How to Set Up a UK Company From Abroad: No IELTS, No Fixed Investment and the UK Expansion Worker Visa

Key Takeaways

• You do not need UK residency, a visa, an English test or a minimum investment to own and direct a UK limited company. GOV.UK states that directors do not have to live in the UK, Companies House sets no nationality or language test, and a private company can be formed with a single £1 share because the £50,000 minimum capital rule applies only to public companies.
• Owning a UK company is not the same as working in it. Anyone who comes to the UK to work in the business, including you, needs a work visa, and what that visa demands depends on the route.
• The UK Expansion Worker visa, the route for sending a senior manager or specialist to open your first UK branch, has no English language requirement. The Immigration Rules set no English test for the worker or their family on this route, so no IELTS is needed, unlike Skilled Worker and Innovator Founder, which require level B2.
• The person you send must be paid at least £52,500 a year or the full going rate for the job, whichever is higher. They must also have worked for your business outside the UK for at least 12 months (unless paid £73,900 or more) and be sponsored in an eligible occupation, which in most cases means a graduate-level job.
• Your overseas business must normally have been trading for 3 years and must own the UK business outright. The UK business must be a branch, a wholly owned subsidiary or a qualifying sister company in the same line of business, and it must not have started trading in the UK when you apply for the sponsor licence. Almost all the evidence comes from your home country: 12 months of business bank statements and 3 years of certified accounts, plus a UK business plan.
• The visa is granted for up to 12 months and can be extended once, to a maximum of 2 years, and it does not lead to settlement. Once the UK business trades, which must happen within 2 years of the licence, you add the Skilled Worker route to your licence and your staff can switch, at which point B2 English applies and the 5 years towards settlement start.
• There is no fixed investment, but there are real costs and funds. Expect a £611 sponsor licence fee, £55 per certificate of sponsorship, a £340 visa fee per person, the Immigration Health Surcharge of £1,035 a year per adult, and £1,270 in personal savings held for 28 days, which the sponsor cannot certify on the worker's behalf.
• Every director must verify their identity with Companies House before the company can be registered, and registration costs £100 online. Verification has been mandatory since 18 November 2025 and can be done from any country, and since 4 March 2024 the company needs a real UK registered office (never a PO box) and a registered email address.
• Tell HMRC within 3 months of starting to do business, and take advice on tax residence and VAT. A UK-incorporated company is UK tax resident wherever its directors live, the UAE can also treat it as resident if it is managed from there, and HMRC says a virtual office alone does not give it a UK establishment for VAT.
• As a visitor you can attend board meetings and sign contracts, but not run the business, and you cannot switch to the Expansion Worker visa from inside the UK as a visitor. Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani nationals need a visit visa even if they live in Dubai, and the Expansion Worker visa itself must be applied for from abroad.
• WPC Group can take your business through every stage, from the first meeting in Dubai to your team settling in the UK. WPC Global plans the expansion with you in Dubai, WPC Accountants forms the UK company and handles its tax, WorkPermitCloud prepares the sponsor licence and visas through our UK Expansion Worker visa service, WPC HR sets up the records and compliance a sponsor needs, WPC Jobs helps you recruit once you trade, and WPC Lawyers acts if the Home Office refuses or challenges anything.

Introduction

A UK limited company can be owned and run from Dubai, Dhaka, Mumbai or anywhere else. You do not have to live in the UK, you do not have to sit an English test, and there is no minimum amount you must invest. Registration is online, costs £100 and is usually complete within 24 hours once the paperwork is ready.

If what you want is a working UK branch, with someone you trust on the ground to open it, that is where immigration law begins, because owning shares in a UK company gives you no right to live or work in the UK. Anyone who comes to work in the business needs a visa.

For an established business expanding to the UK for the first time, the route built for that job is the UK Expansion Worker visa, part of the Global Business Mobility routes. It has one feature worth knowing from the start: there is no English language requirement for the worker or their family. It does, however, have firm rules on salary, on how long your business has been trading, on who owns the UK company and on timing. Get those wrong, and the route can close before you use it.

