The ultimate document checklist: What papers do you need to provide for the Global Talent Visa?

The Global Talent Visa allows talented digital tech talents from all over the world to forget about borders and limits and realise their potential in the UK.

Applications from digital tech specialists are evaluated by the official Home Office organisation called Tech Nation which is responsible for the endorsement process. To obtain the Global Talent Visa, an applicant doesn’t need to provide any bank statements, diplomas of higher education, language certificates or offers from British employers. An applicant is only required to prove their status as an already recognised exceptional talent and industry leader (“Exceptional Talent” visa subcategory) or a future leader and promising talent (“Exceptional Promise” visa subcategory).

A candidate has to meet three of Tech Nation’s criteria:

• one mandatory
• two out of four optional

Mandatory:

• Recognition of the applicant as a (potential) leader in the IT industry

Two optional criteria from the following list:

• Significant contribution to the industry
• Innovation
• Recognition for the work outside of immediate occupation
• Academic contribution

The application process is divided into two stages: first, you need to apply for an endorsement from Tech Nation and only after that — for the visa itself. Immigram has compiled a detailed checklist of the necessary documents and will be happy to support every tech talent in the process of obtaining the Global Talent Visa.

STAGE 1 — ENDORSEMENT APPLICATION

The application bundle for Tech Nation should include 4 types of documents:

• Personal Statement
• 3–5 Reference Letters
• CV
• Up to 10 pieces of evidence proving that the candidate meets the Tech Nation criteria

Personal Statement

The Personal Statement should contain a maximum of 1000 words and answer the following questions:

1. What is the purpose of the applicant’s relocation to the UK?
2. Where exactly do they plan to work once in the UK?
3. Which city / area in Great Britain does the candidate consider residing in?
4. How will the UK’s IT sector benefit from the candidate’s work?

We recommend getting creative with a Personal Statement, using it as further proof of being a (potential) tech talent. The goal is to convince the Tech Nation experts that a candidate fully meets the criteria and show specific examples and metrics of achievements. Also, it is important to explain the reasons why certain documents are attached to the case — how and what exactly do they prove? For example, “My online course for UI / UX designers has led to the employment and promotion of more than 400 people” or “In 8 months, my product made the company’s revenue increase threefold”.

Reference Letters

According to Tech Nation’s rules, candidates should attach at least 3 Reference Letters to the application. We advise to expand this number to at least 4–5 Letters in case one of them gets rejected during Tech Nation’s review. For instance, this may happen if Tech Nation experts decide that the referee’s status in his field is insufficiently high or for some other reason.

The referee should be a professional who is familiar with your work and holds a senior position. Letters must be signed by experts officially recognised in your sector. It is also important to choose a person with whom you have a good relationship. Letters cannot be written by relatives, friends, or people who are lower than you in the company’s hierarchy.

Each Reference Letter must contain the following information:

• Written specifically for the Global Talent application and addressed to Tech Nation, the Letter includes the referee’s experience, highlights their own expertise in the field and how it correlates to your case
• Explanation of how the referee and the candidate met
• Description of the applicant’s eligibility
• List of the specific projects in which the candidate and the referee have been both involved
• Demonstration of candidate’s achievements and leadership through examples
• Explanation of how the candidate would benefit from residing and living in the UK and what contribution would they make to the UK tech field

Each Letter should be printed, dated, and signed by the referee or company representative.

CV

Tech Nation guidelines require CVs to be up to 3 pages long, but they can be longer. The CV should include a detailed description of the career, publications and media mentions. It is also important to add any evidence of contribution to the industry — links to the projects, screenshots from open sources, photos from public speeches.

Here’s what Tech Nation recommends to include in the CV:

• A summary of what an applicant has achieved as a professional in the IT industry
• A description of roles and impact on the company’s growth and development
• Exact achievements in the tech field, especially those related to international projects
• CV should not contain such information as:

Skills and languages the applicant masters

• Education (except for the PhD)
• Personal information and hobbies
• In short, the CV should be seen by Tech Nation as a key to the endorsement as a Talent, not as a common doc to get employed.

10 pieces of evidence

If specific examples or numbers are provided in the CV, Personal Statement, or Reference Letters, pieces of evidence should support them confirming merit and proving again that the applicant meets the criteria. These could be job offers, excerpts from performance reviews, payrolls, investment deals, professional awards, evidence of public speeches, organisation of training sessions or charity events in the IT field and so on. Read more about this stage of the application on the Immigram blog.

STAGE 2 — VISA APPLICATION

When the most important part of the journey is over, and the approval letter from Tech Nation is received, it’s time to apply for the visa itself. At this stage it is required to provide:

• An endorsement letter from Tech Nation
• A passport
• A photo
• TB test results (for citizens of the countries listed here)

Take our scoring test to assess your chances of becoming a Global Talent Visa holder. After that, our experts will provide feedback on your case and relocation opportunities. Immigram team creates personalised strategies and compelling stories highlighting professional experience and making your relocation case a success.