There is no UK investor visa today. Tier 1 (Investor) closed in February 2022, and the new investment route trailed in press reports since May 2025 has still not appeared in the Immigration Rules as of 1 August 2026. What exists instead is a transition regime for legacy Tier 1 holders — whose extension window has now closed but whose settlement window runs to 2028 — and a set of active-involvement routes wealthy applicants actually use. This guide tracks all of it.
On This Page
A Route That Exists Only in Reports
No new investor visa has been announced, legislated or launched. The May 2025 Bloomberg report of a route targeting strategic industries remains reportage, and later press coverage floating higher thresholds and an invitation-only model is equally unconfirmed. Legacy Tier 1 (Investor) holders can no longer extend — that window closed on 17 February 2026 — but can still apply for settlement until 17 February 2028.
What Has Actually Been Reported
Bloomberg's report of 14 May 2025 said ministers were considering a visa for foreigners investing in strategically important industries — artificial intelligence, clean energy, life sciences — a deliberate contrast with the passive wealth-parking the old route rewarded. Subsequent press coverage has floated larger investment figures and an invitation-only design. None of this has been confirmed by the government, published in a policy paper, or laid in the Rules: until it is, it is journalism, not law.
Why the Idea Keeps Coming Back
The pressure is fiscal and political at once: the end of the non-dom regime and highly public departures of wealthy residents created demand for a story about attracting capital, while the security lessons of the old route rule out simply reopening it. That tension — wanting the money, distrusting the mechanism — is exactly why the reported design keeps emphasising active investment in named sectors with heavy vetting.
How Tier 1 (Investor) Died
The route closed on 17 February 2022 on security grounds. The Home Office's own review, reported to Parliament in a written statement of 12 January 2023, described the problem plainly: wealth of unverifiable provenance, due diligence outsourced to institutions with a commercial interest in accepting it, and investment overwhelmingly parked in gilts rather than the productive economy — with the review covering 6,312 applications. The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022 era made the model untenable.
What the Refusal Numbers Hid
The route's published refusal rates were tiny — 7.9% at entry clearance, 4% at extension, 2.2% at settlement, per the same parliamentary statement — and that was precisely the criticism: a system waving through applications it could not meaningfully vet. Any successor route should be expected to invert that design, refusing more and verifying far earlier. Approval statistics from the old route tell you nothing about how a new one would behave.
Routes Wealthy Applicants Use Today
Innovator Founder
The nearest live relative: build or co-found an endorsed business rather than write a cheque. No fixed investment minimum, endorsement on innovation, viability and scalability, £1,357 application fee from outside the UK at the rates in force from 8 April 2026, and settlement after three years against defined achievements. Full detail sits in our Innovator Founder requirements guide; the closed entrepreneur routes' legacy positions are covered in our Tier 1 Entrepreneur and Start-up closure guides.
Self-Sponsorship and Other Doors
An investor prepared to run a genuine UK business can establish a company, obtain a sponsor licence and be sponsored into a skilled role in it — with the £41,700 Skilled Worker threshold and the genuine-vacancy rules applying in full. Global Talent serves those with recognised standing, and overseas businesses expanding here use the UK Expansion Worker route. What no route offers is residence in exchange for passive capital — that product is currently off the UK's shelf.
The Sectors a New Route Would Chase
Artificial Intelligence and Deep Tech
Every version of the reported plans names AI first, reflecting wider industrial strategy. If the route materialises as reported, investment tied to UK-based AI ventures, research and compute infrastructure would sit at its centre — and applicants able to show genuine sector involvement, not just allocation, would be its natural constituency.
Clean Energy and Life Sciences
The same logic runs through the other named sectors: capital that builds things — generation, grid, labs, trials — rather than holding paper. The common thread in all the reporting is that a successor route would buy participation, not residence: closer to Innovator Founder with a bigger cheque than to Tier 1 with better paperwork.
Preparing Without a Route to Apply For
Serious prospective applicants can do three useful things now: build a documented, verifiable source-of-funds file to the standard the Economic Crime Act era demands; develop genuine exposure to the trailed sectors, because active involvement is the recurring design theme; and keep a live fallback — usually Innovator Founder — rather than parking plans on a route that may never open. Preparation of that kind pays off under any outcome.
Timeline Watch, Honestly Kept
Earlier predictions — guidance by summer 2025, launch in early 2026 — have simply not happened, and we will not replace them with fresh guesses. A real route arrives through a statement of changes to the Immigration Rules, usually with weeks of notice; the White Paper programme's own record shows measures landing in stages long after announcement. This page is maintained against that record: as of 1 August 2026, nothing has been laid.
The Vetting Any New Route Will Carry
Whatever launches will be built against the old route's autopsy: independent verification of source of wealth rather than bank-led due diligence, ongoing monitoring rather than point-in-time checks, and genuine-residence and involvement requirements. Applicants whose wealth structures cannot survive that scrutiny will not be saved by the size of the cheque — a planning reality worth absorbing before, not after, any launch.
An International Direction of Travel
The UK would be swimming against the tide knowingly: EU jurisdictions have been closing or gutting golden visa schemes — Portugal removed its real-estate route in 2023, as our Portugal golden visa guide covers — under money-laundering and housing pressure. A sector-targeted, actively-managed UK route would be a bet that investment migration can be redesigned rather than abandoned. Whether that bet gets placed is the thing this page watches.
Frequently askedQuestions about the UK investor visa
Is there a UK investor visa in 2026?
No. Tier 1 (Investor) closed on 17 February 2022 and no replacement has been launched. The new route reported since May 2025 remains unconfirmed — it has not appeared in the Immigration Rules, and predictions of a 2025–26 launch have passed without an announcement.
I still hold a Tier 1 Investor visa — what are my deadlines?
The extension window closed on 17 February 2026, so remaining leave runs to its own expiry. Settlement applications under the transitional arrangements remain possible until 17 February 2028 for those who qualify. If your dates are tight, take advice now rather than at expiry.
Why was the old investor visa closed?
Security, not paperwork: the Home Office review reported to Parliament found unverifiable wealth, commercially conflicted due diligence and investment concentrated in government bonds rather than the productive economy. Its refusal rates — under 8% at every stage — were part of the indictment, not a defence.
What would a new investor visa look like?
Per the reporting: active investment in strategic sectors — AI, clean energy, life sciences — with enhanced, independent vetting, possibly by invitation. Treat every specific figure circulating online as speculation until a statement of changes is laid; none has been.
What should wealthy applicants do in the meantime?
Use the routes that exist: Innovator Founder for building an endorsed business, sponsorship structures where a genuine role exists, Global Talent for recognised leaders. Meanwhile, assemble the source-of-funds evidence any future route will demand — that file is valuable under every scenario.
Will waiting for the new route be worth it?
Waiting has already cost a year of predictions that didn't land. Applicants with UK plans generally do better entering on a live route now and repositioning if a new one opens — residence accrued lawfully is never wasted, while time spent waiting is gone either way.
Tell us when your leave was granted, when it expires and what your investment position is now. We'll tell you what a settlement application needs before the 2028 window closes, and which routes are open in the meantime.
Get Expert Advice