9 ms·

Ask HN: Did anybody apply for UK Global Talent visa? How did it go?

80 points by boghy8823 5y ago

Thinking of applying myself but the requirements seem intimidating

chrisseaton 5y ago
It’s ‘visa’ not ‘VISA’. Why do so many people think it’s an acronym? It’s just a normal word.
- rsstack 5y ago
  Because of the company: "Visa Inc. (/ˈviːzə, ˈviːsə/; stylized as VISA) is an American multinational financial services corporation..."
- reaperducer 5y ago
  It’s ‘visa’ not ‘VISA’. Why do so many people think it’s an acronym? It’s just a normal word. See also: Most of the Windows people in my company's IT department write "MAC" instead of "Mac." Few of them work with networking, so I don't think it's related to MAC addresses. Wikipedia seems to concur that this is common: "Mac or MAC most commonly refers to... Macintosh, a brand of computers and operating systems made by Apple Inc."
  - disgruntledphd2 5y ago
    Technically MAC is a makeup brand, but I guess that ship has sailed.
qeternity 5y ago
I am on the (since discontinued) Entrepreneur Visa. The Home Office have very odd, bureaucratic rules around things and it can be incredibly difficult to meet the specific requirements as they will accept them. This means bringing in an immigration lawyer to handle the process and these run into the mid single digit thousands per application.
tadkar 5y ago
From an employer’s perspective, I’d be super interested in hearing about the experience of applying for this visa too! Does the UK government make it easy to apply? What are the interviews like? Anything your employer did that made the whole process easier for you?
- bovine3dom 5y ago
  If you're an employer you'd be looking at the skilled worker visa: https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa If you're on this forum all your potential employees will probably meet the requirements easily.
klipt 5y ago
If you can qualify for that, you might also qualify for O1/EB1 visas in the US which gives a fast track to green card. From what I've heard London has similar high cost of living to Silicon Valley but much lower software engineering compensation, so seems a less desirable place for engineers to work.
- qeternity 5y ago
  London cost of living is nowhere near Silicon Valley. London can be expensive, but it can also be quite affordable.
  - shankysingh 5y ago
    Specailly because public transport is amazing, living outside city is doable, while drawing comparable salary.
    - bluescrn 5y ago
      Public transport is vastly more effective than anywhere else in the UK. But it's still pretty grim, hugely overcrowded at peak times, very unpleasant in warm weather, and that was before there was a deadly virus in the air.
      - hogFeast 5y ago
        It depends what you mean by effective. The requirements for public transport are far larger, and the region does get ludicrously lavished with funds for public transport (the recent expansions actually cost more than supplying the whole country with fibre...obv, the govt took the choice to allow telecoms companies to jack up prices 5%+RPI every year rather than cut back on projects that might lead to lower house prices for those in govt) but the train service in the South-East is comically bad relative to the rest of the UK along almost every metric (again, part of this is the load but...not all of it). So outside London, you can just buy a cheap car, that is an option outside London (only Birmingham and Edinburgh are really undrivable). And if you are in any large city outside London, then the public transport is usually pretty good. Glasgow has an underground system, Newcastle does, Manchester has quite a big tram network iirc, rail is usually far better outside London, buses are usually pretty good (although not everywhere). The only issue that I can see people on here running into is the fact that there is a lot of housebuilding, and infrastructure in some of these new areas is poor...and, although cars are cheap, some cities are just shutting down all car travel from outside (Edinburgh is one, although it is sometimes difficult to distinguish what is deliberate and what is just incompetence).
carlsborg 5y ago
If its anything like the prior Tier 1 program, I'd say it would be run very efficiently. (Time between applying to the approval letter == 2 or 3 weeks iirc for me.) Its certainly one of the most startup-friendly visas out there, and despite the recent football press, the UK is a world class country. - Mainly there are no earning requirements like the Tier 1 program had, so you can use your time to drive an innovative startup instead of chasing the relatively high (for this geography) earnings on every renewal. - Indefinite Leave to Remain in 3 or 5 years (this is the equivalent of a Green Card) and passport 2 years later. - And from the website: With a Global Talent visa you can: choose how long your visa is for, up to 5 years be an employee, self-employed and a director of a company change or stop doing your job without telling the Home Office bring your partner and children with you as your ‘dependants’, if they’re eligible travel abroad and return to the UK - There are no language or minimum salary eligibility requirements. Bonus advice: Consider a lower cost city Edinburgh, Bristol, Newcastle, Brighton, and chase the startup dream rather than working at larger company.
- hkt 5y ago
  As someone who lives in the UK, I would like to point out the only affordable city on your list is Newcastle. The rest are in the midst of a crisis of earnings to rent/mortgage costs nightmare.
  - voisin 5y ago
    Everyone from any reasonably sized city in any reasonably developed country seems to be saying the same thing at the moment!
    - RugnirViking 5y ago
      hah - although that is true, there do exist cheaper cities and more expensive cities. It's why many folks interested in startups are choosing places like Austin, Boulder, Detriot etc over NY or san fransisco. A reccomendation from me would be sheffield - great university and good startup culture as well as relatively affordable leases
throwgt 5y ago
