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FROM INNOVATOR FOUNDER VISA TO ILR: How To Prove Your Business Has Succeeded?

FROM INNOVATOR FOUNDER VISA TO ILR: How To Prove Your Business Has Succeeded?

July 20, 2026

You started a business in the UK with an Innovator Founder visa and grew it for three years. Now it’s time to get the reward for that: Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR).

But here’s the catch: applying for ILR isn’t just about saying “3 years have passed, so I’m entitled to it now.” The Home Office wants to see that you actually grew a business during this time. In this article, we’ve put together all the criteria you need to know before applying for ILR, along with the key points to watch out for.

First, the basic requirement: 3 uninterrupted years

To apply for ILR, you need to have spent the last 3 years in the UK on an Innovator Founder or Innovator visa. There’s an important detail here: time spent on any other visa category does not count toward this. So if you switched from a student visa to Innovator, the clock starts from zero, from the date you switched to the Innovator visa.

Second step: You need a new endorsement

For ILR, you must get a new endorsement showing that you’ve grown your business. This is different from the endorsement you received with your first visa application, but you don’t have to continue with the same body that endorsed you the first time. Any approved body that believes you meet the criteria can give you this endorsement letter.

Pay special attention to one thing: you must apply for ILR within 3 months of receiving the endorsement letter. Missing this window can disrupt the whole process from the start.

The core of it: Have you really grown your company?

This is what the Home Office is really focused on. For your application to be approved, you need to show the following:

You must have an active and key role in the day-to-day management of the business. Being a passive investor or a partner who stays in the background doesn’t seem to be enough.
Your company must meet these conditions:

It must be registered with Companies House, and you must be either the director or a member of this company.
It must currently be trading and be able to continue trading for at least the next 12 months.

The most critical part: you need to meet at least two of the following seven criteria:

Criterion	Threshold
Investment	Received £50,000 of investment and spent it on developing the business
Customer growth	Doubled the number of customers in the last 3 years, and this rate is higher than the average for similar businesses
Intellectual property	Applied for intellectual property protection in the UK
Revenue (high threshold)	Made £1 million revenue in the last full financial year
Revenue (export component)	Made £500,000 revenue in the last full financial year, of which £100,000 must have come from exporting
Employment (high threshold)	Created the equivalent of 10 full-time jobs that have existed for 12 months
Employment (salary component)	Created the equivalent of 5 full-time jobs that have existed for 12 months, with an average salary of £25,000 a year

You may have already met some of these criteria during your first visa application. So the process doesn’t start from scratch. In this process, documenting your existing progress may largely be enough.

If you say "I've created jobs," don't skip one detail

The jobs you’ve created need to be for people with “settled worker” status. In other words, a person must have had “settled” status on the date they started working for you.

Even though this detail may seem small, reviewing your recruitment records against this definition significantly reduces the risk of your application being rejected.

Conclusion: Preparation should start well before the application

The ILR application is the official reward for three years of effort. But getting that reward is only possible with the right documentation and the right timing. Clearly establishing which two (or more) criteria your business meets before getting the endorsement letter speeds up both the endorsement process and the ILR application significantly.

If you’re not sure which criteria can be best documented for your profile, getting an assessment done before applying could be the most critical step in the process.