Moving to the UK: A Guide to the UK Innovator Visa

Have you always dreamed of moving abroad but are not sure how to do it? With plenty to discover in the British Isles, plus its proximity to European destinations, moving to the UK could be the way to live out your dreams of living abroad.

While immigration laws can be difficult to untangle, among the various routes available for individuals moving to the UK, the Innovator Visa is suitable for those with business experience. This route is designed for those looking to establish an innovative UK-based business, who have at least £50,000 to invest, and have obtained endorsement from an approved body. An application for an Innovator Visa must also satisfy various eligibility and suitability requirements.  

Here, Jessica Lee from Latitude Law discusses a guide to the UK innovator visa, including the various stages and main requirements of an application.

Obtaining endorsement for an Investor Visa

Before moving to the UK, an applicant for an Innovator Visa must obtain endorsement for their business idea from a Home Office-approved endorsing body. There are a number of these bodies, and many only offer endorsement subject to various restrictions, such as the location of the business, the sector in which it will operate, or application during a certain period. Some endorsing bodies also make participation on one of their own programmes or mentoring services a prerequisite, although participation on such a programme will not guarantee endorsement. A complete list of all the approved endorsing bodies can be found here. 

To successfully obtain endorsement, an applicant must demonstrate, amongst other things, that their business idea is innovative, viable and scalable. An innovative business will be unique and original, differing from businesses already operating in this sector. Viability will require showing that the applicant has the knowledge and skills to successfully run the business, while to be scalable, the business idea must have potential for future growth.    

The business must also be new, or where it does already exist, have not yet started trading.  

Making an application for an Investor Visa

Fulfil your dream of living in the UK with the UK Investor Visa

Fulfil your dreams of living in the UK with the UK Investor Visa

If an applicant does successfully obtain endorsement, the second stage of submitting an application for the UK Innovator Visa must be made within three months of the date given on the letter of endorsement.  

As mentioned above, along with obtaining endorsement, there are other requirements of a UK Innovator Visa application. One of these is evidence that the applicant holds funds of at least £50,000 to invest in the business. These funds must be accessible to the applicant and, if in a UK bank, have been held by them for at least three months. Whether an applicant has access to these funds will also be relevant to the business idea’s viability, as discussed above. In addition to this sum, an applicant must show they have held at least £1,270 in their account for a minimum of 28 days prior to application, as evidence they can support themselves after moving to the UK.  

An applicant must also satisfy an English Language requirement, namely an ability to read, write, speak and understand English to Level B2 CEFR. This requirement can be met if the applicant has completed a degree taught in English (although if this was completed abroad, confirmation of the degree’s UK equivalent from Ecctis must be obtained), or if an applicant has completed GCSEs, Highers or A Levels in the UK. In the absence of such qualifications, an applicant will need to sit an approved Home Office English Language test.  

A suitability requirement also applies to UK Innovator Visa applications, relating to the applicant’s character and conduct; examples of what might affect suitability include criminal convictions or previous non-compliance with UK immigration law. 

Partners and children under 18 can also move to the UK with those with an Innovator Visa. As evidence that these family members will be financially supported whilst here, evidence of the following amount of savings, held again for at least 28 days before the date of application: 

  • £285 for a partner 
  • £315 for one child 
  • £200 for each additional child 

A successful application will result in a grant of leave for three years.  

Moving to the UK permanently under an Innovator Visa 

Relocate to bustling London with the UK Innovator Visa

Relocate to bustling London with the UK Innovator Visa

After completing three years’ continuous residence in the UK with leave as an Innovator, it is possible to apply to settle. This application again requires an endorsement letter, although the criteria differs to those for initial endorsement. In order to obtain the endorsement required for settlement, an innovator’s business must be registered with Companies House, be actively trading, and demonstrate an ability to continue trading for at least the next 12 months.  

In addition, the business must show it has achieved two of the following: 

  • £1 million revenue in the last full year for which the business can provide accounts 
  • £500,000 revenue in the last full year for which the business can provide accounts, of which £100,000 comes from overseas export 
  • Have received £50,000 investment, spent on business development  
  • Created 10 full-time jobs (or the equivalent) that have all lasted for at least 12 months 
  • Created five full-time jobs (or the equivalent) with an average salary of £25,000 a year, which have all lasted for at least 12 months 
  • Made an application for intellectual property protection in the UK 
  • Have doubled the number of its customers in the last three years to a figure that is above the average for the type of business 

If the innovator relies on either of the “job creation” options listed above, the jobs must be for “settled” workers; that is, a British or Irish citizen; an EEA citizen who commenced employment in the business prior to 31st December 2020; a holder of indefinite leave to remain/settled status; or the holder of a UK Ancestry Visa who is also a Commonwealth citizen. 