> the requirements seem intimidating Don't be discouraged from applying because of this! The UK parliament published a report stating that the UK gov failed advertising this visa with too stringent requirements [1]. In reality, you definitely don't have to be a Nobel prize laureate to get this visa, especially if you go through the 'Promising Talent' route. If you apply, the only thing you lose is £450 and some time. Even if you fail with your application, you can always reapply later, again and again, so there are almost no downsides to trying. > How did it go? It went well. :) People compare this visa to O-1, but I think it's better because you are completely free to work on whatever you want and you have virtually the same rights as a permanent resident, with the exception of having no access to public funds (e.g., getting unemployment benefits - you are still entitled to accessing NHS though). Compared to the Tier 2 General visa, the terms are amazing and it's worth all the trouble. What helped me most with my application were my open source work and conference talks. The hardest part was actually obtaining 2 recommendation letters (I believe nowadays you have to provide 3 of them). You need to find someone in a higher position, like CEO or CTO, who will write a letter for you. I was very lucky with this: I sent a random request to a CTO of a rather well-known open source company and to my surprise they were willing to help me. I'm still astonished by this and I can't overstate how amazing open source communities can be. Other than that, Immigration Boards [2] helped a lot with technical details - there's a dedicated forum about Tier 1 visas, so I'd recommend reading everything about other people's cases. Lastly, I do recommend applying on your own (without solicitors). The reason is simple: no solicitor will know about your achievements better than yourself! And the bulk of putting together an application is actually listing your achievements, so getting help in this would be a waste. Happy to answer any other questions you might have, and good luck with your application. [1] https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmsctech/1061/1061.pdf https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmsc... [2] https://www.immigrationboards.com/ https://www.immigrationboards.com/
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- kyawzazaw 5y ago
  wow great info
tuvistavie 5y ago
In general, I'd say UK visa process and cost are quite terrible, to say the least. However, for the global talent, the harder part is to get endorsement, after which it should be relatively straightforward. A friend of mine recently got his through the research route and the process seems to have been quite smooth. I think it took about a month or so. For reference, he is finishing a PhD in a top US university and has a good amount of peer reviewed research.
te_chris 5y ago
I’ve got the old Tech Nation one - about to finish year 5 next year. I hate the Home Office with all my passion though, £600 a year for this bullshit NHS surcharge is daylight robbery - a ridiculous charge invented by Theresa May to feed the Daily Mail and their braying hordes in 2015. Honestly, tell them to go fuck themselves and move elsewhere.
maverick-iceman 5y ago
What are the advantages of this in a world which is transitioning towards remote work? The UK has the best and cheapest process to incorporate a company (it takes literally 15 mins and 40£ to form an LTD) And you can be CEO from everywhere in the world! Granted the country you are living in might receive your UK LTD bank account informations pursuant the Common Reporting Standard/Global FATCA [0] That opens a whole lot of considerations because odds are that your home country has a higher corporate and VAT tax rate than the UK or just wants to come after you for paying taxes there while using your native country roads , airports, IT infrastructure and hospitals. I had to look into this case recently: Swedish entreprenur owning a UK LTD , working (and hiring) remotely within the UK but living in Sweden Sweden says clearly that doesn't want any part of foreign companies incorporated outside its borders by its own citizens: [1]"Entities formed/registered/incorporated outside of Sweden (foreign legal entities) are not considered resident in Sweden for income tax purposes, not even if their place of effective management is situated in Sweden" [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Reporting_Standard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Reporting_Standard [1] https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/crs-implementation-and-assistance/tax-residency/Sweden%20Tax%20Residency.pdf https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/crs-implementati...
- johnday 5y ago
  The UK has a favourable human rights record compared to almost everywhere else in the world. It is a significantly better place to live than most countries on earth if you are in any minority category. Civil amenities are also significantly improved, as well as one of the most effective (physical) and cheapest health care services. For all the crap it has received over the last decade, much of it justified, it is still an excellent place to be.
  - i_have_an_idea 5y ago
    > The UK has a favourable human rights record compared to almost everywhere else in the world. Julian Assange would disagree with that. > Civil amenities are also significantly improved, as well as one of the most effective (physical) and cheapest health care services. It is cheap, but it sure isn't as effective as private healthcare. Wait times on NHS treatment start at several months and can be years. I don't know about you, but waiting months to have a serious condition diagnosed and treated isn't what I'd call 'effective' healthcare. > it is still an excellent place to be. Oh, it sure isn't for tech workers. The taxes are very high, the public services you get back are shoddy, certainly shoddier than what you'd be able to afford with your job in the US. The salaries are 2-4 times lower, depending on your experience. On the other hand, if you're working at a low income job, then it's not too bad -- you usually can qualify for certain benefits like housing and min wage is livable in most parts of the country (except London). But, given the context, I assume OP is a tech worker and, for a tech worker, unless you're fleeing war or conflict, there are many, much better options. The US is the obvious one, but even working remotely from most central or eastern European countries is going to be a better experience and lifestyle than the UK.
robk 5y ago
I'm in the UK and know this team. Happy to talk over email if any questions. It's undoubtedly a fantastic visa and arguably the best in Europe if a passport asap is your goal. I'd venture nearly any regular reader here can probably meet the criteria and it's definitely meant to not need a lawyer to apply!
- boghy8823 5y ago
  It's unbelievable how many people have jumped in and tried to encourage me. Thank you! Will get in touch if that's ok
rishikeshs 5y ago
I recently heard that UK is including India also in the talent visa program. I cannot understand how they are gonna cope up with the huge demand considering India's population and the limited number of slots(only 3000 for India).
miniyarov 5y ago
I recently got my endorsement in under 8 hours. There’s a great discussion board on https://discourse.tnvisaforum.org/ https://discourse.tnvisaforum.org/ forum. Definitely recommend the visa, given that it has a great guide by TechNation.io

