The 2024 UK general election revealed immigration remained a top concern for much of the country. Politicians and civil servants have responded by cracking down on illegal migration and tightening the rules for legal migration. For those of us from a European background, however, this is nothing new.
Post-Brexit, founders from an immigrant background have had to weigh every business decision against the risk of being asked to leave the country. This has been an exponential multiplier on the normal stresses of starting up your own business, such as hiring, fundraising and traction.
The government’s “zero-tolerance” immigration rhetoric clashes with the reality that nearly two-fifths of our fastest-growing companies were founded by people born abroad. Between the rising popularity of Reform UK and Labour’s pledge to “tighten every area of the system”, venture investors have started warning of a potential brain-drain.
Drowning in uncertainty
When you picture someone being deported, what comes to mind? A group of police officers, barging through your door, or perhaps a threatening letter in the post? But that’s not how it always is. In my case, it’s the threat of deportation; the uncertainty, liminality and stress. Thousands of immigrants live under this constant fear, without certainty, which is devastating.
In my case, I had just secured the backing of Bethnal Green Ventures for my company, Legacy Compass, and applied for an Innovation Founder visa, which I qualify for. But now after two years of calling London my home, building my company from the ground up, contributing to the UK economy and creating jobs, I am facing deportation.
One of the hardest moments was being detained at Stansted Airport immigration when recently returning to the UK. I had left the country with written confirmation that my visa decision would be issued, but was questioned on whether I was entering illegally and what my motivations were. It was emotionally and physically draining.
To this day, I still don’t know what is going on, I haven’t been given any explanation from the Home Office regarding my visa application.
I’ve been working through the UK Home Office’s laborious compliance protocols since arriving in the UK in 2023 and most recently the UK’s Innovator Founder visa process since January 2025.
The Innovator Founder visa is designed for entrepreneurs with a new, innovative business idea that is endorsed by an approved body. It is designed to attract individuals looking to start scalable businesses that can contribute to the UK economy.
What seemed like a straightforward process — applying for endorsement and submitting a visa application — has turned into a hellish nightmare over the last six months: filled with delays, complications, clarifications, contradictions and moving goal-posts.
The endorsement alone took five weeks to clear. I was told that the visa application should only take another eight weeks after that, but the deadline of May 8, which was set by the Home Office as the latest date they were guaranteeing me that I would receive an answer by, has come and gone.
Speaking up for immigrant founders
Having spent close to six months on this process, it is worth remembering what this visa is for: to start and grow a business. Six months in the startup world feels like six years in any other industry.
In total, I’ve submitted over 210 pages of supporting documentation, undergone an intensive interview, and responded to continuous rounds of additional requests. One such request came only two days before the Home Office’s visa deadline, costing me unpaid hours, stress, and legal fees.
To date, my visa journey has cost me more than £7,000. Including; £1,000 for the endorsement, over £3,000 for National Insurance, £1,400 in visa fees, and £1,800 in accounting fees. Rather than attracting the best and the brightest, the visa process seems currently to encourage people to leave.
I posted on LinkedIn about my experience and it reached 107,000 people in less than 48 hours. I received messages from many other founders and entrepreneurs either sympathising or facing the same situation. Many of them were too afraid to share their stories publicly through fear of jeopardising their business, their funding relationships, and most importantly their visas.
They all warned me of the consequences of speaking out, fearing that speaking out could negatively effect my visa application. Despite this being illegal, it’s not unheard of and it was enough to frighten me into silence. So I took the post down.
But I believe the risk of not speaking up is worse than the risk of deportation. Silence is not safety, it is giving in. We need to speak up for founders, for immigrants and for our rights.
This is not the startup culture that London and the UK wants to be home to.
What the UK risks losing
Legacy Compass is a legacy-tech platform that helps people prepare for the experience of loss, not with fear, but with compassion, structure, and dignity. The idea for my business came from my own life experience, revealing the financial and emotional costs of caregiving and loss.
In March, Legacy Compass was one of just eleven startups selected for the highly competitive Spring 2025 Tech for Good Programme by Bethnal Green Ventures, Europe’s leading early-stage VC supporting tech for good startups. We were chosen in the top 3% of applicants for the potential that Legacy Compass has, in becoming a successful Tech for Good company in the UK and internationally.
I am a proud immigrant founder and I am certainly not an exception. Foreign-born founders already employ over 1 million people in UK SMEs but their share of new businesses has fallen 10 percentage points since 2019, and fewer than 1,000 start-up visas were issued in 2023.
Reality check
In May 2025, the UK government published its new plan for “Restoring Control over the Immigration System” including the Innovator Founder visa in its growth strategy, promising to make it more accessible for entrepreneurial talent. So far, my experience has been anything but accessible. Without reducing the cost, the system will alienate anyone without the means to fight for their visa.
I am not asking for sympathy points, I am simply calling for a fairer, considerate, more nuanced system. Founders are not looking to jump the queue, but we are offering the UK economy a significant opportunity. If nothing changes, the UK will lose talent.
I hope that by telling my story, other founders in a similar position will not feel alone, as I have. The startup community is used to working hard without certainty, but this should be a symptom of entrepreneurship, not immigration.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/uk-immigration-migrant-founder-deport-risk/