This guide covers both halves. It sets out what you do and do not need to register a UK company from abroad, what happens after incorporation, and then every requirement of the UK Expansion Worker visa, checked against the Immigration Rules and Home Office sponsor guidance on 29 October 2026. Everything here is confirmed law or published guidance, not a proposal. Rules of other countries are included only where an official source confirms them.

What You Do Not Need to Set Up a UK Company

It is easy to assume the UK sets the same barriers for company formation as it does for visas. It does not. The table below sets out the common assumptions against what the law actually says.

A company can have one shareholder who owns the whole company and acts as its only director, so a sole founder in the UAE can hold 100% of the shares personally. If you plan to use the UK Expansion Worker route, think again before doing this. For that route, the Home Office expects the UK business to be a branch of your overseas business or to be wholly owned by it, directly, through a holding company or as a sister company under the same parent. A UK company held by you personally does not obviously fit any of those options. We explain the ownership rule in full below. Decide the route before you register, because changing the shareholding afterwards costs time and filings.

What You Do Need: The Incorporation Checklist

The freedoms above do not mean there are no rules. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 has tightened company formation in stages since March 2024, and an application that misses one of the items below will not be accepted.

Identity Verification From Abroad

Identity verification became a legal requirement on 18 November 2025. Companies House says that when you register a new company, you are asked for each director's personal code as part of the registration filing, so verification must be finished before you apply.

There are two ways to verify your identity for Companies House, and both work from outside the UK:

• GOV.UK One Login. Free of charge. The accepted photo ID includes a biometric passport from any country. You also need your current address and the year you moved in. An expired passport cannot be used in the app, and one email address can only be used to verify one person.
• An Authorised Corporate Service Provider (ACSP). An accountant, solicitor or formation agent registered with Companies House and supervised for anti-money laundering in the UK can verify you. Companies House says you can do this from any country. You provide documents from an approved list, and the agent may charge a fee.

Once verified, you receive a personal code. It belongs to you, not to the company, and you will need it again for every confirmation statement and for any other company you join as a director or PSC. Failing to comply with the verification rules can be a criminal offence for the director and the company.

The Registered Office Address

GOV.UK's rules for registered office addresses require a physical address in the UK, in the same country your company is registered in. Since 4 March 2024 it must also be "appropriate", which means post sent there will come to the attention of someone acting for the company, and the sender can get confirmation of delivery. A Royal Mail PO Box, or a similar service from another company, can no longer be used, and a company that does not keep an appropriate address can be struck off. An overseas founder can use the address of an accountant, solicitor or formation agent, with their permission. It must be in place before you register, and it will be public.

Fees and How Long It Takes

From 1 February 2026, the Companies House fees for a private company are £100 to incorporate online or through software, £124 by post (8 to 10 days) and £156 for same-day incorporation through software. An online application is usually registered within 24 hours, and you receive a certificate of incorporation showing the company number and date of formation.

After Incorporation: Tax and Filing Deadlines

Registration starts several clocks running. These are the deadlines that follow.

The current Corporation Tax rates are 19% where profits are £50,000 or less and 25% where they exceed £250,000, with marginal relief in between. These thresholds are reduced for short accounting periods and for associated companies. We keep tax at that factual level here, because the right structure for salary, dividends and double taxation depends on where you live. WPC Accountants advises overseas owners on exactly this, and runs a dedicated service for Non-Resident Bangladeshis with UK and Bangladesh interests.

The VAT Trap for Companies Run From Abroad

The £90,000 VAT threshold only protects a business that is established in the UK. HMRC's VAT Notice 700/1 says it would normally consider a UK-incorporated company to have a UK establishment as long as it can make or receive business supplies at its registered business address, and that a registered, serviced or virtual office alone is not enough. A company with no UK establishment is a non-established taxable person (NETP), and for an NETP the threshold does not apply: it must register for VAT if it makes taxable supplies of any value in the UK. If your UK company will sell to UK customers while it is actually run from Dubai or Dhaka through an agent's address, take VAT advice before the first sale.