Again, an application for settlement must be submitted within three months of the date given on the endorsement letter. Applicants for settlement must also pass the Life in the UK test and meet an absence requirement of no more than 180 days spent outside the UK in any 12 months.  

Frustratingly, dependent family members must complete five continuous years living in the UK (this can include time spent as a dependent on a different route, such as Skilled Worker or partner of a settled person). In practice, this will mean that family members will often need to extend their leave for a further two years before they are eligible for settlement. 

Dependants over the age of 18 will also need to pass the Life in the UK test, and meet an English Language requirement at Level B1 CEFR.  

Due to the strict requirements involved in moving to the UK with an Innovator Visa, it is advised that applicants seek legal advice and representation to ensure they provide all the relevant documents, meet the criteria, and make the strongest possible application for an Innovator Visa. 

Top Ideas for Sustainable Travel Jobs

There are a lot of considerations that go into finding and establishing the right career. Often this is about identifying what job meets your highest personal and values-led priorities in life.

You may be one of the increasing numbers of people wanting to find a position that sees you making a meaningful impact on the environment. Not just where eco-friendly methods are used but a career where you’re empowered to truly make a difference. 

At the same time, you may want to also take the opportunity to explore more of what the world has to offer. Making connections with other countries and cultures has never been more accessible.

As such, you’re likely to be searching for a sustainable travel job – work that involves travel and a job that enables you to travel across the country or internationally in the course of your duties. 

But are there options providing you with the best of both worlds? Let’s take a closer look at how you can identify sustainable travel jobs and even pursue a career involving sustainability and travel. 

Sustainable Travel Jobs in Development

As we have reached a point of climate emergency, there is an urgent need for change. This is beginning to occur at the infrastructural level with various civic, private, and scientific fields contributing to developing solutions.

This also presents opportunities for enriching sustainable travel jobs. Many development positions involve spending time in various areas of the country — or even the planet — and applying your expertise to making meaningful change. 

One of the key sectors to engage in this way is urban planning. Many towns, cities, and rural communities have committed to making sustainable alterations.

Urban planners are tasked with developing design strategies for both short- and long-term projects aiding revitalization and better health. Sustainability is an increasingly central part of this career path; not only in managing the environmental impact of projects but also in making design choices that reduce pollution and waste.

There tend to be opportunities to find work that involves travel, both to find inspiration from other sustainable communities and in moving from project to project. To engage in the field, you’ll generally need a degree in a relevant area — architecture, economics, and sustainability are good options. 

However, if city design isn’t in your wheelhouse you can still pursue development through a career in environmental science. Becoming an ecologist is a great choice as your work with institutes and government agencies will see you traveling to a variety of locations to research ecosystems.

Following periods of analysis in the laboratory you can then provide reports on your findings to help address both local and global environmental challenges. As with any science field, you’ll generally be expected to hold at least a bachelor’s degree, in this case, ecology, biology, zoology, or other related areas.  

Sustainable Travel Jobs in the Nonprofit Sector

How to Find a Career That Involves Sustainability and Travel

Find a Career in a Nonprofit that combines Sustainability and Travel

While some sustainability efforts are being made by large corporations and governments this tends to move at a glacial pace. At the moment it seems like dedicated environmentally-focused nonprofit organizations are doing a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to educating the public and pursuing projects.

This means often your best route to a job that involves travel and sustainability is with a nonprofit. Just as volunteering holds travel opportunities, you can adopt paid professional careers with these organizations across the planet. 

While it’s certainly possible to get administrative positions, you’ll tend to find more success with specialized professions. Accountancy, legal expertise, and cybersecurity are common demands.

Sustainable nonprofits are also likely to be looking for those with technical skills for hands-on projects like solar electricity installation and community development. When applying for these positions in countries abroad, you’ll also find specialized sustainable travel jobs are often more eligible for visas than those jobs that can be performed by locals.     

It might seem like an insignificant thing, but when you are pitching your skills abroad, you need to make sure you’re mindful of local customs.

Australia is one of the common targets for those seeking nonprofit experience but the sustainable travel job market has some specific requirements for resume formatting and standards.

You need to adapt your resume for tone — don’t come across as overconfident, extend your 1-page summary to 3-4 pages of high detail, and nix the headshot. Small, culturally relevant considerations help indicate to sustainable nonprofits abroad that you’re respectful of their standards and keen to engage with them.   

