Severe delays to the processing of a Tier 1 application (the business person’s visa)

A client telephoned me in desperation. He told me that he filed his application for a Tier 1 Entrepreneur extension more than 6 months ago but had still not received a decision. He was vaguely told by his solicitor it would take about 8 -12 weeks for a decision on his case. The solicitor is forgiven in this regard, as it can be notoriously difficult to judge how long they might take to make a decision in a particular case. That said, the Home Office has become extremely slow in making decisions with regard to some Tier 1 Entrepeneur visa extensions.

As 6 months had passed, the client was extremely frustrated and stressed and asked his solicitor to write a letter to the Home Office to persuade them to make a decision but, in true Home Office fashion, no reply had been received. The client’s frustrations continued, not least because he has a business in Dubai which he has to attend to and his residence permit in Dubai has expired which may be difficult to renew once his visa situation in the UK was resolved.

All this begged the question why these factors were not considered by the client at the outset of the case. I asked why he had not used the Super Premium service, to which he said he did not know such a service existed. The Super Premium service allows for Tier 1 Entrepreneur applications to be processed within a few days. The service is not cheap, costing £10,500, but this sum can be shared by up to 10 applicants. At Edwin Coe, we aim to reduce the cost to our clients by grouping them together and sharing this cost.

In this particular case the client had not been advised by their solicitor about the Super Premium facility. To add to this, he told me that his solicitor had refused to help him resolve the impasse with the Home office and the client had become completely lost as to what to do next. Hence his desperate call to me.

There are various ways in which Edwin Coe can help clients to avoid situations like this even where Super Premium may not be an option, but also where they might require a decision from the Home Office. Our various contacts at the Home Office can help us find out why a particular matter is taking time and even help us to expedite it.

Should you be affected by any of the issues raised above or require advice on obtaining a Tier 1 Visa, please contact any member of the Edwin Coe Immigration team.

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