Innovator Founder: the endorsement is the visa

The Innovator Founder visa lets you set up and run a business in the UK based on an innovative, viable and scalable business idea. It replaced the Start-up and Innovator routes in April 2023. You can stay for 3 years, extend with no limit on the number of extensions, and apply to settle (indefinite leave to remain) after 3 years if the business meets the settlement criteria.

The Home Office decides the visa, but the business case is judged first by an endorsing body. Without its endorsement there is no application.

The Immigration Rules (Appendix Innovator Founder) spell out what the endorsing body assesses:

• Innovative — a genuine, original business plan that meets new or existing market needs and/or creates a competitive advantage.
• Viable — the plan is realistic and achievable based on your available resources, and you have the skills, knowledge, experience and market awareness to run it.
• Scalable — evidence of structured planning and of potential for job creation and growth into national and international markets.

The Home Office list (updated 7 August 2026) names three business endorsing bodies taking new Innovator Founder applicants: UK Endorsing Services, Innovator International and Envestors Limited. The Global Entrepreneurs Programme (GEP), run by the Department for Business and Trade, also endorses, but only founders it has already invited onto its programme.

The list has changed several times in 2026, so check the current version before you approach anyone. Around sixty older "legacy" bodies can only maintain founders they endorsed before April 2023.

An endorsement costs £1,000 per person, paid to the endorsing body. After the visa is granted you must attend at least two contact point meetings, after 12 and 24 months, at £500 each.

What gov.uk and the Immigration Rules ask of the founder:

• An endorsement from an approved endorsing body.
• English at level B2 on the Common European Framework.
• Aged 18 or over.
• No minimum investment: the £50,000 requirement was removed when the route opened in April 2023. You still have to show your endorsing body that you have enough funding for the plan, and where it comes from.
• Personal funds of £1,270 held for 28 consecutive days, unless you are applying from inside the UK after at least 12 months there.

The visa costs £1,357 per person from outside the UK, or £1,693 to extend or switch inside the UK; both rose in April 2026. On top come the endorsement (£1,000) and the Immigration Health Surcharge of £1,035 per year, which gov.uk puts at £3,105 for a 3-year visa.

gov.uk gives a standard processing time of 3 weeks for applications from outside the UK.

After 3 years you can apply for indefinite leave to remain (£3,226 per person), with a new endorsement and a business that is registered, active and trading. The business must meet at least 2 of these 7 criteria:

• £50,000 invested and spent on developing the business.
• Customers doubled in the last 3 years, and above the average for similar businesses.
• An application for intellectual property protection in the UK.
• £1 million revenue in the last full year of accounts.
• £500,000 revenue in the last full year, with £100,000 of it from exports.
• The equivalent of 10 full-time jobs that have existed for 12 months.
• The equivalent of 5 full-time jobs for 12 months, at an average salary of £25,000.

The 2025 Immigration White Paper proposed making 10 years the standard route to settlement, and the earned-settlement consultation that followed proposed keeping the effective 3 years for Innovator Founders. As of October 2026 no rule change has implemented it, and the Immigration Rules still say 3 years. If you are planning around settlement, check the consultation outcome before you rely on the timeline.

Your partner and children under 18 can join you. They need their own funds on top of yours (£285 for a partner, £315 for the first child, £200 for each further child), they can work and study, and they can settle after a continuous period of 5 years.

We are not immigration lawyers or OISC-regulated advisers, and we do not submit visa applications. We mentor founders on what the endorsing body judges: the business plan, the financial model, the evidence of innovation and scalability, and the pitch. For the visa application itself, work with a regulated adviser.