Sustainable Travel Jobs in Tourism

Eco Tourism offers a job combining sustainability and travel

Eco Tourism offers a job combining sustainability and travel

The tourism sector has always been a good option for work that involves travel. However, it’s only natural that you might have some reservations regarding how jobs here reflect your environmental priorities.

After all, tourism is responsible for around 8% of global carbon emissions. The good news is there’s an increasing number of businesses in the travel and hospitality sectors that offer consumers sustainable options through eco-tourism.  

Ecotourism guiding is a popular choice for a sustainable travel job. It sees you operating both as a storyteller and environmental educator, helping to solidify tourists’ connection to the natural world and their responsibilities to it.

Guides can often find on-the-job training but in ecotourism, it certainly helps if you have knowledge or experience in conservation. Alternatively, you can target hospitality positions in sustainable hotels which are identifiable through apps like Expedia that allow you to search for businesses with eco-friendly practices.

While some simply have eco-conscious aspects, others are specifically aimed at providing holistically sustainable travel accommodation.   

Whichever position you pursue, it’s important to remember you’ll be interacting with the public. This means you also need to be committed to practicing COVID-safe protocols such as wearing your mask in public.

It’s vital, too, to get a vaccine, which is considered to be safe, having gone through rigorous testing and approval processes. While you may experience some initial side effects, immunization is a tool to keep you, your colleagues, and the general public safe and healthy. It also moves us closer to achieving herd immunity.

Conclusion

Finding a career that blends your sustainability priorities with your desire to travel is more achievable now than at any other time. Sustainable development, the nonprofit sector, and ecotourism are just a few of the current industries you can target.

Take time to explore the possibilities for a sustainable travel job where you can make a difference in far-flung destinations. 

How to Travel From Home – 7 Virtual Travel Experiences

Even the biggest homebodies have started to get cabin fever after a year of this pandemic, in which global travel seems like a thing of the past. If you’re suffering from a serious case of wanderlust, trying out virtual travel experiences during quarantine might be the best thing to do right now. Although flights are canceled and borders are closed, you can still see the world through your computer screen. Here are some way that you can travel from home and scratch your travel itch during quarantine.

1. Explore The World Through Webcam

With a near-endless supply of live stream webcams throughout the world, you can travel just about anywhere from home. Sites such as SkylineWebCams offer hundreds of incredible viewing experiences, so just pick where you want to go.

Webcams can be an incredible way to explore far-flung reaches of the earth that you might never get a chance to visit, such as the Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway, where you can live stream the Aurora Borealis. These cameras reveal magnificent landscapes and stunning night skies – you can almost feel the chill from here.

Live stream the Northern Lights over Lofoten Islands in Norway

Live stream the Northern Lights over Lofoten Islands in Norway

2. Travel from Home with a Virtual Roadtrip on Google Maps

If you’re an engine nut then travel restrictions may have seriously ground your gears. Road tripping is a timeless travel experience. From the highways of America to the back roads of Scotland, exploring a country by vehicle is a great way to get off the beaten track.

Thanks to Google’s incredible efforts mapping the world through “street view” you can travel from home by taking a virtual road trip. Drop the pin anywhere from Siberia to South Dakota to explore the streets.

3. Take An Immersive Jungle Tour

Take a deep dive into the natural world through audio-visual virtual travel experiences during quarantine. Travel Colombia has created a wonderfully rich and sensational jungle journey, exploring the birdlife of their deep forests through sight and sound. “By downloading the accompanying list, you can test your ornithological know-how and see which species you can spot,” says Dominick Cavazos, a travel writer at Last Minute Writing and Draft Beyond. “The wildlife on offer is astounding.”

Virtual travel in the Colombian Jungles during quarantine

Travel virtually in the jungles of Colombia during quarantine

4. Hit The Club

If virtual bird watching doesn’t get your heart rate jumping, maybe you’d rather explore the underground club scene of cities across the world. Berlin has been the home of hard-hitting techno for decades, and night owls all over the world are missing their dose of dancing.

Fortunately, virtual club experiences can bring the latest DJs into your living room. You can even experience the coming-of-age experience, getting rejected from superclub Berghain in virtual reality for a dose of realism.

5. Catch a Virtual Tour of World-Famous Museums

“Museums and art galleries have responded with appropriate creativity to the unfolding pandemic and many are now offering valuable virtual experiences of their collections,” says Alanna Morey, a lifestyle blogger at Writinity and Researchpapersuk. Traditionally, you might have queued for an hour or more to get into the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, but now a virtual tour can be loaded up in seconds.