Practical Points: Banking, Tax and Your Home Country

Opening a UK Business Bank Account

No law requires a bank account before you register a company, and the Home Office does not require Expansion Worker sponsors to show a UK business bank account with the licence application. In practice the company will need an account to trade and to pay HMRC and its suppliers. Each bank sets its own criteria for companies with directors living abroad, so ask the bank directly. If you use an electronic money institution authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority instead of a bank, the FCA says money held by e-money firms is not directly protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme; it is protected through safeguarding.

Where the Company Pays Tax

Section 14 of the Corporation Tax Act 2009 states that a company incorporated in the UK is UK resident for Corporation Tax, even if every director lives abroad, and a UK-resident company pays Corporation Tax on its profits from the UK and abroad. Your own country may also claim the company. The UAE Ministry of Finance says a foreign company that is effectively managed and controlled in the UAE is a resident person for UAE Corporate Tax. When a company is resident in two countries, the tie-breaker in any double taxation treaty between them decides where it is treated as resident for that treaty. If the board sits in Dubai and makes every decision there, take advice before the company trades.

Your Home Country's Rules on Investing Abroad

UK company law does not restrict where the share capital comes from, but your own country's rules might. We have included only what we could confirm from an official source. It is not legal advice on foreign law, so confirm your position with your bank or a local adviser before you send funds.

• Bangladesh. Section 4 of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947 bars a person resident in Bangladesh from dealing in foreign exchange except with the general or special permission of Bangladesh Bank, so investment abroad needs Bangladesh Bank's approval. Ask your authorised dealer bank which permission applies to you.
• India. Under the Reserve Bank of India's Liberalised Remittance Scheme, a resident individual can send up to USD 250,000 per financial year abroad for permitted purposes, which the RBI lists as including investment abroad and setting up wholly owned subsidiaries abroad. Investment in an overseas company must also follow India's overseas investment rules, so ask your authorised dealer bank.
• UAE. The point to check is tax: the UAE Ministry of Finance treats a foreign company that is effectively managed and controlled in the UAE as resident for UAE Corporate Tax, as explained above.
• Anywhere else. Check whether residents need approval to invest abroad, and whether owning a foreign company triggers reporting or tax on its profits at home.

Both rules above are written for residents of Bangladesh or India, not for citizens as such, so a Bangladeshi or Indian national living in Dubai should check with their bank whether the rules apply to them before using funds held in their home country.

Owning a UK Company Is Not the Same as Working in It

You can own, direct and manage a UK company from abroad without any UK immigration permission at all. You can hold board meetings by video, sign contracts electronically and instruct staff in the UK from your office in Dubai.

What you cannot do without the right visa is come to the UK and work in the business. Each route that allows work has its own requirements, and they differ a great deal. The English requirement is a good example: the UK Expansion Worker route has none, while Skilled Worker and Innovator Founder require B2.

What You Can and Cannot Do as a Visitor

Whether you need a visa to visit depends on your nationality, not where you live. Bangladesh, India and Pakistan are on the Home Office visa national list, so their nationals must apply for a visit visa before travelling, even if they hold UAE residence. Most nationals who do not need a visa must get an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) instead. A Standard Visitor can usually stay up to 6 months. The Immigration Rules list what a visitor may do in Appendix Visitor: Permitted Activities and what they must not do in Appendix V: Visitor.

A director on a visit can fly in for a board meeting, view premises, interview candidates and sign the lease. They cannot manage the shop floor day to day or step into a job in the UK company. A visitor also cannot switch to the UK Expansion Worker visa from inside the UK. The visa must be applied for from abroad. Our post on business visitor permitted activities and remote working has more examples, and our business visit service prepares visit applications for directors and investors.

