A practical guide to Innovator Founder settlement endorsement, the 3-year qualifying period and evidence for 2 distinct business achievements.
01
The 3-year period is only the first part of the test.
Appendix Innovator Founder requires at least 3 qualifying years on the Innovator Founder route, continuous residence, the relevant knowledge-of-life requirement and a fresh settlement endorsement. Time spent in a different immigration category does not count towards that specific 3-year route.
The endorsing body must also confirm that the company is registered, the applicant is a director or member, the business is active and trading, it appears sustainable for at least the next 12 months and the founder retains an active key management role.
02
Select 2 genuinely distinct qualifying achievements.
The current Rules identify alternative achievements concerning investment actively spent, comparative customer growth, significant research and development with a UK intellectual-property application, specified revenue, export revenue, or prescribed settled-worker job creation.
The same criterion cannot be counted twice. For example, investment above twice the stated investment threshold still remains a single investment criterion. Founding-team members also cannot rely on the same jobs or other shared means of satisfying a criterion without meeting the Rules applicable to each founder.
03
Start collecting the evidence before the settlement window.
The evidence may require company accounts, bank records, invoices, payroll, right-to-work evidence, investment documentation, customer comparisons, intellectual-property filings and records connecting the founder to the day-to-day business.
Job-creation criteria have their own duration, working-hours, pay and worker-status conditions. A promising employment plan near the end of the 3-year period may arrive too late if the required jobs have not existed for the necessary period.