Global Talent. Simplified.

This category is for highly skilled people in specific fields who wish to work in the UK.

Applicants will already be internationally recognised at the highest level as leaders in their particular field or have already demonstrated exceptional promise and are likely to become leaders in their particular field.

An endorsing body will assess whether the applicant meets the eligibility requirements on an endorsement application. An applicant using a Prestigious Prize to qualify does not require an endorsement.

Stage 1: Application for endorsement

First, you need to apply for endorsement by the endorsing body responsible for your area of expertise (see our FAQs section below for a list of what area of expertise is covered by which endorsing body).

You must provide the documents required by your chosen endorsing body unless you are a digital technology applicant. Digital technology applicants must upload their supporting documents via the Tech Nation application form, and are not requested to send evidence to the Home Office.

Stage 2: Application for Global Talent visa

If you are endorsed, you then need to apply for the Global Talent visa. This is also an online application.

See below in the 'What supporting documents do I need to provide with my global talent visa application?' for a list of what area of expertise is covered by which endorsing body.

The application for the endorsement is £456. If you get the endorsement and apply for the visa you have to pay £152.

At the point of the visa application, you will also have to pay £624 per year of the endorsement (which you can choose, up to 5 years) for the Immigration Health Surcharge.

If you wish to apply with any dependants (e.g. partner, children), you will have to pay £608 for each application, and the Immigration Health Surcharge for each dependant (the rate for children is £400 per year of stay).

As an illustrative example, for a lead applicant to apply with a partner and two children for a three year stay, the total cost would be £8,576.

Note that this does not include any additional Home Office fees e.g. paying for a quicker decision in your application.

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https://www.gov.uk/global-talent

It costs £623 to apply.

If you're applying based on an endorsement, you'll pay the £623 in two parts:

• £456 for the endorsement application
• £167 for the visa itself

You will also have to pay £624 per year of the endorsement (which you can choose, up to five years) for the Immigration Health Surcharge.

If you wish to apply with any dependants (e.g. partner, children), you will have to pay £623 for each application, and the Immigration Health Surcharge for each dependant (the rate for children is £470 per year of stay).

As an illustrative example, for a lead applicant to apply with a partner and two children for a three year stay, the total cost would be £7,646.

• £623 application fee for lead applicant
• £1,869 application fee for three dependants
• £1,872 Immigration Health Surcharge for lead applicant (for three years)
• £3,282 Immigration Health Surcharge for three dependants (for three years)

Note that this does not include any additional Home Office fees e.g. paying for a quicker decision in your application.

Because of the nature of this visa route, the evidence you will need to provide will depend entirely on the endorsing body requirements.

The supporting documents you will need to submit depend on the endorsing body you are applying to. The requirements for each endorsing body are taken from Home Office guidance (correct at the time of writing, December 2021), and are set out below.

Arts Council England

Arts Council England endorse applications themselves, but also refer endorsement applications out for certain specialisms. Where ACE is itself the endorsing body, it requires:

3 letters of endorsement that demonstrate their work as an individual or named member of a group:

• one must be from a UK based arts and cultural organisation, institution or company
• one must be from an arts and cultural organisation, institution or company, which may or may not be UK based
• one must be from either a third arts and culture organisation (based either in the UK or overseas) or from an eminent individual with recognised expertise in the applicant’s specialist field
• up to 10 pieces of supporting documentation (which will be listed on the stage 1 application form)

The requirements for its sub-endorsers are as follows:

Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT)

3 letters of endorsement as described above for ACE applicants, from organisations or individuals in the film and television industry

• evidence of each award they were nominated for or won, including:

  • full details of the production nomination or award, including category and year of nomination or award
  • evidence of the applicant’s involvement if the nomination or award was as part of a group
  • evidence of the credit the applicant received for the nomination or award
  • if the applicant is claiming credit for an award where they made a significant and direct contribution, evidence of their significant and direct contribution to the win or nomination

The British Fashion Council (BFC)

3 letters of endorsement from established organisations, institutions or companies with a national or international reputation and recognised expertise in fashion:

• if applying under Exceptional Talent criteria, at least one of these letters must be from a UK organisation
• up to 10 pieces of supporting documentation (which will be listed on the stage 1 application form)

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

3 letters of endorsement as described above for ACE applicants, from organisations or individuals in the architecture industry

• evidence of each award they were nominated for or won, including:

  • full details of the nomination or award, including category and year of nomination or award
  • evidence of the applicant’s involvement if the nomination or award was as part of a group
  • evidence of the credit the applicant received for the nomination or award
  • if the applicant is claiming credit for an award where they made a significant and direct contribution, evidence of their significant and direct contribution to the win or nomination.

• up to 10 pieces of supporting documentation (which will be listed on the stage 1 application form)

Science bodies (peer-review) (British Academy, Royal Society or Royal Academy of Engineering applications)

• applicants must provide a:

  • letter of recommendation from an eminent person in the UK
  • CV

• a written recommendation from a reputable UK organisation may be also supplied. This second letter is one of 3 possible options under the exceptional talent qualifying criteria and so will not always be supplied. The second letter is not required for exceptional promise applicants.

