Choosing a representative to expand your business in the UK is important. You need to send a capable candidate to set up and run a business in the UK on behalf of the parent company. UK immigration laws stipulates that only one person can be sent over to establish a business in the UK and all requirement must be satisfied to meet the condition of the visa.

It is very important to choose a right representative for establishing branches in the UK. The candidate must have the relevant skills and experience to represent your business in the UK and have the ability to make decisions on behalf of the company.

The parent company can send and appoint an existing employee to hold a senior position. UK Immigration law requires that if the candidate is not pre-existing employee and has been employed to represent a UK branch, or has been employed for a short time only, the candidate must be able to demonstrate a good track record in the same field or closely related fields, in order to show that the reasons for the appointment are genuine.

The children of the major shareholders or owner may be the sole representative to run a UK branch if they are appointed genuinely. In this case, ownership and control of the parent company are limited and they cannot be the main shareholders.

The UK Immigration law stipulates that a major shareholder (holding more than 50 % of shares) or owner of the overseas parent company cannot be sent as a sole representative of overseas business.

This rule applies similarly to the spouse, partner or children of a major shareholder or owner of the parent company. Spouse, unmarried or same-sex partner, fiancé or child who “have majority stake in, or otherwise own or control that parent company, led by shares, partnership agreements, or other arrangements” cannot be representatives of the UK branch.

An applicant can be a shareholder of the parent company. However, they cannot be major shareholders. If an applicant holds more than 50% of the parent company's shares, the application will be refused.

Dependents of an applicant can also be shareholders of the parent company. However, they must not be major shareholders. In other words, dependents should not represent the parent company in the UK to ensure that the centre of business operations does not move or relocate to the UK.

This means that the sole representative cannot transfer the majority of the shares to their spouse or partner who will accompany them to the UK. This may have been done if the representative had too many shares to meet the shareholding requirement, and did not want the shares to leave the family or if their partner had significant involvement in the parent company and needed to travel to conduct business and could not be the full-time employee of the business in the UK or to meet the 180-day absence requirement for settlement (even if they had no intentions to represent the parent company in the UK).

The immigration law prevent the circumvention of the Rules where partners of majority shareholders apply as representatives and bring the owner of majority shareholders as a dependent.