🇬🇧Relocating the Business: Migration Routes for a Company Owner

The concept: a third generic route — neither money nor accolades, but a working company

The three basic models of migration entry differ in what the applicant puts in front of the state. The investment model offers capital; the talent model offers recognition and a track record; the third offers a going concern — a legal entity with turnover, staff and history, part of whose functions moves to the destination country. Formally this is not even a migration programme but a corporate action: incorporating a subsidiary, a branch or a regional headquarters, followed by the transfer of the owner or a senior executive. Everything else about the route follows from that. The petitioner is almost always the company rather than the individual; what gets examined is not a biography but the ownership structure and the accounts; and a refusal comes not for "insufficient merit" but because the transferred function does not rise to managerial level, or because the receiving entity exists only on paper.

In practice the landscape falls into three groups. First come the countries with a mature intra-corporate transfer regime, where the statute itself describes the link between a foreign parent and a receiving entity: the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain and the rest of the EU through the ICT Directive. Second come the countries where entry runs not through a transfer but through business creation by a foreign resident against formal capital and employment thresholds: Japan after the 2025 reform, Spain along its entrepreneur line. Third come the Gulf jurisdictions, where migration status is an appendage to a corporate licence and the real prize is the tax regime attached to a regional headquarters. Canada, which two years ago was the shop window of entrepreneurial entry, has dropped off the map altogether.

The United States: L-1 as a temporary bridge, EB-1C as the exit into a green card

The American construction is the most fully developed and the most expensive in friction. It works in two steps: the non-immigrant L-1 visa moves the person, and the immigrant EB-1C category turns that move into permanent status.

L-1A and L-1B: a year of service, affiliation, and ceilings

Both sub-categories share one requirement: the applicant must have worked continuously for the foreign company for at least one year within the three years preceding the petition, and the foreign and US entities must stand in a qualifying relationship — parent, subsidiary, branch or affiliate. 9 FAM 402.12 fixes the ceilings on stay: seven years for L-1A (executives and managers) and five for L-1B (specialised knowledge), with time spent in H status counting against the same limit.

The "new office" rule is a regime of its own. Where the US entity has been trading for less than a year, the petition is approved for no more than twelve months, and at the end of that year the company must show that the operation has grown to a level that supports a managerial position. This is where most schemes break: a year on, the office has engaged two contractors, there is no revenue, and the extension fails. Large groups can use a blanket petition, which removes the individual test of qualifying relationships. Eligibility turns on one of three conditions — at least ten L approvals in the preceding twelve months, or combined annual sales of the US entities of $25 million or more, or 1,000 or more employees in the United States — plus a US office more than a year old and at least three branches, subsidiaries or affiliates.

EB-1C: a green card without labour certification, but only after a year of trading

The immigrant category for multinational executives and managers sits in 8 CFR 204.5(j). The logic is the same — one year of managerial employment abroad within the preceding three years — but a requirement is added on the receiving side: the prospective US employer must have been doing business for at least one year. "Doing business" is defined in the regulation as "the regular, systematic, and continuous provision of goods and/or services", and expressly excludes the mere presence of an agent or office. No labour certification (PERM) is required, and that is the category's chief advantage over EB-2 and EB-3.

As of August 2026 there is effectively no EB-1 queue for most of the world: the Visa Bulletin shows Current for all chargeability areas except China-mainland (01JUL23) and India (15OCT22), with a State Department caveat that India's pro-rated limit may be exhausted before the fiscal year ends. For a Russian, Kazakh or Israeli beneficiary that means no visa queue at all — the bottleneck is not the quota but the quality of the file. The standalone talent branch is compared in the note on EB-1A.

The cost of friction is rising

The refusal statistics have shifted. The April NFAP review, built on USCIS data, puts the fourth-quarter denial rate year on year at 8.0% rising to 9.6% for L-1A and 8.1% to 9.2% for L-1B — moderate movement. The immigrant categories jumped far harder: EB-1 from 25.6% to 46.6%, and EB-2 with a national interest waiver request from 38.8% to 64.3%. The applied conclusion is that the temporary transfer through L-1 remains comparatively passable, while the immigrant step now demands a substantially denser file than it did two years ago.

The process has also become dearer. On 10 August 2026 DHS published the final rule on the 9-11 Response and Biometric Entry-Exit Fee: from 9 September 2026 the $4,500 L-1 fee (and the $4,000 H-1B fee) reaches extension petitions filed by the same employer, not merely initial petitions and changes of employer. It is payable by "covered employers" — companies with 50 or more employees in the United States where more than 50% of the workforce holds H-1B or L-1 status. The statutory authority is section 402(g) of Public Law 114-113, and the fee sunsets on 30 September 2027 unless Congress extends it. A family group with a small US payroll rarely crosses the 50-employee threshold: the rule bites the outsourcing model, not the business owner.

