Immigrate to the UK if you are talented: Guide to obtaining the Global Talent Visa 2023

In short, the Global Talent visa allows you to move to England and work for an existing company or start your own project. It aims to attract the right talent to the UK in the fields of digital technology, art and science. You can live in London, Edinburgh, Manchester or practically anywhere else in the country. 

Until 2020, this immigration route was called Tier 1 Exceptional Talent visa. With Brexit and the subsequent changes to the immigration policies, this visa route essentially got a new life – now there is no cap in terms of how many Global Talent permits can be granted each year, and some of the other requirements have been waived.  

The Global Talent Visa is issued for either 3 or 5 years. Once it expires, you can apply for a permanent residence permit (ILR – Indefinite Leave to Remain). After one year on the ILR, you can apply for British citizenship.

You are eligible for applying if you have been actively building your career and sharing knowledge in one of the three areas: 

• arts and culture
• digital technology
• academia or research 

You should be able to explain why your presence in the UK would be beneficial to the local economy, and how you wish to make the most out of your potential and grow in your chosen field.

The visa is divided into two categories: “Exceptional Promise” and “Exceptional Talent”.

Promise suitable for those who are at the beginning of their professional or creative journey and have under 5 years of experience. In simple terms, there is no need to be the world’s biggest star in your field, and overall our stats indicate that Promise is indeed easier to get than Talent. However don’t let the requirements fool you: you still need to show quite a few achievements to be endorsed under this visa category. We’ll get to that in a second.

Talent is a category where demonstrating outstanding professional achievements is vital. Generally those who apply under this category need to have worked in their professional field for over 5 years. The benefit of this category is that you only get granted a visa for 3 years, after which you can apply to ILR. That’s one of the quickest ways of getting a permanent residency and citizenship in the UK! Whilst in the case of Promise, you will need to wait for 2 years longer before applying for your ILR, and only get your citizenship after living in the country for a total of 6 years. 

Another thing to note is that even if you applied for an endorsement under Promise but the endorsing body believes that you have achieved enough to be a Talent, you’ll be granted a Talent. So overall applying under Promise is a somewhat safer option if your experience in the field doesn’t massively exceed 5 years in total so far. Here’s a quote by our client to help you get a better understanding of it.

Of course, every story is unique, and Global Talent is a relatively new UK visa category, so the rules change from time to time.

Let’s start with the good news: knowledge of English is optional. You don’t need to go through any interviews or pass an exam. In fact, we know of some cases when an arts person was granted a Global Talent visa with an A2/B1 level of English! Also, you don’t need any proof of income. 

The main steps of the application process are as follows:

1. Stage 1: Apply for endorsement. In other words, you need to get an approval from your endorsing body – there are 6 of them depending on which field you’re in. The endorsing body will assess your awards and achievements based on the documents you provide and send you their decision via email. Stage 1 usually requires much more preparation than Stage 2 as you need to demonstrate a proven track record of success.

2. Stage 2: Submit your visa application to the Home Office. You won’t need to enclose all your documents again, just the approval email from your endorsing body is more than enough. The main purpose of Stage 2 is for the immigration officers to run the entry clearance checks on you (to ensure you’re not a criminal!), stamp the visa in your passport and issue a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) which you will pick up upon moving to the UK.

3. Enter the UK and obtain your Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) card which will be your main ID document within the country.

It would be quite hard to list every single profession that is eligible for the Global Talent visa – there are many examples of this visa obtained by marketers, HRs and other related job titles rather than specifically arts and tech specialists and scientists. To give you a rough idea of who can apply under this visa route, here are some of the occupations:

Arts and Culture
Event managers & Producers
Architects
Artists
Designers
Dancers
Musicians
Theatre professionals
Film professionals
Writers
Photographers

Digital technology
Fintech professionals
Cybersecurity professionals
Artificial intelligence professionals
Gaming industry professionals
Developers
Data analysts
Marketers, HRs, and other business professionals working within the technology fields

Academia and research
Researchers
Those working in the medical field
Engineers
Social science professionals

Before diving in, let’s get one thing straight: applying for this visa is a smart move only if you tick all the boxes for your field and have the documents outlined in the guidelines.

