Immigration Rules and guidance for Innovator Founder applications

Where the requirements sit

The route is governed by Appendix Innovator Founder. For business assessment the operative provisions are short.

INNF 8.1 provides that where an applicant applies under the new business criteria, the endorsement letter must confirm that the applicant meets INNF 8.2 and INNF 8.3.

INNF 8.2 requires that the applicant has a business plan and generated or made a significant contribution to the ideas in it, will have a day-to-day role in carrying it out, confirms at least two contact point meetings with the endorsing body at regular intervals during the period of permission, and is either the sole founder or an instrumental member of the founding team.

INNF 8.3 requires an innovative, viable and scalable business venture, with four requirements at (a) to (d), all of which must be met.

INNF 6.1 and 6.3 govern the endorsement letter: it must identify the endorsing body, carry a reference number, be issued within three months of the application, and confirm that the applicant is a fit and proper person, that the endorsing body has no concerns about the legitimacy of the funds, and that it has identified no reason to suspect illicit wealth.

Three documents, not one

Most applicants read the Rules and stop. There are three layers and they do different things.

The Immigration Rules set the legal test. Four sentences for the business assessment.

The caseworker guidance tells Home Office staff how to handle the application. Its most important statement for applicants is what it does not require: caseworkers "will not normally need to carry out a genuineness assessment" because the endorsing body has already assessed the plan. Asked what innovative, viable and scalable mean, it refers the reader on: "You can find further guidance on what constitutes innovative, viable and scalable in the endorsing body guidance."

The guidance to endorsing bodies is where the substance is. It is public, it is the document the assessors work from, and it contains the tests the applicant-facing material omits: unique selling proposition, barriers to entry, innovation core to and delivered within the business, evidence of genuine market demand, high quality and skilled job creation, projections grounded in credible research.

If you read only one document before writing a business plan, read that one.

The gap this creates

The standard you are assessed against is not fully set out in the Immigration Rules. Part of it sits in Home Office guidance to third parties, and a further part sits in each endorsing body's own materials, which differ between bodies, are not Rules, and change without the notice that accompanies a change to the Rules.

That is why two applicants with comparable businesses can have materially different experiences depending on which body they approached.

Contact point meetings

INNF 8.2(c) requires confirmation of at least two contact point meetings with the endorsing body at regular intervals during the period of permission. This is a continuing obligation, not a declaration made once. Meetings are charged at £500 each. Applicants relying later on the same business are expected to show both past engagement and future commitment.

Version checking

The guidance on this route has changed repeatedly, and the list of endorsing bodies has changed more than once. Before relying on anything here, check the current version on GOV.UK. Where this page and the current Rules or guidance differ, the Rules and guidance govern.