80 points by boghy8823 5y ago

Thinking of applying myself but the requirements seem intimidating

chrisseaton 5y ago

It’s ‘visa’ not ‘VISA’. Why do so many people think it’s an acronym? It’s just a normal word.

rsstack 5y ago
Because of the company: "Visa Inc. (/ˈviːzə, ˈviːsə/; stylized as VISA) is an American multinational financial services corporation..."
reaperducer 5y ago
It’s ‘visa’ not ‘VISA’. Why do so many people think it’s an acronym? It’s just a normal word. See also: Most of the Windows people in my company's IT department write "MAC" instead of "Mac." Few of them work with networking, so I don't think it's related to MAC addresses. Wikipedia seems to concur that this is common: "Mac or MAC most commonly refers to... Macintosh, a brand of computers and operating systems made by Apple Inc."
- disgruntledphd2 5y ago
  Technically MAC is a makeup brand, but I guess that ship has sailed.

qeternity 5y ago

I am on the (since discontinued) Entrepreneur Visa. The Home Office have very odd, bureaucratic rules around things and it can be incredibly difficult to meet the specific requirements as they will accept them. This means bringing in an immigration lawyer to handle the process and these run into the mid single digit thousands per application.

tadkar 5y ago

From an employer’s perspective, I’d be super interested in hearing about the experience of applying for this visa too! Does the UK government make it easy to apply? What are the interviews like? Anything your employer did that made the whole process easier for you?

bovine3dom 5y ago
If you're an employer you'd be looking at the skilled worker visa: https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa If you're on this forum all your potential employees will probably meet the requirements easily.

klipt 5y ago

If you can qualify for that, you might also qualify for O1/EB1 visas in the US which gives a fast track to green card. From what I've heard London has similar high cost of living to Silicon Valley but much lower software engineering compensation, so seems a less desirable place for engineers to work.