The UK Expansion Worker Visa: Every Requirement

The UK Expansion Worker visa, sometimes called the Global Expansion visa or Global Expansion scheme, is one of the five Global Business Mobility routes. The Home Office describes it as the route for a senior manager or specialist employee who is being assigned to the UK to work on a business's expansion to the UK. GOV.UK now tells a representative of an overseas business who is setting up its first UK branch to apply for this visa instead of the Representative of an Overseas Business (Sole Representative) visa. The rules are in Appendix Global Business Mobility (paragraphs UKX 1.1 to UKX 23.3) and in the Home Office's Global Business Mobility sponsor guidance, and both were checked for this post on 29 October 2026. The last Statement of Changes to touch this route, HC 259 of 9 July 2026, only reworded its suitability rules, and the later HC 584 left it unchanged.

What Your Overseas Business Must Show

Before anyone can apply for the visa, the UK business must hold a sponsor licence on the UK Expansion Worker route. To get one, the business must meet all of these rules:

• An active overseas trading business, normally for 3 years. The overseas business must be trading now and must have been trading for at least 3 years before the licence application, with evidence covering the last 12 months (such as corporate bank statements) and the start of the 3-year period (such as audited accounts). If it has traded for less than 3 years, or cannot prove 3 years, it can sponsor only one worker at a time. Japanese and Australian businesses expanding under the UK's trade agreements are exempt from the 3-year rule, and businesses listed on the London Stock Exchange or an equivalent regulated market do not normally need to prove trading at all.
• A real trading business. Trading means selling goods or providing services with a view to profit. Businesses whose main activity is holding investments, such as private equity or venture capital firms, cannot use the route.
• The same business, not a new venture. The UK expansion must be in the same type of business you run overseas.
• Full ownership. The UK business must be part of the same legal entity (a UK branch), or wholly owned by the overseas business, or wholly owned by a non-trading holding company that is itself wholly owned by the overseas parent, or a sister company wholly owned by the same immediate parent. Joint ventures and other looser links are not accepted on this route.
• A UK footprint. You must show either UK business premises, such as a lease, or registration at Companies House as a UK branch of the overseas company or as a new subsidiary. For a subsidiary, the company number is enough. This is where your newly formed UK company comes in.
• No UK trading yet. The route can only be used while the UK business has not started trading. Limited pre-trade steps, such as employing the person who will be Authorising Officer, do not count as trading. If the UK business is already trading, you must use another route, such as Senior or Specialist Worker or Skilled Worker.
• A credible expansion plan. You must show you genuinely intend, and are able, to establish a UK trading presence within 2 years. The Home Office looks at your business planning and finances, and may consider the size of the business, its history and its potential. There is no minimum investment figure, but your business plan must state your proposed overall investment in the UK and your operating costs for at least the first 12 months, so the overseas business must be able to fund the UK set-up and the salaries until the UK business pays its way.

The Documents: Almost All From Your Home Country

The Home Office's Appendix A list of supporting documents for this route asks mainly for evidence from the country where your business already operates. You must send:

• Proof of your UK footprint: the Companies House number or certificate of incorporation of your UK subsidiary or branch, or a signed lease or proof of purchase of UK premises. You need one or the other, so a UK office is not essential if the company is registered. If the UK business has a website, give the address.
• Evidence of the ownership link between the UK business and the overseas business.
• Evidence of overseas trading: itemised corporate bank statements covering at least the last 12 months, from a bank regulated in your country; certified accounts or annual reports covering at least the last 3 years, audited where your local law requires it, with an accountant's certificate; proof of registration with the authorities in your country; the overseas business's articles and memorandum of association (or local equivalents); and either 12 months of contracts for goods or services or evidence of your advertising.
• Evidence of your planned expansion: the sectors you operate in, a current group chart showing owners, directors, board members and total staff, a summary of the last 12 months' activity and finances, a UK business plan (reasons for expanding, sectors, proposed investment, first-year costs, and the jobs, occupation codes and salaries you plan), and at least one supporting document such as market research or evidence of advice from formation, tax or legal advisers.

