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A high net worth individual is applying for a T1 (Entrepreneur) visa. The consulate is processing his application and has asked him to attend an interview about his application.
What sort of interview questions can he expect given that he meets all of the other criteria for the visa and has financial capacity significantly above the minimum T1 (Entrepreneur) requirements?
Question (insert number/write question) Answer (capture applicant's response)
1. Have you brought any documents with you today that you wish me to see?
Immigration History
2. How long have you been in the UK?
3. Can you give me a brief history of your immigration status while in the UK?
4. What are your long term aims of remaining in the UK? Do you intend to apply for settlement or do you plan on returning to your country of origin?
Experience
5. What is your educational background?
6. Do you have a degree? If yes, is your degree linked to your business?
7. If you have a UK qualification, what elements of this have helped you in the planning and implementation of your new business venture?
8. What have you been doing since you obtained your degree?
9. Do you have any previous employment or business experience? If yes, what is this? Is it linked to your business?
10. During your last period of leave, what genuine credible steps have you taken to prepare, plan, develop and launch your business in the UK?
11. What will your role be in the business? What will you do?
Team members
12. Are there any team members in your business plan?
13. How did you become a team?
14. What is their educational and business experience?
15. What will their role be in the business? What will they do?
Business development
16. Has the business been set up?
17. Have you registered your business with the appropriate UK bodies? if so, who? Does your business require any mandatory accreditation? If so, have you completed this?
18. As you are providing services to the public, have you already gained your employer's liability insurance?
19. Where will you work? If working from home address:
20. Does your lease allow you to work from home?
21. What facilities do you have at home to allow you to run the business?
22. Where do you conduct client meetings?
Market research:
23. What market research have you done?
24. What was this market research?
25. What was the result of this market research?
26. What did the market research identify about the need for your business?
27. How many other businesses exist in your local area that offer the same services that you do?
28. What evidence have you gathered that you will attract a percentage share of the market?
29. How many adverts are currently live for your business? How many responses have you had?
Contracts:
30. Since the date of application, how many new business contracts have been signed and how much money are they generating for your business?
31. How was contact made between your company and your clients?
Third Party funding:
32. Where did you get the money from?
33. Why did they give you the money?
34. What is your relationship to them?
35. How long have you known them?
36. What was the basis of the arrangement?
37. When did they give it to you?
38. What if they want the money back?
39. How long have you had the money for?
40. Where are the funds now?
41. How many separate third parties are providing funding? Why is there more than one?
Money:
42. Is the money held in a bank account in the UK or overseas?
43. Why is the money held overseas?
44. Has a percentage or the whole amount of funds from overseas been transferred into the UK?
45. Have you set up a UK business bank account?
46. Is the money held in more than one account? If so, why?
47. Since the date of application, have you invested any of the £200k/£50k into the business? If not, are the funds still available to you?
Staff:
48. What arrangements have you made to begin the recruitment of settled workers into your business?
49. How many staff do you intend to recruit?
50. What work will they be doing?
51. When do you intend to recruit them?
52. Where will your staff work?
Contingency plans/support:
53. How do you plan to support yourself while your business is in its infancy in terms of financial commitments?
54. What is your current employment status at present?
55. If you are not currently employed, how have you been maintaining yourself?
56. Have you prepared a contingency in case your initial business idea does not yield the expected returns?
Note: Some/all/none of these questions may be asked, the interview may go into more depth in some areas and/or omit other areas. Consequently treat this information as indicative only.
The answer is simply implicit in what the UKBA asks the interviewee to bring along. If they ask for bank statements, you can expect questions along the lines of "show us the bank statements...."
If, on the other hand they say "don't bring anything with you," as was the case in my own UKBA interview, then their questions will be limited to personally identifying questions, such as "when did you first apply" or "have you ever had a previous name?" The point is that they will ask questions that they reasonably believe that nobody else in the world would know; and they will check the answers against the information they have received in the course of the application process (or from other government sources).