qeternity 5y ago
London cost of living is nowhere near Silicon Valley. London can be expensive, but it can also be quite affordable.
- shankysingh 5y ago
  Specailly because public transport is amazing, living outside city is doable, while drawing comparable salary.
  - bluescrn 5y ago
    Public transport is vastly more effective than anywhere else in the UK. But it's still pretty grim, hugely overcrowded at peak times, very unpleasant in warm weather, and that was before there was a deadly virus in the air.
    - hogFeast 5y ago
      It depends what you mean by effective. The requirements for public transport are far larger, and the region does get ludicrously lavished with funds for public transport (the recent expansions actually cost more than supplying the whole country with fibre...obv, the govt took the choice to allow telecoms companies to jack up prices 5%+RPI every year rather than cut back on projects that might lead to lower house prices for those in govt) but the train service in the South-East is comically bad relative to the rest of the UK along almost every metric (again, part of this is the load but...not all of it). So outside London, you can just buy a cheap car, that is an option outside London (only Birmingham and Edinburgh are really undrivable). And if you are in any large city outside London, then the public transport is usually pretty good. Glasgow has an underground system, Newcastle does, Manchester has quite a big tram network iirc, rail is usually far better outside London, buses are usually pretty good (although not everywhere). The only issue that I can see people on here running into is the fact that there is a lot of housebuilding, and infrastructure in some of these new areas is poor...and, although cars are cheap, some cities are just shutting down all car travel from outside (Edinburgh is one, although it is sometimes difficult to distinguish what is deliberate and what is just incompetence).

carlsborg 5y ago

If its anything like the prior Tier 1 program, I'd say it would be run very efficiently. (Time between applying to the approval letter == 2 or 3 weeks iirc for me.) Its certainly one of the most startup-friendly visas out there, and despite the recent football press, the UK is a world class country. - Mainly there are no earning requirements like the Tier 1 program had, so you can use your time to drive an innovative startup instead of chasing the relatively high (for this geography) earnings on every renewal. - Indefinite Leave to Remain in 3 or 5 years (this is the equivalent of a Green Card) and passport 2 years later. - And from the website: With a Global Talent visa you can: choose how long your visa is for, up to 5 years be an employee, self-employed and a director of a company change or stop doing your job without telling the Home Office bring your partner and children with you as your ‘dependants’, if they’re eligible travel abroad and return to the UK - There are no language or minimum salary eligibility requirements. Bonus advice: Consider a lower cost city Edinburgh, Bristol, Newcastle, Brighton, and chase the startup dream rather than working at larger company.

hkt 5y ago
As someone who lives in the UK, I would like to point out the only affordable city on your list is Newcastle. The rest are in the midst of a crisis of earnings to rent/mortgage costs nightmare.
- voisin 5y ago
  Everyone from any reasonably sized city in any reasonably developed country seems to be saying the same thing at the moment!
  - RugnirViking 5y ago
    hah - although that is true, there do exist cheaper cities and more expensive cities. It's why many folks interested in startups are choosing places like Austin, Boulder, Detriot etc over NY or san fransisco. A reccomendation from me would be sheffield - great university and good startup culture as well as relatively affordable leases

throwgt 5y ago

> the requirements seem intimidating Don't be discouraged from applying because of this! The UK parliament published a report stating that the UK gov failed advertising this visa with too stringent requirements [1]. In reality, you definitely don't have to be a Nobel prize laureate to get this visa, especially if you go through the 'Promising Talent' route. If you apply, the only thing you lose is £450 and some time. Even if you fail with your application, you can always reapply later, again and again, so there are almost no downsides to trying. > How did it go? It went well. :) People compare this visa to O-1, but I think it's better because you are completely free to work on whatever you want and you have virtually the same rights as a permanent resident, with the exception of having no access to public funds (e.g., getting unemployment benefits - you are still entitled to accessing NHS though). Compared to the Tier 2 General visa, the terms are amazing and it's worth all the trouble. What helped me most with my application were my open source work and conference talks. The hardest part was actually obtaining 2 recommendation letters (I believe nowadays you have to provide 3 of them). You need to find someone in a higher position, like CEO or CTO, who will write a letter for you. I was very lucky with this: I sent a random request to a CTO of a rather well-known open source company and to my surprise they were willing to help me. I'm still astonished by this and I can't overstate how amazing open source communities can be. Other than that, Immigration Boards [2] helped a lot with technical details - there's a dedicated forum about Tier 1 visas, so I'd recommend reading everything about other people's cases. Lastly, I do recommend applying on your own (without solicitors). The reason is simple: no solicitor will know about your achievements better than yourself! And the bulk of putting together an application is actually listing your achievements, so getting help in this would be a waste. Happy to answer any other questions you might have, and good luck with your application. [1] https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmsctech/1061/1061.pdf https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmsc... [2] https://www.immigrationboards.com/ https://www.immigrationboards.com/

