Government is scrapping Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa category

By spring 2019, the Home Office plans to publish the statement to immigration changes, which will significantly transform current point based visa system, particularly targeting Tier 1 Investor and Entrepreneur routes. While waiting for the official government statement, immigration minister Caroline Nokes unveiled some of the major changes that are likely to take place:

• Launch of the new “Start-up” visa category, which was initially announced by the Home office in June 2018;
• Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) visa route will be replaced by “Innovator” visa. Similar visa category have already existed in the UK, but was closed more than 10 years ago;
• The Tier 1 (Investor) visa category is expected to be completely modified. Currently, this route is suspended as of 6th December 2018 12am. It appears that the new rules will be introduced sometime in spring 2019;
• Architects will be able to apply under Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) visa;
• Minor technical changes will be introduced for Tier 1 and Tier 2 visas;
• Changes are made to the Tier 5 (Temporary Worker - Religious Worker) category: holders of these visas will not be able to work as Ministers of Religion;
• The cooling period will be introduced to Tier 5 (Religious Worker) visa, it will only be possible to apply for a second Tier 5 visa (Religious Worker or Charity Worker) one year after the expiry of the first visa;
• Launch of a pilot visa scheme for seasonal agricultural workers, which was initially announced by the government in September 2018;