Q1 2021: The UK Issued 45 UK Tier 1 (Investor) Visas to main applicants

By Farzin Yazdi, Head of Investor Visa at Shard Capital

“Time to unlock? Today’s statistics are identical on a year-on-year basis in the period prior to the UK’s first lockdown, with 45 Investor Visas issued. While these numbers may seem low given the UK is making progress in its roadmap of cautiously removing restrictions with high vaccination rates, we have to be mindful of the global situation and many travel restrictions which are still in place. Overall, the outlook is still positive, and I do foresee a return to the pre-pandemic levels.

Chinese nationals continue to dominate with a third of all visas issued. Around a year ago we highlighted the new increasing trend of UK Investor Visa migrants from the United States in our circular “The Americans are coming”, this trend is continuing to build momentum accounting for 16% of all Investor Visas.”


Reform & Simplification

“In addition to the Home Secretaries speech setting out the next stage of reform to the UK’s immigration system, it has been an eventful quarter in the Investor Visa space which included a court decision criticising the drafting of the rules. I for one believe it is time to reform and simplify the rules, and we are putting suggestions forward to Migration Policy. Some of the topics covered are with regards to bringing more economic benefit to the UK with consideration to the FCA rules and to bring more harmony between immigration, tax, and financial laws. If you have any suggestions or comments, please do reach out to me direct.”


In-country Switching

“The statistics used in our calculations are for out-of-country applications, historically in-country switching has not been significant enough to add to the numbers and the data is released at different intervals to the quarterly migration statistics. The pandemic has brought about some temporary rules which increased in-country switching by a material amount and therefore it is relevant to highlight these. 

Looking back at the calendar year 2020, we previously reported 216 Investor Visas issued to main applicants. Today’s data release showed an additional 87 Investor Visas from previous non-Investor Visa categories, which brings the total to 303 for the calendar year.”

Source: Shard Capital

Source: Shard Capital

Source: Shard Capital