Emmanuel Ayomide-Praise (Eapgold Travels Limited). The answer is NO! I have seen a lot of wannabe visa advisers especially on social media who suggest that if you own a business, you must compulsorily pay yourself a salary so that when you apply for a visa such as a USA, Canada, UK, Schengen or Australian visa, it becomes clear that you paid a salary. However, this assertion is not entirely true!There is no visa officer who expects or demands that you must pay yourself a salary from your business! No! That's not what they are interested in. What they want to know is that you have a legitimate source of income that can support your travel expenditure and that whatever you earn is enough to pay for your trip and bring you back to your home country. So must what you earn be in form of salary? Not necessarily. If the business belongs to you or you own a certain percentage of it, you must show how the business makes profit and also show how much of that profit is available to you as yours. If all the profit from the business is yours, it makes it even better as this shows that you have access to more funds. So here are a list of things they would expect from you as a business owner: (1) That your business truly exists! (It must be registered/certified). (2) That your business is legitimate (not illegal). (3) That your business is actively running (not a deadbeat). (4) That your business is profitable. (5) That you make and keep a certain percentage of that profit to yourself. (6)That that profit has been kept or saved and is now available for you to use for your travel. The point here is that whether you pay yourself a salary or not, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have enough money, that your money was legitimately earned and that sudden large deposits don’t just appear in your statement (except there is a valid reason for it). If you take all the profit your business makes, you are entitled to it! If you equally pay yourself a salary and reinvest your profits back into the business, you haven’t done anything wrong. Just have enough money! The reason why many advocate this salary approach is so that the profits can be reinvested into the business. However, not every business person chooses to do that and equally not everyone needs to do that. With regards to a visa application, what is important is that you have enough to pay for the cost of your trip and your account statement should clearly demonstrate that.