List of documents for the Global Talent Visa application

The Global Talent Visa is an immigration route that grants talented tech specialists a fast track to working and living in the UK. Tech Nation – the official Home Office endorsing body – is trusted to assess applications and endorse candidates.

When it comes to making the Global Talent application, it’s important to evaluate your achievements and make sure that you include each and every proof of your talent. We have compiled a list of document types required in the application process and specific examples you can include.

The personal statement should consist of a maximum of 1000 words. It should be relevant to the rest of your application in explaining the contribution that you hope to make to the British IT sector. According to Tech Nation guidelines, you should answer the following questions in the personal statement:

• What’s your purpose in coming to the UK?
• Where do you plan to work once in the UK?
• Which city/region are you planning to relocate to?
• How will the UK’s tech sector benefit from your work? (You can write about your tech company’s goals and prospects, innovative technology that you will bring to the table, activities besides your main occupation you plan to partake in, etc. Remember that everything you list here should be backed up by evidence.)

📌 Immigram recommends:
Although Tech Nation guidelines suggest the Personal Statement has to include information concerning your plans for the UK digital technology sector and your personal reasons to move to the UK, we advise you to approach the statement more creatively.

We strongly recommend to showcase specific examples and evidence of why you possess the characteristics of an Exceptional Talent or an Exceptional Promise. Convince Tech Nation assessors that your achievements make you a perfect fit for the Global Talent Visa criteria.

For example, "I am applying for a Global Talent visa, and I pass the criterion of work outside of the immediate occupation because more than 500 people have completed my online-course or because more than 100 people have attended my lecture."

According to Tech Nation’s rules, it’s necessary to provide at least 3 letters. We advise you to send 4 or 5 just in case some of them get dismissed due to non-compliance with the criteria.

Letters of recommendation should be from different competent organisations that are acknowledged as experts in the IT field. Your recommenders must be senior members of their companies and know you professionally.

Each letter must:

• Showcase recommender’s expertise;
• Contain evidence of the chosen criteria;
• Be written specifically for the Global Talent application. It should also be addressed to Tech Nation and begin with the purpose of the letter — "Endorsement under the Global Talent category";
• Say how the recognized expert knows you;
• Showcase your achievements and leadership qualities;
• Say how you would benefit from living in the UK and demonstrate what contribution you would make to the UK tech field.
  

The letter must also consist of a maximum of 3−4 single sides of A4 paper, be typed, dated, and signed by the author/someone on behalf of the organisation (if the letter is initially written on its behalf). Don’t forget to include recommender’s phone number and email address. It would be helpful to attach recommender’s CV but other proof of their credentials (e.g. a short introduction to the referent’s career) would also work.

According to Tech Nation, the CV must be up to 3 pages in length, but in reality it can be even longer — the most important thing is to appear convincing. It must detail your career and publication history.

The CV should be lively and captivating: add links to your public talks and/or articles, screenshots with evidence of your achievements, photos of you presenting at a conference, etc. The worst thing you can do is rely solely on listing your career’s high points.

Here’s what to include in your CV:

1. A summary of what you have done as a professional.
2. A list of your roles and the impact you have made while in the position.
3. Your achievements in a separate paragraph, especially if connected to any international projects. Make sure that they are related to your professional field. Show how your achievements have left a mark on the industry.

The amount of evidence for some criteria varies depending on the sub-category of visa endorsement.

There are two options for candidates applying for endorsement — Exceptional Promise and Exceptional Talent.

• "Promise" candidates are emerging leaders in their field. Applicants need to prove that they have a potential to become a leading talent in the digital technology field.
  

• "Talent" candidates are already recognised leaders in their field. Applicants need to demonstrate a leading role in digital tech through their skills and achievements.

Evidence for Promise and Talent applicants

Both Promise and Talent candidates must meet one mandatory and two optional criteria.

The mandatory criterion includes evidence of being recognised as the (future) leading talent in the digital tech field.

Optional criteria include:

• Innovation;
• Recognition for work beyond the applicant’s occupation;
• Contribution to the tech field;
• Academic contribution.
  

Mandatory criterion

Some evidence for the mandatory criterion can include reference letter (s) from leading industry expert (s) or news clippings, lines of code from public repos or similar evidence describing applicant’s role in:

• Leading the growth of a product-led digital technology company, product or team inside a digital technology company;
• Leading the marketing or business development at a product-led digital; technology company, demonstrably enabling substantial revenue and/or customer growth or major commercial success;
• Leading the growth of a non-profit organisation or social enterprise with a specific focus on the digital technology sector;
• Leading or being a significant contributor to a substantial open source project outside of applicant’s normal day-to-day job role;
• Establishing, leading, or being a senior contributor to a large technology-led industry initiative outside of applicant’s normal day-to-day job role.
  

Optional criteria

Additionally, applicant must provide at least 2 pieces of evidence for the optional criteria:

a) Exceptional Promise: at least 1 example of innovation as a founder of a product-led digital technology company or as an employee working on a new digital field or concept.

Exceptional Talent: a proven track record for innovation as a founder, senior executive, or employee.

This could imply innovative product development, proof of product in market, and associated revenue.

Specific examples:

• Extract from a pending/approved patent application;
• For businesses — the last set of audited accounts, projections for the current financial year, articles of association, sales with customer numbers, an extract of an investment agreement. These pieces of evidence should be backed by recommendation letters that describe innovative projects within the company and highlight the impact they’ve left on the business/its product;
• Your employment contract with salary information.
  

b) At least 1 example of proof of recognition for work outside your immediate occupation that has contributed to the advancement of the sector.

This includes activities that are unrelated to your day-to-day occupation but are still tied to the digital field. Recognition outside of work is introduced in all the related application documents, including the CV, personal statement and letters of recommendation.

Specific examples:

• A letter of support from a local charity foundation;
• GitHub profile demonstrating active participation in an open source project;
• Stack Overflow profile showing significant contribution to discussions around code;
• Video recordings of public talks, diplomas/certificates from tech event organisers proving your participation, screenshots that demonstrate your role as a speaker at a tech conference (the conference should be attended by no less than a 100 people).
  

Check out our article to learn about other ways to enrich your External Profile.

с) Exceptional Promise: at least 1 example of significant technical, commercial or entrepreneurial contribution to the digital field as a founder or employee of a product-led digital technology company.

Exceptional Talent: same kind of contributions as a founder, senior executive, board member, or employee of a product-led digital technology company.

This implies that you should demonstrate an impact you have made on the IT sector. The contribution criteria is usually linked with the innovation criteria, since innovative projects/products should contribute to the advancement of the company/tech field.

Specific examples of a "significant contribution":

• Your employment contract with salary information;
• Design documentation, indicating information about users, product features, essential implementation details, etc. This may, for example, include Google Analytics/App Annie reports (screenshots) or GitHub screenshots demonstrating your “stars”;
• Any positive feedback about your work — from performance reviews rated higher than "Meets expectations" to "Manager of the year" certificate and screenshots of Slack messages from peers expressing their gratitude to you.
  

d) At least 1 example of exceptional ability in the field by academic contributions/research endorsed by an expert.

Specific examples:

• A publication in a recognised journal;
• Public-speaking at a peer-reviewed conference, or being awarded competitive peer-reviewed research grants;
• Awards received for your work, supported by excellent academic achievement;
• A letter of support (one of the required letters of recommendation) from an expert in your area, e.g. your research supervisor, college professor, past colleague;
• A merit-based award granted by a learned society (similar to the Royal Society).