Anything not in English or Welsh needs a certified translation. Unlike other new sponsors that have traded in the UK for less than 18 months, an Expansion Worker applicant does not have to show a UK business bank account. Listed companies are spared the trading and expansion evidence, and Japanese and Australian businesses need only 12 months of trading evidence (but are then limited to one worker at a time unless they show 3 years).

How the Sponsor Licence Works

The licence has features no other route has, and they shape your timetable:

• Your Authorising Officer can be overseas. If nobody suitable is based in the UK, a senior employee of the overseas business who will be sent to the UK can be the Authorising Officer. They must also be the Level 1 User, and can be the Key Contact.
• Provisional rating and one certificate. If the Authorising Officer is outside the UK, the licence is granted with a provisional rating and one certificate of sponsorship, which must be assigned to the Authorising Officer for their own visa. Once their visa is granted, they update the sponsorship management system and ask for an A-rating. They must arrive to start work within 28 days of the later of their job start date and the date their entry clearance takes effect.
• A cap of 10 workers. You can sponsor only as many people as you genuinely need to set up the UK business, with a maximum of 10 at any one time. If the Authorising Officer is already in the UK, the licence is A-rated with the full allocation from the start.
• A 2-year deadline and a 4-year licence. You are expected to be trading in the UK within 2 years of the licence being granted. At that point the Home Office reduces your Expansion Worker allocation to zero, so no new workers can be sponsored and existing workers cannot extend on this route. The licence lasts 4 years and cannot be renewed.
• Moving on. Once the UK business trades, you can add other routes, such as Skilled Worker or Senior or Specialist Worker, to your licence, and your workers can switch if they meet those routes' rules.

GOV.UK's guidance on applying for a licence says most licence applications are decided in under 8 weeks, and a faster decision can be bought for £750, subject to daily limits. Our free sponsor licence eligibility check shows whether your business is ready to apply.

What the Person You Send Must Meet

The Salary Rules in Detail

Only some pay counts towards the salary test.

• Two tests, both must be met. Pay must equal or exceed £52,500 a year and 100% of the going rate for the occupation code. There are no new entrant or shortage discounts on this route.
• Hours matter. For the £52,500 test, only pay for the first 48 hours a week counts. For the going rate test, the going rate (based on 37.5 hours) is scaled to the worker's actual weekly hours, even above 48. Part-time pay is not grossed up, so a part-time salary below £52,500 fails.
• What counts. Guaranteed basic gross pay, plus allowances guaranteed for the whole UK assignment, such as London weighting, a mobility premium or a cost of living allowance. An accommodation allowance counts only up to 30% of the total salary package.
• What does not count. Bonuses, overtime and shift pay, employer pension and National Insurance contributions, benefits in kind (such as health insurance, school fees or a company car), one-off payments, payment of visa costs and business expenses.
• Who pays. Home Office sponsor guidance allows salary to be paid in the UK or from abroad, so the overseas business can pay its Expansion Worker from its home payroll. The salary on the certificate must be stated in pounds sterling (converted at the OANDA rate on the day it is assigned), payments must go into the worker's own bank account, and cash payments are not allowed. Paying from abroad does not switch off UK tax: take advice on PAYE and National Insurance before the worker starts, because the certificate must give a PAYE reference or explain why there is none.
• Employment law still applies. The job must comply with the National Minimum Wage and the Working Time Regulations, and the Home Office checks pay with HMRC.

English Language: Why No IELTS Is Needed

The UK Expansion Worker section of Appendix Global Business Mobility contains no English language requirement for the worker, and none for a partner or child joining them. That is a genuine advantage over Skilled Worker, where the level is B2 for new applicants and anyone switching in.

Two cautions keep this accurate. First, the exemption belongs to this route only, and the route lasts 2 years at most. If your worker later switches to Skilled Worker to stay longer, B2 English will apply at that point. Second, the Home Office must still be satisfied that the worker genuinely intends, and is able, to do the role they are sponsored for (UKX 9A.1).

