Since 1993
Immigration
Innovator Founder Visa.
Three Years to Settlement. The Endorsement Is the Gate.
A business idea that is new, innovative and able to scale, and an approved body willing to endorse it. That is the route. The Home Office sets no minimum investment, so nothing here is bought. Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) comes three years after the grant, two years sooner than the Skilled Worker route.
The Endorsement Comes First.
You apply to an endorsing body before you apply to the Home Office. Three take applicants: UK Endorsing Services, Innovator International and Envestors. The Global Entrepreneurs Programme is invitation only.
The Home Office does not judge your idea. The endorsing body does, and it keeps judging after the visa is granted, at meetings around twelve and twenty-four months. Endorsement can be withdrawn at either.
The letter opens the door. It does not walk you through it.
Residency in the United Kingdom
The right to live in a country with among the highest living standards in the world, and to work or run a business there.
Healthcare and Education
Access to premium healthcare and education once UK residency is granted. The NHS is available once you pay the Immigration Health Surcharge, £1,035/year per adult and £776 per child. School-age children attend state school at no cost.
Spouse and Children Included
Your husband, wife, civil partner or unmarried partner comes with you, along with children under 18. They can work and study without restriction.
Business Opportunities
No minimum investment, no job offer, no sponsor, just endorsement. The business is yours and you run it.
A Route to British Citizenship
Settlement at three years, citizenship at five: twelve months holding ILR, five years' lawful residence, and the Life in the UK test.
Settlement at Three Years
Apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) after three years, provided the business meets two of seven performance criteria and you have spent no more than 180 days a year outside the UK.
You Are Assessed for Three Years
The endorsement is not a one-off. Your endorsing body meets you again at twelve and twenty-four months and can withdraw its endorsement at either. If it does, the visa can be cut short.
Then the business is measured. Settlement needs any two of seven: £50,000 invested and spent; customers doubled over three years and above the sector average; an intellectual property application filed in the UK; £1 million revenue in the last full year; £500,000 with £100,000 of it exported; ten full-time jobs held for a year; or five at an average of £25,000.
Throughout, you hold an active role running the business, and it stays registered at Companies House with you as a director or member, trading and viable. You spend no more than 180 days a year outside the UK.
None of it applies at the application stage.
Endorsement to Settlement, In One Panel
This route is judged twice after it is granted. The Bayat Group panel keeps the endorsement, the business plan and each contact point in one place, guided by Pathinnova AI and reviewed by our legal team.
No Threshold. Real Costs Anyway.
The Home Office sets no minimum investment. Fees are another matter: about £10,000 for a founder reaching settlement alone, closer to £31,000 for a family of four. The one figure the rules name is £50,000, and only at settlement.
Non-binding estimate
No investment threshold applies. The Home Office sets no minimum, and there is no alternative track.
One adult, across three years from switching to settlement.
All in pounds, all payable, none refundable.
Maintenance funds of £1,270, held for 28 days and evidenced rather than spent, apply to applicants who have been in the UK less than 12 months. Anyone switching after a year here is exempt. Legal and professional fees are additional and quoted separately.
There is no investment threshold on this route. The Home Office abolished it in April 2023, and no endorsing body publishes a minimum. The figure of £50,000 appears once in the rules, at settlement, as one of seven business criteria of which any two must be met.
The applicant must be at least 18 and prove English at CEFR level B2 in reading, writing, speaking and listening. Maintenance funds of £1,270, held for 28 days, apply to anyone with less than 12 months in the UK. The Immigration Health Surcharge runs at £1,035 a year for each adult and £776 for each child under 18.
The endorsing body holds contact point meetings at roughly 12 and 24 months and can withdraw endorsement at either, which can cut the visa short. It charges £1,000 for the endorsement and £500 for each meeting.
Settlement at three years costs £3,226 a person and requires two of the seven criteria, the Life in the UK test, and no more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12 months.
Legal and professional fees are additional. Figures are indicative, non-binding, correct at September 2026, and confirmed during due diligence. The government has proposed longer qualifying periods for settlement; no change has yet been made to the Immigration Rules.
Five Steps to a British Business
Select a step to see what happens — and note that step two decides most applications, and step four never quite ends.
Internal Due Diligence and Qualification Assessment
Bayat Group's compliance team conducts an internal due diligence check — a background security screening of the applicant, preparation of KYC (Know Your Client) documentation, and a qualification assessment against the program's requirements.
Talk It Through. Then Begin.
Our concierge answers Innovator Founder questions, including the one you cannot settle from a website: whether an endorsing body would back what you are building.
Sending opens your secure Bayat Group account, where an advisor picks the thread up.
Assessed against your own circumstances, in about five minutes.
- It asks about your circumstances, not your paperwork
- It names the trade-offs before you commit to a route
- It ends with the programs you actually qualify for
A scripted example. Your own assessment is private, and takes about five minutes.
Assessment
An adviser that reads your circumstances, then the rulebook.
40+ official programs, each with its own arithmetic. The assessment maps those rules to your situation in a short conversation and tells you where you actually stand.
- It asks about you, not about paperworkWhere your family is going, what your work needs, what you would not give up. Navigating the rules is our business, not your burden.
- Clear, unbiased reasoningWhen options pull in different directions, it calls out the compromise, detailing what each path costs you before you decide.
- A shortlist tailored to youNo generic marketing. Just the programs your profile actually unlocks, with realistic timelines and capital commitments.
Step one of three
Where should we send your code?
One address, one five-digit code. No password to invent, and nothing sent to you that you did not ask for.
Step two of three
Check your email
We sent a 5-digit code to . It expires shortly, so it is worth doing now.
Setting up your assessment…
One moment.