The United Kingdom: Expansion Worker, a route for the company rather than the person

The British equivalent lives inside the umbrella Global Business Mobility category. The UK Expansion Worker visa is meant for an employee sent by an overseas business to establish a UK footprint from scratch. The initial grant is twelve months from the start date on the certificate of sponsorship (or the certificate's duration plus fourteen days, whichever is shorter), extendable to two years in total, against an overall ceiling of five years in any six-year period across all GBM routes.

The decisive limitation is that the route does not lead to indefinite leave to remain. That is a matter of design, not oversight: the British construction is a temporary posting to run a launch, not a channel for moving a family. The eligibility criteria require pay of at least £52,500 a year or the going rate for the occupation code, whichever is higher, and at least twelve months' service with the same employer outside the United Kingdom — unless earnings exceed £73,900 a year, or the applicant is a Japanese national working for a Japanese company expanding into the UK, or an Australian national or permanent resident working for an Australian company doing the same.

The wider British backdrop in 2026 is unhelpful. The Lewis Silkin review records that the consultation on "earned settlement" ran to 12 February 2026 and contemplated stretching the standard five-year qualifying period to at least ten years in many cases; the English language requirement for Skilled Worker rose from B1 to B2 for applications made on or after 8 January 2026; and the Immigration Skills Charge went up by 32% on 16 December 2025. As of August 2026 the final settlement rules need checking against the current text of the Immigration Rules. For an owner who wants an actual move rather than a posting, the honest alternatives are Innovator Founder with an endorsing body's backing, or Global Talent, where status attaches to the person and does lead to settlement.

Japan: Business Manager after 16 October 2025

The Japanese route has been repriced more sharply than any other. From 16 October 2025, per the KPMG note, the minimum capital for the Business Manager status of residence rose from ¥5 million to ¥30 million — a sixfold jump. Three new conditions came with it. The applicant must hire at least one full-time employee drawn from a protected pool: Japanese nationals, permanent residents, spouses of Japanese nationals, spouses or children of permanent residents, and long-term residents. A language bar applies — JLPT N2 or above, or BJT of 400 points or more, with alternatives for twenty years or more of residence in Japan as a mid- or long-term resident, graduation from a Japanese university, or from a Japanese high school — and it may be satisfied by a designated employee rather than the applicant personally. And the business plan must be validated by a certified professional: an SME management consultant, a certified public accountant or a licensed tax accountant.

The transition is described in the Newland Chase briefing: for those already in Japan on this status, renewals up to 15 October 2028 are assessed case by case, weighing the actual condition of the business, the likelihood of meeting the new thresholds by the deadline, and the company's tax compliance. From 16 October 2028 compliance becomes unconditional. New certificate of eligibility applications and change-of-status applications get no transition at all: the new criteria bind them from day one. The practical reading for anyone holding the Japanese status is that three years is not a cushion but a recapitalisation deadline.

Spain: the two doors of Ley 14/2013

Spanish law keeps both doors inside a single text, Ley 14/2013. The entrepreneur line (articles 68 to 70) sets no minimum investment and no job creation target; instead of thresholds it runs a substantive assessment. The Large Companies and Strategic Collectives Unit, UGE-CE, issues the authorisation on the strength of a favourable ENISA report, which weighs the applicant's professional profile and involvement in the project, the business plan with its product and financing detail, and the added value the venture brings to the Spanish economy, to innovation or to investment opportunity. This is the exact inverse of golden-visa logic: what must be proved is not the presence of money but the coherence of the project.

The second door is the intra-corporate transfer. Article 73.3(a) grants an authorisation of up to three years for managers and specialists, and up to one year for trainees. One procedural rule flatters the whole regime against ordinary immigration practice: under article 76.1 the maximum decision period is twenty days from electronic filing, and if it lapses the application is deemed granted by positive administrative silence.

The tax overlay is a separate conversation: Spain's special regime for posted workers is open, among others, to entrepreneurs carrying on innovative activity and to company administrators, but it does not apply automatically — see the notes on the Beckham regime and the Spain hub.

Canada: the entrepreneurial channel is shut

The most conspicuous development of the past two years is the disappearance of the Canadian option. On the official IRCC page the Start-Up Visa programme is marked "Paused": closed to new applications, with holders of a valid 2025 commitment certificate required to file by 30 June 2026. SUV work permit intake stopped on 19 December 2024 and permanent residence intake on 31 December 2024; the Self-Employed Persons programme has been suspended indefinitely since intake closed in April 2024. The promised launch of a new entrepreneurial pilot in 2026, per the IMI analysis, still comes with no published selection criteria or procedure as of August 2026. Until rules appear, Canada belongs in an owner's planning as an option with an undefined date, not as a route.

The Gulf: Saudi RHQ and headquarter services in the UAE

Here migration status is secondary — an appendage to a corporate licence. The prize is the tax regime.