Tech Nation

For Tech Nation applications, applicants must provide:

• 3 letters of recommendation from 3 different well-established organisations acknowledged as experts in the digital technology field

  • a CV
  • up to 10 pieces of information to demonstrate that they meet the qualifying criteria:
  • if the applicant has had any active or dissolved digital technology businesses in the last 5 years, or evidence of share ownership through business in a digital technology sector company, their 10 documents must include evidence of this.

We regularly review Global Talent visa applications prior to their submission, and which we would usually do via our popular one-off consultation service. If you would be interested in this please do get in touch.

Lots of people make GT endorsement applications without engaging a lawyer.

However, we have assisted several clients to successfully make applications in the last few years, including individuals who had been refused previously when they applied by themselves.

The endorsement application is usually the more challenging of the two stages. We would not say that you needed a lawyer for the Stage 2 visa application after securing endorsement.

If you are in doubt about whether you think you need a lawyer get in touch to set up a brief intro call.

One of the best things about working with clients making Global Talent visa application is that all of them – by definition – are leaders in their field, doing unbelievably interesting things.

And a regular question is "yes but do you have experience providing assistance to someone doing what I've done?"

Well in truth probably not, because every single one of our clients - and their achievements - are completely unique.

Here are some examples of the profiles of recent clients we have helped to secure endorsement:

• Professor of Cardiology (Royal Society)
• Global Head of AI/Data science at a leading Fintech company (Tech Nation)
• Bafta award winning video game designer (Arts Council)
• History of Art PhD (Arts Council)
• Leading TV Producer (Producers’ Alliance for Film and Television (PACT))
• AI marketing specialist (Tech Nation)
• Professor of Political Science (British Academy)
• Lead coder at billion-dollar start-up (Tech Nation)
• Professor of Condensed matter/biophysics/nonlinear optics (Royal Society)
• Modern art curator (Arts Council)
• Hardware designer at leading tech company (Tech Nation)
• Mechanical engineer (Tech Nation)

Note that this does not include the many clients whose applications we have reviewed, and many of whom have gone on to make successful endorsement applications.

We regularly help individuals applying for endorsement under the Global Talent visa route. We encourage applicants to ask themselves the following questions before doing so:

1. Can I be bothered with this?
2. What is my field?
3. Do I meet the criteria?
4. How does my evidence show that I meet the criteria?

Further elaboration on these questions is available in our blog post “Can I be bothered with this?” And other questions to ask yourself before applying for a Global Talent visa.

According to Home Office statistics, the approval rate for endorsement applications made to Tech Nation in the year 2022/2023 was around 35%.

This is low compared to previous years, which hovered around 40-50% during the preceding three years.

As far as we are aware, there are no publicly available statistics confirming the rate of approval/refusal for applications by endorsing bodies other than Tech Nation.

According to statistics held by the Home Office for the year 2022/2023, there were just over 4000 applications for endorsement by Tech Nation under the Global Talent route.

This represents an significant increase of more than 150% on the applications made in previous year for which statistics are held (2021/2022), where just short of 1500 applied to be endorsed by Tech Nation.

Leaving any other immigration options that might be available, there are usually two options: either apply again with better evidence, or ask for the decision to be reviewed.

This is a question on which we regularly advise via our one-off consultation sessions: we'll need to see the documents you relied upon and submitted in the application, and the refusal decision, and understand your views on how you feel you meet the criteria. We should then be in a position to assess the merits of either course of action.

If your application for endorsement is refused, you have the right to ask for this decision to be reviewed. At the time of writing, there is no Home Office fee for this request.

In Tech Nation applications, the review process has an overall success rate of about 15-20% for applications in the last three years for which completed statistics are available.

We are not aware of statistics available for the review process endorsing bodies outside of Tech Nation.

If you are considering applying for a review of your endorsement application refusal and would like an assessment of its merits, then we would be happy to advise on this via our one off consultation service.

This will depend on your particular case and the criteria of the endorsing body considering your application.

We would be able to advise on the merits of your application via our popular one-off consultation service. If you would be interested in this please do get in touch.

No

Stage 1 is not an application for permission to stay or entry clearance, so there is no requirement for applicants to provide a passport or biometrics.

This is important because, if you are in the UK on a different visa route (e.g. skilled worker), you can make as many applications as you want without it affecting your underlying right to remain in the UK.

All evidence will need to be in PDF document format.

Home Office guidance makes clear that submitted evidence cannot include:

• Objects
• DVDs
• CDs
• digital files
• web links

It also makes clear that if you want to rely on the content of a webpage as one of your supporting documents, then you must “provide a printed copy of the page which clearly shows the hyperlink for the page.”

The length of the visa is up to an applicant, and can be up to 5 years.

Note that those endorsed as leaders in their fields will qualify for settlement after 3 years. Those endorsed as having exceptional promise will qualify after 5 years.

Bear in mind the costs increase depending on how long you wish to stay due to the per year charge (payable up front) of the Immigration Health Surcharge.