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
kyawzazaw 5y ago
wow great info

tuvistavie 5y ago

In general, I'd say UK visa process and cost are quite terrible, to say the least. However, for the global talent, the harder part is to get endorsement, after which it should be relatively straightforward. A friend of mine recently got his through the research route and the process seems to have been quite smooth. I think it took about a month or so. For reference, he is finishing a PhD in a top US university and has a good amount of peer reviewed research.

te_chris 5y ago

I’ve got the old Tech Nation one - about to finish year 5 next year. I hate the Home Office with all my passion though, £600 a year for this bullshit NHS surcharge is daylight robbery - a ridiculous charge invented by Theresa May to feed the Daily Mail and their braying hordes in 2015. Honestly, tell them to go fuck themselves and move elsewhere.

maverick-iceman 5y ago

What are the advantages of this in a world which is transitioning towards remote work? The UK has the best and cheapest process to incorporate a company (it takes literally 15 mins and 40£ to form an LTD) And you can be CEO from everywhere in the world! Granted the country you are living in might receive your UK LTD bank account informations pursuant the Common Reporting Standard/Global FATCA [0] That opens a whole lot of considerations because odds are that your home country has a higher corporate and VAT tax rate than the UK or just wants to come after you for paying taxes there while using your native country roads , airports, IT infrastructure and hospitals. I had to look into this case recently: Swedish entreprenur owning a UK LTD , working (and hiring) remotely within the UK but living in Sweden Sweden says clearly that doesn't want any part of foreign companies incorporated outside its borders by its own citizens: [1]"Entities formed/registered/incorporated outside of Sweden (foreign legal entities) are not considered resident in Sweden for income tax purposes, not even if their place of effective management is situated in Sweden" [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Reporting_Standard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Reporting_Standard [1] https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/crs-implementation-and-assistance/tax-residency/Sweden%20Tax%20Residency.pdf https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/crs-implementati...

johnday 5y ago
The UK has a favourable human rights record compared to almost everywhere else in the world. It is a significantly better place to live than most countries on earth if you are in any minority category. Civil amenities are also significantly improved, as well as one of the most effective (physical) and cheapest health care services. For all the crap it has received over the last decade, much of it justified, it is still an excellent place to be.
- i_have_an_idea 5y ago
  > The UK has a favourable human rights record compared to almost everywhere else in the world. Julian Assange would disagree with that. > Civil amenities are also significantly improved, as well as one of the most effective (physical) and cheapest health care services. It is cheap, but it sure isn't as effective as private healthcare. Wait times on NHS treatment start at several months and can be years. I don't know about you, but waiting months to have a serious condition diagnosed and treated isn't what I'd call 'effective' healthcare. > it is still an excellent place to be. Oh, it sure isn't for tech workers. The taxes are very high, the public services you get back are shoddy, certainly shoddier than what you'd be able to afford with your job in the US. The salaries are 2-4 times lower, depending on your experience. On the other hand, if you're working at a low income job, then it's not too bad -- you usually can qualify for certain benefits like housing and min wage is livable in most parts of the country (except London). But, given the context, I assume OP is a tech worker and, for a tech worker, unless you're fleeing war or conflict, there are many, much better options. The US is the obvious one, but even working remotely from most central or eastern European countries is going to be a better experience and lifestyle than the UK.

robk 5y ago

I'm in the UK and know this team. Happy to talk over email if any questions. It's undoubtedly a fantastic visa and arguably the best in Europe if a passport asap is your goal. I'd venture nearly any regular reader here can probably meet the criteria and it's definitely meant to not need a lawyer to apply!

boghy8823 5y ago
It's unbelievable how many people have jumped in and tried to encourage me. Thank you! Will get in touch if that's ok

rishikeshs 5y ago

I recently heard that UK is including India also in the talent visa program. I cannot understand how they are gonna cope up with the huge demand considering India's population and the limited number of slots(only 3000 for India).

miniyarov 5y ago

I recently got my endorsement in under 8 hours. There’s a great discussion board on https://discourse.tnvisaforum.org/ https://discourse.tnvisaforum.org/ forum. Definitely recommend the visa, given that it has a great guide by TechNation.io