK and our migration system plays a key part in that,” explained the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid. “That’s why I am pleased to announce a new visa for people wanting to start a business in the UK. This will help to ensure we continue to attract the best global talent and maintain the UK’s position as a world-leading destination for innovation and entrepreneurs.”

The expanded route is due to launch in Spring 2019 and the Government has said that further details will be made available at a later date.

Latest Visa Figures

In addition to announcing the new visa route, the Government has recently given an insight into the numbers and types of visas granted over a twelve-month period, which show that the UK continues to be a popular destination for people choosing to migrate for work, study or family reasons.

According to the figures, a total of 2.7 million visas were granted in the year ending March 2018. Of these, nearly 2.1 million (77%) were to visit and 8% were for study.

Looking at the figures in more detail, they reveal that 162,874 work-related visas were granted in the year ending March 2018, which is a drop of 1% compared to the previous year. This total included:

  • 5,198 high-value (Tier 1) visas, up 11%
  • 93,048 skilled (Tier 2) visas, down 1%
  • 40,472 youth mobility and temporary workers (Tier 5), down 3%
  • 24,156 non-points-based system / other Work visas, no change from the previous year

Study and Family Related Immigration

When it comes to immigration for the purposes of studying, there were 223,839 Tier 4 Study-related visas granted during the year, a 7% increase on the previous year. Over the same period, the number of University-sponsored study visa applications rose 6% to 178,612, which included an 8% increase for Russell Group universities to 87,175.

Three nationalities (Chinese, Indian and US) apparently accounted for over half (53%) of the 223,839 Study-related visas granted in the year, with the largest number granted to Chinese nationals (88,657, or 40% of the total).

The figures also revealed a slight fall in the number of visas issued for family immigration. The combined total number of Family-related visas granted, including EEA Family permits granted to non-EEA nationals, and visas granted to dependants of other visa holders (excluding visitors) fell by 1% to 134,789 over the twelve-month period.

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Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.