Below is some additional information on the disciplines within science, tech and arts that are ineligible for the Global Talent visa.

Science applicants, make sure to consult the full list of eligible disciplines. If your job isn’t there, unfortunately, it’s better to explore another immigration route, like the Skilled Worker visa or a Student visa for a funded PhD programme.

Tech and digital applicants can refer to these guidelines:

Eligible: Technical applicants (e.g., programmers) from non-technical organizations.
Eligible: Non-technical applicants (e.g., business roles) from technical organizations.
Ineligible: Non-technical applicants from non-technical organizations.

Tech Nation’s examples of off-limits fields include:

• Service Delivery, Outsourcing, Consultancy (technical or management), ERP Consultancy, Systems Admin, and related fields.
• Corporate roles or experience of managing large corporate teams.
• Junior investors/analysts. These roles need a solid investment track record at a senior level and aren’t fit for Global Promise.
• Business skills apply to in-house work within product-led digital technology companies, not tech-enabled or service companies like agencies, outsourcers, marketing firms, etc.

For arts & culture applicants, Arts Council provides a comprehensive list of the no-go jobs. Take a look:

• Hair styling
• Makeup for fashion
• Fashion stylists
• Nail art
• Health and beauty
• Editorial and fashion photography
• Commercial photography
• Photography, videos, CGI, design, and illustration for marketing campaigns, advertising, branding, or corporate events
• Art and creative direction for marketing campaigns, advertising, or branding
• Modeling
• Written and photographic journalism
• Investigative journalism
• Long-form journalism
• General writing about the arts
• Researchers
• Education – teachers and lecturers
• Music education or any artistic education in higher or further education
• Conference programming
• Consultancy
• Marketing
• Historians
• Art historians
• Design and manufacturing of functional items such as textiles or furniture
• Non-creative roles in museums and galleries, like front of house or administration
• Design work outside the Visual Arts context, e.g., graphic design, product design, industrial design, promotional work, advertising, commercial design, branding, visual identity, craft design, service design, typography
• Technical, scientific, medical, architectural, or fashion illustration
• Factual podcasts
• Radio DJs
• Competitive dance / Dancesport
• Digital content creators, like YouTube channels and Instagram influencers/models
• Art dealers/collectors
• Art critics
• Instrument makers
• Toy makers
• Tattoo artists
• Professional wrestling

How to get a Global Talent visa? At the first stage of application, you are required to put together a pack of documents that you submit to the endorsing body in your field. Scroll down if you want to see some notes specifically for your field: technology, arts or academia. 

In most cases, 3 references and 10 supporting documents are required. The academia and research application pack slightly differs: science applicants are normally required to provide a CV and 1 letter signed by a member of the science community. 

More about the documents required for the Tier 1 Global Talent Visa:

1. A CV that shows you have been active in your professional field for the last 5 years.

• Start by searching your name in Google. Endorsing bodies do Google search on all potential visa applicants.
• Update your Linkedin profile and make your other social media pages look a bit more professional just in case.
• It is not necessary that your education is relevant to your chosen field. It will be enough if you are working and growing within the profession.
• You don’t have to hold a senior position in the company. What matters is your contribution to the business.

2. Personal statement. This is your chance to explain in detail how you qualify for the eligibility criteria and how you would benefit the UK’s economy if you get the Global Talent visa.

3. Three letters of recommendation. Each of the three fields has slightly different requirements. Let’s look at recommendation letters required for arts and culture as an example:

• The first letter is from an organisation that fits your professional field and is UK based. This is something that many candidates who have not yet lived in the UK struggle with. Our legal partners at “Sterling Law” can help with this.
• The second letter is from an organisation that may be based outside the UK. In this letter we advise that you write about how the recommending expert met you and what it was exactly that you did at that company.
• The third letter is from an organisation or an individual who has a solid reputation and track record in your professional field.

The endorsing bodies may contact you to clarify some details, so make sure to include all your valid contact information.

4. Additional pieces of evidence (normally up to 10 files) – anything that demonstrates your exceptional talent or a promise to become a leader in your field. Feel free to show achievements outside your main professional activity.

