Last month, alongside UKTI, we hosted a roundtable of accelerators to give evidence to the Migration Advisory Committee on the Entrepreneur Visa routes so that it is constantly being iterated and responding to the needs and wants of the digital entrepreneurs.
What does this mean?
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) is an independent body of academics that advises the Home Office. It conducts studies by collecting information in the field from relevant professionals.
MAC has been asked by Government to review the Entrepreneur Visa, to make sure the economic benefits of the route are maximised. As you can read on their homepage, the MAC was asked to consider whether:
- The initial eligibility criteria of access to funds is sufficient and whether other criteria should be applied
- The existing eligibility and extension criteria are aligned sufficiently with entrepreneurial and early-stage business life-cycles
- The route utilises international best practice. As part of this, the MAC is requested to consider route design and incentives to ensure competitiveness
In order to write an informed review, the MAC published a call for evidence, and we introduced them to members of the community, including Seedcamp, Wayra and Dotforge Impact, who could share their experience of the route.
During the roundtable we discussed the issues that accelerators face in bringing talent onto their UK programmes, the benefits and downsides of a potential startup visa, and what an improved Entrepreneur Visa route could look like.
The outcome of this review will be a report for Government which will be published in September – make sure to follow us to stay informed on how the process develops.
As the Government reform their immigration and labour market rules, we want to make sure that any reforms are well-informed by the community and relevant to their needs. This roundtable was part of an ongoing conversation that we are having with the MAC, who have also been tasked to review the tier 2 visa route. We’ll keep you posted!