Residency, licences and permissions
Application support
Application support is the preparation, evidencing and running of a single Jersey application: High Value Residency, an employer licence, or a business licence. The forms are short. The case behind them is what decides the outcome, and assembling it is the work.
What is included
- An honest assessment of whether the application is realistic, before anything is submitted
- The evidence pack: income, wealth, sources, structures and identity documentation to onboarding standard
- The written case — what you or the business bring to Jersey, framed as an argument rather than a form
- Consistency control across every adviser, so the file tells one story
- Liaison with Locate Jersey or the Business Hub as appropriate
- Tracking, chasing and the answering of follow-up questions
What we will not do
We will not tell you an application is likely to succeed when we do not think it is. The assessment happens first and it is sometimes short.
We will not guarantee an outcome, and nobody who does should be believed. The decision rests with the Minister or the Business Hub.
The evidence pack is the job
The application itself is short. What sits behind it is not, and assembling it is the longest single stage of a High Value Residency case — routinely longer than the decision that follows.
Income, wealth, the sources behind both, and the structures they sit in, each explained and evidenced to the standard a private bank's onboarding team would expect rather than the standard of a mortgage application. Where assets sit across several jurisdictions, the gathering starts months before anything is submitted.
This is also the stage most often billed at an advocate's hourly rate. Gathering documents is not legal work and should not be priced as though it were.
One file, one story
A case that arrives with the tax adviser describing the position one way and the covering letter describing it another does not fail on the discrepancy. It stalls on it, and the questions that follow are answered one at a time over weeks.
Consistency control across every adviser is unglamorous and it is most of the value. One version of the facts, checked against every document before anything goes in.
How long it takes
There is no published service standard we can point you at, and we will not invent one. What we can describe is where the time actually goes.
Gathering and evidencing is measured in months where assets sit across jurisdictions and structures, and in weeks where they do not. Preparing the written case takes a fortnight of back-and-forth. The decision after submission is out of everyone's hands, and follow-up questions are normal rather than a warning sign.
The number that matters is not the total. It is that the gathering starts before the application does, and almost nobody starts it early enough.
What you still do yourself
You make every decision and you sign everything. We prepare, assemble, check and brief; we do not sign on your behalf or hold your documents beyond what the file needs.
You will also have at least one conversation with a regulated adviser that we cannot have for you — the tax position in the country you are leaving. Book it early. It is the question that most often changes the shape of a move, and it is asked far too late.
What it costs, and when you find out
The assessment comes first and it is free. If the honest answer is that the application is not realistic on your figures, that is what you will hear, and it will be the shortest engagement we have.
If it is realistic, the fee is fixed and quoted in writing before any work starts. Government fees, advocates and tax advisers are separate and paid direct.
What this does not cover
Immigration advice, legal advice and tax advice, all of which we coordinate and none of which we provide.
Our regulatory positionsets out in full what we do and what we are not permitted to do.
Before you ring
- Can you tell me whether I will be approved?
- No. Nobody can, and anyone who says otherwise is selling you something. The decision rests with the Minister or the Business Hub. What we can tell you, before you spend anything, is whether the application is worth making on your figures.
- Do you give immigration advice?
- No. Immigration permission is separate from Jersey residential status and it is regulated advice we do not provide. We coordinate the people who do, and we make sure the two questions are not confused with each other, which they routinely are.
- I already have an advocate. Does that make this unnecessary?
- Often, yes, and we will say so. Where it is not is where the advocate is being paid at their hourly rate to gather and chase documents. That is not legal work. Preparing the file and keeping every adviser telling one story is the part we do.
Have the case assessed before it is made
We will look at the application you would be making, tell you where it is thin, and set out what has to be gathered first. Nothing is submitted at this stage.