Saudi Arabia: thirty years at zero in exchange for substance

The Regional Headquarters Programme is built around an undertaking. The SPA press release of 5 December 2023 announced a zero rate of corporate income tax and of withholding tax on approved RHQ activities for thirty years, counted from the day the licence is issued. The licence conditions, per Mayer Brown and the DLA Piper overview, are to begin operations within six months of licensing, to employ at least fifteen full-time staff in the first year of whom at least three sit at C-level, and to run at least three optional functions on top of the mandatory ones. The substance requirements are spelled out: premises in the Kingdom, board meetings and strategic decision-making in Saudi Arabia with at least one resident director, expenditure commensurate with the activity, revenue from approved functions earned inside the country, and staff of adequate calibre. The non-tax sweeteners are a ten-year exemption from Saudisation requirements and the removal of caps on employee visa numbers.

The enforcement lever is public procurement: since 1 January 2024 government bodies do not contract with foreign companies that lack an RHQ in the Kingdom. The exceptions are narrow — contracts worth no more than one million Saudi riyals, projects performed outside the Kingdom, a sole qualified bidder, or emergency circumstances. The wider framing sits in the Saudi Arabia overview.

The UAE: not a programme, but a line in the list of qualifying activities

There is no separate RHQ regime in the UAE, and the confusion on this point is common. A different mechanism does the work: "headquarter services to Related Parties" is named as a qualifying activity in Ministerial Decision No. 265 of 2023, so headquarters income from services to related parties can be taxed at zero in the hands of a Qualifying Free Zone Person. The decision unpacks the service: administering, overseeing and managing the activities of related parties, including senior and general management, administrative and procurement services, business planning and development, risk management, coordination of group activities, and the incurring of expenditure on related parties' behalf. The ceiling on all this is set by the global minimum tax: per DLA Piper, the Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax of 15% applies to financial periods beginning on or after 1 January 2025 for groups with consolidated revenue of €750 million or more — so the free zone relief no longer reaches large international groups in its old shape. Licences and statuses are mapped in the UAE licence map and the UAE hub.

Six routes on the same axes

The tax layer: corporate residence, permanent establishment and CFC rules

Migration success is regularly paid for with a tax surprise, because what moves is not only a person but the place where decisions are taken. Three distinct risks.

The first is corporate residence in the destination country. Most jurisdictions treat a foreign company as their own tax resident by reference to the place of effective management. An owner who has physically moved to Madrid or Dubai and continues to take every key decision on a Cypriot or Estonian holding company single-handedly risks that company becoming resident in the new country, with its worldwide profit in scope. The cure is not paperwork but facts: local directors with real authority, meetings and minutes held on the ground, expenditure and staff — in other words substance and a considered holding structure.

The second is permanent establishment. Even without a change of residence, the presence of a manager who habitually concludes contracts on the foreign company's behalf creates a taxable presence in the country of stay. The irony is that the migration routes in this family demand precisely that: managerial authority is a condition of approval under Spanish ICT and US L-1A, and for the Saudi RHQ the taking of strategic decisions inside the country is written into the substance requirements.

The third is CFC exposure from the country of departure. For an American owner, OBBBA has renamed the old GILTI as net CFC tested income: from 2026 the section 250 deduction falls from 50% to 40%, lifting the effective rate to roughly 12.6–14% depending on foreign taxes paid; the tangible asset return (QBAI) is repealed; and the foreign tax credit haircut narrows from 20% to 10%. The BEAT rate is fixed at 10.5% for periods beginning after 31 December 2025. The detail sits in the note on the US CFC rules. A Russian owner faces a mirror pairing: the CFC rules with their notification duties, and the recognition of a foreign entity as a Russian tax resident by place of management — the same risk as the first, and at its sharpest where the owner's relocation is documented but actual management has not moved at all.

Common requirements: what all six regimes examine

Whatever the jurisdiction, the same checks recur. Reality of the business: audited accounts, payroll records, contracts with unrelated counterparties, physical premises. Affiliation and ownership: control over the foreign and the receiving company must be legible from the corporate documents right up to the ultimate beneficial owner — the American L requires a qualifying relationship, and Spanish ICT and British GBM are likewise built on a link between employers. Age of the company: EB-1C wants a year of US trading, the blanket petition wants a year-old US office, and almost everywhere a freshly incorporated entity draws a shortened grant and heightened attention. Employment and capital: Japan's ¥30 million and one protected-category employee, Saudi Arabia's fifteen staff and three C-level roles, Britain's £52,500 — these are formalised versions of the same test. Service within the group: a year for the United States, twelve months for the UK Expansion Worker, three months for Spanish ICT.

The planning consequence is straightforward. A business should be moved when it already exists. The "incorporate a company to obtain a visa" scheme breaks on the second step, at renewal, when revenue, headcount and a tax history are requested. The registration work — from a Cyprus company to an Emirati licence — is technique; it is the substance that carries a shelf life.

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