How Long the Visa Lasts and What the Worker Can Do

The first grant runs for the shortest of 1 year from the job start date, 14 days after the end date on the certificate, the point at which the worker reaches 2 years on the route, or the point at which they reach 5 years in any 6 across all Global Business Mobility and Intra-Company routes. The worker can extend from inside the UK for up to a further 12 months, in the same job and occupation code with the same employer, to a maximum of 2 years.

While on the visa, the worker can do the sponsored job, voluntary work and study, and can travel in and out of the UK. They cannot take a second job, claim public funds or apply for settlement. Time on this route does not count towards indefinite leave to remain. The Skilled Worker settlement rules list the routes that count, and Global Business Mobility routes are not among them.

A worker already in the UK can switch to this visa from most routes, but not from a visit visa, short-term student, Parent of a Child Student, seasonal worker, domestic worker or outside-the-rules permission. A decision usually takes about 3 weeks from outside the UK and 8 weeks from inside, according to the UK Expansion Worker GOV.UK guidance.

After the Expansion Worker Visa: Moving to Skilled Worker and Settlement

The Expansion Worker visa is a bridge, not a destination. The path to staying in the UK long term runs like this:

1. Start trading in the UK, within 2 years of the licence. You do not have to wait until the 2 years are up. As soon as the UK business is trading, you can apply to add other routes to your existing licence.
2. Add the Skilled Worker route to your licence. Adding a Worker licence to an existing Temporary Worker licence costs nothing for a small sponsor and £1,071 for a medium or large one, and the business must then meet the normal sponsor rules, including key personnel based in the UK.
3. The worker switches to Skilled Worker from inside the UK. They must meet every Skilled Worker rule on the date they apply: English at B2, an eligible job, and usually a salary of at least £41,700 or the going rate. The business pays a £525 certificate fee and the Immigration Skills Charge (£480 for the first 12 months for a small sponsor, £1,320 for a medium or large one).
4. Settlement after 5 years on Skilled Worker. Time on the Expansion Worker visa does not count towards the 5 years, so a worker who spends 2 years as an Expansion Worker would normally reach settlement about 7 years after arriving. Settlement applications made on or after 26 March 2027 need B2 in speaking and listening.

Alternatively, a worker can move to the Senior or Specialist Worker route, which has no English requirement but also does not lead to settlement. Either way, plan the switch well before the Expansion Worker permission ends.

Bringing Your Family

A husband, wife, civil partner or unmarried partner (2 years living together, or in a relationship for 2 years where living together is not possible), and children under 18, can come as dependants. Their permission ends with the worker's. They must show £285 for a partner, £315 for the first child and £200 for each other child, held for 28 days on top of the worker's £1,270, unless already in the UK for 12 months. There is no English test for dependants, and a partner can work in the UK, including self-employment, except as a professional sportsperson or coach.

What It Costs

Figures are from the Home Office fees table in force from 8 October 2026 and GOV.UK's sponsorship and health surcharge pages. Use our IHS and visa fee calculator to price your family's application. Lawyers' fees, the company formation, the TB test where needed and the salary itself come on top.

How the Expansion Worker Route Compares With the Alternatives

Self-sponsorship means your own UK company gets a sponsor licence and sponsors you as a Skilled Worker. From abroad, the rules make this difficult: the people managing the licence must be based in the UK most of the time, at least one Level 1 User must normally be a settled worker, and the job must be genuine rather than created mainly for a visa. Our post on whether self-sponsorship is still possible after the July 2025 changes and our self-sponsorship service cover that path, and the Global Talent guidance sets out the talent route.

The Innovator Founder route suits a genuinely new business idea rather than the expansion of an existing one. Our Innovator Founder visa guide and Innovator Founder visa service explain it, and our guide on whether international students can start a business in the UK covers the options for students already here. For the wider family of routes, see our Global Business Mobility service, our Global Business Mobility visa guide and our maintained self-sponsorship and founder routes guidance. Our guide to UK visa maintenance funds explains the 28-day savings rule used on all of these routes.