Virtual travel and visiting museums during quarantine

Take a virtual tour of the Van Gogh Museum during quarantine

6. Embrace Yellowstone’s Force of Nature

Exploring America’s national parks could take a lifetime, but fortunately, the pandemic has brought us a few shortcuts. Travel from home by taking a virtual tours of these parks, which have been made available free online and can bring you up close and personal with the natural wonders they contain. Yellowstone National Park, for example, provides POV virtual travel experience videos through many of its most famous sights – without the crowds!

7. Explore Architectural Wonders

Step inside some of the world’s most fantastic buildings, without even taking a stride. These virtual architectural tours offer viewers immersive experiences filled with facts and jaw-dropping sights, proving a real insight into the history and cultural impact of these architectural creations. One of the great joys of travel is walking through a new city gazing at centuries’ worth of culture accumulated in the architecture – now you can embrace this experience in the virtual age.

The Future of Virtual Travel Experiences During Quarantine

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you can explore the world from the comfort of your own home. Whether you’re missing the hustle and bustle of underground clubs or the vast quiet of a National Park, virtual tours can take you anywhere you can imagine – and beyond. Traveling from home with a virtual travel experience during quarantine might quench your thirst for travel in surprising ways!

The impact of Covid-19 on the backpacking industry

Is there a moment throughout the day when you do not hear the words COVID-19, coronavirus or pandemic? In the age of Covid, backpacking enthusiasts and travel lovers are more inclined than ever to admire pictures of our previous destinations when travelling freely was the norm. 

This guide is for those who are missing travel and are wondering when they can step on a plane and explore the world with just a backpack weighing them down. It explores the current guidance on Covid backpacking, what backpackers can do now and what the future holds post-Covid for the backpacking industry. 

What is the current guidance for Covid backpacking and travel?

At the moment, every country is different as some areas of the world are suffering with the virus more than others, so movement is a lot more limited. Popular backpacker destinations such as Australia are currently not permitting any travellers into the country, after sending the majority of backpackers home in April 2020. Only those with Australian or New Zealand citizenship or have direct family in the country are allowed to enter. 

There are still some areas that are safe for travel, although they tend to have strict restrictions. For example, Dubai has opened its doors to travellers, however, to be admitted, you must show proof of a negative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test that needs to be taken 96 hours before travel. This test costs around £100 to £150, so this could lead to quite an expensive trip before you even get to your destination.

Covid backpacking - riding a train wearing a mask during the Corona pandemic.

Covid and backpacking during the Coronavirus pandemic

Many locations in Europe, including the UK, which continually updates its travel corridor list,  which basically means you can travel without having to quarantine when back on British soil. However, anyone with British citizenship will need to isolate for 10 to 14 days after visiting backpacker favourites like Croatia, India, South Africa and Indonesia. Anyone travelling to these areas of the world will still have to fill in a passenger locator form to be admitted into the country. 

What can backpackers do in the meantime? 

Anyone with the travel bug will, of course, be finding it difficult to stay in the same place for a long time, but for now, that’s what we all must do to stay safe and protect each other. But instead of spending your days scrolling through Instagram at travel destination pages, why not get involved and support your backpacker community?

You can take inspiration from the New Zealand backpackers who have started a petition with over 13,000 signatures for the extension of working visas. There are plenty of other GoFundMe pages set up during Covid for the backpacking industry around the world, who are dealing with money issues or even health problems, so why not use your time and money wisely and support a good cause?

Take action from home during Covid to support the backpacking industry

Take action from home during Covid to support the backpacking industry

The lack of backpackers across the world has also massively affected the hospitality industry, as the majority of hostel workers and bar staff are travellers from around the globe. While many businesses have gone under, there are still some afloat who are reaching out for financial support. They’re not asking you to break the bank to save their business, as a little contribution will still go a long way to support. 

Post-Covid backpacking – When can we travel the world again?

Currently, there is no official confirmation about when we can travel the world again, as again, this will depend on Covid backpacking rules in the different corners of the globe. For example, Australia and New Zealand have made it clear that travellers will not be permitted for a while with visas on hold. However, there are many countries such as the USA and the UK that are desperate to get tourism back up and running and have also extended visas, while places like Mexico have kept the welcome mat out for a while. 

Even during COVID-19, backpacking is still possible in some places. Always check restrictions and travel responsibly.

Even during COVID-19, backpacking is still possible in some places. Always check restrictions and travel responsibly.

If you do plan on travelling in the near future, then make sure you stick to the country’s rules you are visiting. You can also keep track of cases online to ensure your trip is completely safe and successful.