Innovator Founder Visa UK: how to get an endorsement

For the Innovator Founder visa, the endorsement is the application in all but name. Once you hold an endorsement letter, the visa stage mostly checks your English, your savings and your immigration history. So it's worth understanding how endorsing bodies think.

Who can endorse you

GOV.UK keeps a list of approved endorsing bodies. As of its update on 7 August 2026, the bodies that can endorse new Innovator Founder applicants are:

• UK Endorsing Services
• Innovator International
• Envestors Limited
• The Global Entrepreneurs Programme, which only endorses founders it has already invited onto its programme

A separate list of "legacy" bodies can only give further endorsements to people they endorsed under the old Start-up or Innovator routes before 13 April 2023. They can't take new applicants.

What it costs

The endorsement assessment costs £1,000 per person, paid to the endorsing body. If you are endorsed and get the visa, you must meet your endorsing body at least twice during your permission. Each of these contact point meetings costs £500.

What the assessor is testing

The endorsing body judges four things. Here is what each tends to mean in practice.

Innovation is the test most applicants struggle with. "An app for X" is rarely innovative on its own. What tends to work is a specific insight, a proprietary process, or technology you have built that others don't have, backed by why you are the right person to build it.

How the process usually runs

1. You choose an endorsing body and submit your business plan and supporting documents through its own portal.
2. The body reviews the plan and, in most cases, interviews you. Expect detailed questions about your market, customers, finances and why you are the person to do this.
3. It makes a decision. If you are endorsed, you get a letter to use in your visa application.
4. You apply for the visa within the time the letter allows.

Each body has its own portal, timelines and style, so read their current guidance. The Home Office doesn't set one timetable for endorsement decisions.

Why endorsements get refused

• The idea already exists and the plan doesn't say why yours is better. Assessors search the market. If they find three competitors you didn't mention, your credibility drops.
• The founder doesn't fit the business. A plan for a medical device from someone with no health or engineering background needs a very good answer to "why you".
• Numbers that don't hold together. Revenue that jumps tenfold in year two with no sales plan, or hiring that the funding can't pay for.
• A plan that reads as written for the visa. Generic language, no named customers, no evidence anyone has asked for the product.
• Weak answers at interview. You wrote a strong plan, but can't explain your own unit economics when asked.

After you are endorsed

Your endorsing body stays involved. At the contact point meetings it checks progress against your plan. When you apply for settlement, it is the endorsing body that confirms whether your business meets the settlement criteria, so a good working relationship matters. Keep records of spending, customers, hires and product milestones from the start.

Getting help

We help founders pressure-test the idea before it reaches an assessor, tighten the plan and rehearse the interview. See our Innovator Founder service, or start with the business plan guide.

Official sources

Checked on 29 September 2026. Fees and rules change, so confirm the current position on these pages before you pay or apply.

• GOV.UK: Innovator Founder visa overview and fees
• GOV.UK: Innovator Founder eligibility
• GOV.UK: Knowledge of English (B2)
• GOV.UK: Endorsing bodies for Innovator Founder and Scale-up

Common questions

This guide is general information based on the official rules as they stood on 29 September 2026. It is not legal advice for your situation. Immigration rules and fees change, so check the official sources above or speak to us before you apply.