A Step-by-Step Order for Overseas Founders Using the Expansion Worker Route

Doing things in the right order keeps the route open and avoids paying for the same work twice.

1. Check the route fits: an overseas business trading for 3 years (or within an exception), a senior manager or specialist with 12 months in the business, a job paying at least £52,500 or the going rate, and a plan to trade in the UK within 2 years.
2. Check your own country's rules on sending money abroad and your tax residence position before you fund anything.
3. Verify the identity of every UK director through GOV.UK One Login or an ACSP, and collect the personal codes.
4. Register the UK company as a subsidiary owned by your overseas business (or register a UK branch), with an appropriate registered office, a registered email address and the lawful purpose statement.
5. Open a UK business account and register for PAYE, but do not start trading in the UK.
6. Apply for the UK Expansion Worker sponsor licence, naming your Authorising Officer.
7. Once licensed, assign the certificate of sponsorship and apply for the visa from abroad, with family applications at the same time if they are coming.
8. After the visa is granted, ask for the A-rating, bring in up to 9 more workers if needed, and start trading within 2 years.
9. Once trading, add the Skilled Worker route to your licence and move your staff across before their Expansion Worker permission ends.
10. Tell HMRC within 3 months of starting to do business. For Corporation Tax this includes employing someone, so the clock can start before the UK business trades.

How Can WorkPermitCloud Help?

WorkPermitCloud is an IAA-regulated immigration adviser (F202100311) that helps overseas businesses send senior managers and specialists to set up their first UK branch on the UK Expansion Worker visa. Our UK Expansion Worker visa service checks whether your overseas business and your chosen worker meet each rule above, prepares the sponsor licence application with your new UK company as the footprint, prepares the worker's and family's visa applications, and handles the move from a provisional to an A-rated licence once your Authorising Officer arrives.

Expanding to the UK involves more than a visa, which is why WorkPermitCloud works as part of WPC Group, a family of firms under common ownership that covers each stage of the journey:

• Planning, from Dubai. WPC Global, our office in Dubai, meets business owners from the UAE, India, Bangladesh and the wider region, checks whether the Expansion Worker route fits, and plans the timetable.
• Forming and running the UK company. WPC Accountants registers the UK subsidiary, helps prepare the UK business plan figures and payroll set-up the licence application relies on, and then handles Corporation Tax, VAT and PAYE, including for Non-Resident Bangladeshi owners.
• Sponsor licence and visas. WorkPermitCloud prepares the Expansion Worker licence and visas, adds the Skilled Worker route through our sponsor licence service once you trade, and switches your staff across before their permission ends. Our business visit service handles visit visas for directors who only need to attend meetings.
• HR and sponsor compliance. WPC HR sets up the right-to-work checks, records and reporting a licensed sponsor must keep, and its sponsor licence compliance audit checks you are ready for a Home Office visit.
• Recruitment. WPC Jobs helps you find and hire staff in the UK once the branch is trading.
• Legal protection. WPC Lawyers, our SRA-regulated solicitors, act if a licence or visa is refused, suspended or revoked.

Each firm is a separate legal entity working under its own regulation, and they work together on your file, so you do not have to brief a new adviser at every stage.

Conclusion

Setting up a UK company from abroad is open to people of any nationality, wherever they live. There is no residency rule, no English test and no minimum investment, and the whole process can be done online for £100. The detail is in identity verification before you apply, an appropriate registered office, HMRC's 3-month deadline and the tax position of a company run from overseas.

The bigger decision is how your people will work in the UK. For an established business opening its first UK branch, the UK Expansion Worker visa is the route the Immigration Rules designed for that situation: it needs no IELTS, it lets your senior manager be the Authorising Officer from abroad, and it uses the company you have just formed as its UK footprint. In return, it asks for 3 years of overseas trading, full ownership of the UK business, a salary of at least £52,500 or the going rate, and a UK trading presence within 2 years. Plan the structure before you incorporate, apply for the licence before the UK business trades, and the company and the visa will work together.

Glossary