Here's an example I ran into - the Highly Skilled Professional visa has a hidden requirement of being eligible for one of the other visas, first. This requireme

Here's an example I ran into - the Highly Skilled Professional visa has a hidden requirement of being eligible for one of the other visas, first. This requirement is only expressed (as far as I know) in internal memos given to the immigration offices and not posted anywhere in the English language internet. So, if you don't have a degree, you can be eligible at first glance for an HSP visa (due to a combination of age and countable years worked) but ineligible to actually get it, due to not having 10 years of countable experience. Edit: It's also not clear at first glance what counts as "work experience" - if you have first and last paycheck + contract it's easy, but if you don't it's fuzzy. Open source or hobby programming is no good.