Innovator Founder
The Innovator Founder route is the UK's visa for entrepreneurs with an innovative, viable and scalable business idea. Before you can apply, an approved endorsing body must endorse your business, and that is where cases are won or lost. We shape the concept, build the business plan, secure the endorsement and make the visa application, one named solicitor throughout.
An approved endorsing body must endorse your business against the criteria in the Immigration Rules before any visa application can be made. Nothing proceeds without it.
The three tests every business plan must pass. Original enough to matter, realistic enough to work, and structured to grow and create jobs.
Initial permission runs for three years, with 70 points required. Your partner and children can usually join you as dependants.
Settlement is available after three years where the business meets the settlement criteria, with British citizenship a further step beyond.
The endorsement
Endorsing bodies assess the business, not just the paperwork. Each criterion has a meaning in the Rules, and the plan has to answer all three at once.
A genuine, original business plan that meets new or existing market needs or creates a competitive advantage. Not necessarily a new technology; a genuinely new way of serving a market can qualify. Copycat concepts fail here.
The plan must be realistic and achievable on your resources, and you need the skills, knowledge and market awareness to run it. Financial projections have to hold together under a sceptical read.
Evidence of structured planning, potential for job creation, and growth into national markets. A business that only ever employs its founder is not what the route is for.
We develop the business plan with you against the criteria the endorsing bodies actually apply, prepare you for due diligence and interview, and manage the relationship through to endorsement. Which body you go to changes the assessment, so start with our guide to the Innovator Founder endorsing bodies and how each of them scores.
A refused endorsement costs more than any legal fee. The business plan is where the case is won.
Chris Dias, co-founder
Who leads it
Our Innovator Founder work is led personally by Chris Dias, co-founder of Lawyery and a business immigration solicitor in his 25th year of practice. He has taken founders through this route under tight deadlines, including applicants with under a month left on their existing leave, and has resolved the harder problems the route throws up: refused endorsements, lapsed status and switching from other categories.
The route also has its own dedicated home at innovator.lawyer, with the full fixed fee menu, testimonials and a free 20 minute consultation. Same solicitor, same regulated firm, built for founders who want the whole journey in one place.
Free AI pre-check: evaluate your business concept against the innovation, viability and scalability criteria at ukinnovator.online, built by our sister venture Legalaid. Guidance only, not legal advice, and a strong result is not a promise of endorsement.
On camera
Two long-form conversations with Chris Dias on the Careers Beyond Degree podcast, hosted by Shivika Pratap. Between them they cover how the Innovator Founder route compares with the alternatives and how to test an idea before you commit money to it.
We load nothing from YouTube until you ask, so opening this page shares nothing with Google unless you choose to watch. Our full position is in our privacy and cookies policy. These are third party recordings in which Chris took part; general commentary in them is not advice on your case.
The journey
An honest evaluation of the concept against the criteria, starting free with the AI pre-check and a consultation. If the idea will not endorse, we say so before you spend.
Business plan development, market analysis and financial projections, submission to an approved endorsing body, and preparation for due diligence and interview.
The 70 point application evidenced line by line: form completion, document compilation and dependant applications for your partner and children.
Checkpoint meetings with your endorsing body, business progress monitoring, and the settlement application after three years, through to British citizenship.
Innovator Founder sits alongside Global Talent, partner and family visas, settlement and appeals. See the full picture on our personal immigration page.
Advice
The questions founders ask us most often, answered as we would answer them on a first call. General information about the route as at August 2026, not advice on your case; the Rules and endorsing body practice both change.
There is no fixed minimum investment in the Immigration Rules. Endorsing bodies assess whether your funding is sufficient and credible for your particular business plan; in practice, indicative funding of around £50,000 over three years is a common benchmark, but the real test is whether the numbers support the plan.
Innovation means a genuine, original business plan that meets new or existing market needs or creates a competitive advantage. Viability means the plan is realistic and achievable on your resources, and that you have the skills, knowledge and market awareness to run it. Scalability means evidence of structured planning and potential for job creation and growth into national markets. All three have to be answered by the same document, at the same time.
Only bodies approved by the Home Office can endorse, and the current list is published on GOV.UK. That list changes, so check it before you approach anyone. Bodies differ in the sectors they understand, the funding position they expect and the way they run due diligence, and choosing the wrong one is an expensive mistake. We advise on the fit before anything is submitted.
Usually yes, if you already hold permission on a route that allows switching. You cannot switch from a visit visa, short-term study, the seasonal worker or domestic worker routes, or where you are on immigration bail or hold permission granted outside the Rules. If you are already here, the timing of the endorsement matters as much as the visa application, because endorsement has to be in place first.
No. The route works for a business you have not yet launched and for one that is already trading. What matters is that you are the founder or a co-founder, that the business is genuinely yours to run, and that the plan answers the three criteria on the evidence actually available to you.
You need English at CEFR level B2 in reading, writing, speaking and listening, unless you are exempt, for example as a national of a majority English speaking country or as the holder of a degree taught in English. B2 is a higher standard than most work routes require, and it catches people out.
Yes. Unlike the old Innovator route, Innovator Founder permits employment outside your own business, other than work as a professional sportsperson or sports coach. Many founders use this to fund the early years. The business still has to be a genuine and active undertaking, because that is what the endorsing body checks at each contact point.
Yes. Your partner and children can apply as dependants, either at the same time as you or later. They can work and study in the UK, and their permission runs alongside yours through to settlement.
The route can lead to settlement after three years of continuous residence, where the business has met the settlement criteria and you continue to hold endorsement. Time spent on some other routes can count towards continuous residence, so the answer depends on your immigration history.
Nothing can proceed without endorsement, which is why the business plan is where the case is won or lost. After a refusal the plan usually needs substantive work before a fresh approach to an endorsing body. Resubmitting the same document tends to produce the same result.
Yes. We quote a fixed fee, agreed in writing before we start, with each stage and what it covers set out. Home Office fees, the endorsing body's own fee and the immigration health surcharge are separate and payable by you. Our published fee information is on the pricing page.
Book a consultation with Chris Dias, or test the idea first with the free pre-check at ukinnovator.online. Fee information for this and our other work is on the pricing page.
Book a consultation with Chris Dias, or explore the dedicated practice at innovator.lawyer. No lawyer can guarantee endorsement, and you should be wary of anyone who says otherwise; what we promise is an honest assessment and a properly built case.
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