As part of the annual accounts, not when the expiry approaches. The evidence a renewal needs is generated by the business throughout the year, and gathering it annually costs little. Assembling several years of payroll and contracts in the final weeks is expensive and produces a thinner file.
Tie the immigration review to the financial year
The simplest workable habit is to attach the immigration review to something that already happens on a schedule. When the annual financial statements are prepared, take an extra hour: confirm the share register, print the payroll summary for the year, list the contracts won and lost, note any substantive change and why it happened, and check the current admission end date against the visa validity. File all of that together.
A renewal then becomes a matter of collecting four or five folders rather than reconstructing a history. The same review surfaces the problems that are cheap to fix early, such as an ownership percentage drifting or capital being extracted faster than the business can support. Where a substantive change has occurred, take advice at that point rather than waiting, since some changes are best addressed close to the event.
Hypothetical example: a tool-rental investor hopes to take over a seasonal business just before its busy period. The first review orders the steps: source-of-funds record, entity formation, lease or purchase agreement, necessary permits, transfer of capital, then visa submission. Bank and contract dates settle whether capital was committed before the application; permit records show whether the business can operate as forecast.
The buyer should negotiate realistic closing and escrow terms instead of assuming approval will arrive by a preferred date. The recurring error is delaying every irreversible step, then presenting a plan that has not yet become a functioning enterprise.