• Awards or nominations
• Additional recommendation letters
• Lectures or articles hosted or written by you
• Interviews with you or any publications about you (Some blogs might not be accepted – for instance, Medium or VC.ru are not generally accepted as evidence)
• Exhibitions and portfolios. Mention any exhibitions or publications with your name on them
• Employment contracts or financial statements
• Mentoring experience and speaking engagements (especially for digital technology applicants)

Basically, any documents that show you are an expert in your field and that your potential will be useful to the UK.

In some cases (e.g. for science applicants) you may need to send hard copies of the documents at a later stage. For digital technology applicants, e-copies of all documents will suffice. 

Stage 1. Submission of application to the UK endorsing bodies: £456. Please note that this amount will not be refunded if the application is unsuccessful.

Stage 2. Submission of the approved application for visa obtainment purposes: £152 + £624 for each year of basic health insurance (health surcharge).

For instance, if you are applying for a 3 year visa, £456 + £152 + £624*3 = £2,480.

The Global Talent visa fees are one of the key reasons for doubts when considering applying for this immigration route. You can end up paying nearly £3,500 in one go, that’s over four thousand Euros! However, the vast majority of rejections so far have happened at the first stage of the application process. So even if you are not granted an endorsement, it’s just the £456 you may be losing, and not the entire visa fee with the healthcare surcharge.

There are a few typical reasons the Global Talent visa may be rejected:

• Incomplete set of documents. If the endorsing body does not see the required minimum of the documents, they may refuse without any explanation.
• Inaccuracies in the documents or incorrect document identification.
• Not enough information is provided.
• Not enough evidence of your talent or contribution (Significant Contribution).
• There is not a strong enough link to the UK. It may seem to the experts that your plans can be implemented in any country and you do not need to be in the UK at all.

You can apply for a visa refusal review. You can re-apply for the Global Talent visa within 28 days of getting a decision.

• Surprisingly, the most time-consuming part of the process is usually the prep work. Even though it might seem like a couple of weeks’ task, writing all the recommendation letters and the personal statement tends to take around 2–3 months based on our clients’ and friends’ experience. 
• Stage 1 (with an endorsement body) takes up to 8 weeks.  
• Take into account the expiry date of your approval from the endorsing bodies. If you are successful at the first stage, you will receive a letter with a deadline of 3 months. During this period you will have to apply for the next stage of the UK Talent visa. 
• Stage 2 (with the Home Office) usually takes 3 weeks if you apply from outside the country or 8 weeks if you switch to this visa route within the country. However, the UK government recently announced that the period of consideration of outside-the-country applications had been temporarily extended from 3 to 6 weeks. 

In total, your application might take anything from under 2 month in an absolutely perfect scenario to as long as half a year if the circumstances aren’t that ideal. Plan your application in advance – this will save you a lot of effort and last-minute stress!

We work closely with our legal partners at Sterling Law to maintain the excellent success rate for our clients (93%). We take over document writing whilst Sterling Law check everything from the legal perspective, put their stamp of approval and submit the application for you. 

There are three types of services depending on how much support you need:

60-min consultation: Get personalised guidance with a 60-minute consultation from our expert career consultant. We’ll assess your case, offer feedback on your chances, and help you plan evidence collection. We’ll dive into your CV, LinkedIn, and more to uncover ways to enhance your application. Expect advice on awards, mentorship, and outside achievements too.

PRO package: Experience a range of services in one package – an assessment of your case, consultation, and hands-on document support. We’ll craft your CV, LinkedIn, and an outstanding personal statement. Our expert letters of support (3-5, as needed) will be signed by your referees. We guide you through evidence preparation and offer a document review before submission. Count on us for a draft of your Stage 1 application too.

FULL SUPPORT package: Dive into comprehensive assistance – from start to finish. Begin with our assessment and consultation. Let us create your CV, LinkedIn, personal statement, and reference letters. We’ll handcraft all evidence pieces, assemble your documents, and submit your applications for both stages. In case of a refusal, our legal team’s expertise will guide you toward turning it around.

Read more about our services here. If you’re interested in the Global Talent visa, try our short test and find out if you are eligible.