United Kingdom: Global Talent Visa

• When preparing your Global Talent Visa case with us, it typically takes 2–6 weeks before it can be submitted for endorsement (Stage 1). The endorsement review itself can take up to 8 weeks. Stage 2 – the visa application – usually takes 3–8 weeks, though you can speed it up with premium processing. If you need more time, you can stretch the overall journey by an additional 6 months by waiting 3 months before applying for Stage 2 and another 3 months before entering the UK.
• The timeline for case preparation phase depends on how quickly you can provide requested materials and how fast your referees sign their letters.
• Our team typically invests 200–400 hours of work into each case to ensure it is as strong as possible.
• In exceptional circumstances, we’ve completed cases in just one week when urgency was critical.
• Sometimes cases take longer if a client’s schedule gets overloaded. In such situations, we pause and resume once the client is ready. Case preparation is a team effort: we drive the process with high proactivity and initiative, but some critical inputs must come from you.
• Throughout, we aim to provide white-glove support tailored for high-performing individuals. We understand the reality of demanding schedules, so we take ownership of the process – staying proactive, anticipating needs, and making the journey as seamless as possible.

We understand why you ask – you’re trying to choose the right partner and looking for an objective metric to compare. But we do not feel comfortable sharing the exact number of cases publicly (just as we don’t disclose our revenue or other sensitive details). More importantly, the raw number of cases is not the best way to judge expertise. Let us explain and still give you some numbers.

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Your case will be handled by a dedicated team of associates, each of whom has personally worked on dozens of applications. Every project is led by an experienced case lead with deep experience, having managed many dozens more. In addition, our team has been trained on and analyzed hundreds of examples – from our own practice, from industry colleagues, and from other professional sources.

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It’s safe to say that our expertise and institutional knowledge is based on thousands of cases. For context, as of the end of 2024, there had been 5,249 Global Talent Visa endorsements from Tech Nation since the program was launched.

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What matters most is that we apply best practices drawn from this wide base of experience – including lessons from refusals, successful strategies from across the industry, and our own continuous learning.

Rejection can happen. In fact, a substantial portion of our clients come to us after having tried on their own and been refused.

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We’ve often seen even very senior and accomplished professionals – clearly qualified for the Global Talent Visa – turned down simply because they didn’t provide enough or properly presented evidence.

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If a rejection occurs, there are several possible paths forward:

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1. Appeal. You cannot add new evidence at this stage – only argue that the assessor made a mistake. If the refusal is due to insufficient materials or letters that Tech Nation considered not valid, an appeal usually has limited prospects. We see a substantial number of endorsements that came after the quality appeal.
2. Repackage and resubmit. In many cases, the stronger approach is to adjust strategy: present different achievements, target other criteria, and rebuild the case for a fresh submission. We also have numerous examples of successful endorsements that were obtained on the 2nd attempt.
3. Strengthen your profile. Sometimes the best option is to wait, continue building recognition, and present new achievements in a year or two. This is also one of the possible approaches we observed working effectively.
4. Explore alternatives. Depending on your goals, other immigration routes or even other geographies might be worth considering.

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Not automatically – there are important nuances. One of the key things to keep in mind from the very beginning is the continuous residence requirement:
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• You must spend a continuous qualifying period in the UK – 3 years if endorsed as Talent, or 5 years if endorsed as Promise.
• During that time, you cannot be absent from the UK for more than 180 days in any rolling 12-month period.
• Breaks in residence reset the clock. If you leave the UK for a long period (e.g. 2 years), you cannot combine the time before and after; you must start the qualifying period again.
• The continuous residence requirement means you need 3 or 5 consecutive qualifying years with limited absences.

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If your goal is British citizenship, the continuous residence requirement is even stricter: you must not be absent from the UK for more than 450 days in the last 5 years (an average of 90 days per year).

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Disclaimer: This information is for general purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For legal interpretation, you should consult an immigration lawyer or solicitor. Please also note that immigration rules may change.

You can switch from a Skilled Worker Visa to the Global Talent Visa (GTV), and the time you’ve already spent on the Skilled Worker Visa will still count toward your ILR (Indefinite Leave to Remain).

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A substantial portion of our clients follow this path.

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The main reasons are:

• Faster route to ILR. The Global Talent Visa (Talent route) requires only 3 years before ILR, compared to 5 years on the Skilled Worker route.
• Independence from your employer. Skilled Worker visas tie you to one sponsoring employer. Many holders find themselves underpaid because they cannot easily move. Switching to GTV gives you the freedom to change jobs, apply for roles that don’t offer sponsorship, or start your own venture – and compete for fair market pay. Even if you don’t intend to change jobs immediately, holding GTV is often a strong (if unspoken) argument during salary reviews. Some clients estimate that Skilled Worker roles underpay by as much as 30% on average.
• Recognition and signaling. Being endorsed as a Global Talent sends a strong signal to the labour market about your professional standing. It shows you are recognized at the highest level in your field.

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Disclaimer: This information is for general purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For legal interpretation, you should consult an immigration lawyer or solicitor. Please also note that immigration rules may change.

You can see the public reviews available on our website. While most clients highly recommend us to their friends and colleagues in private 1-1 conversations, only a fraction are willing to leave public feedback online or speak openly about their immigration matters, given the delicate nature of this topic.

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In rare cases, we may approach a former client with a somewhat similar profile to yours and ask if they would be open to a short conversation. If they agree, we can help arrange this. However, such opportunities are limited – our clients are often very busy, and we strictly respect confidentiality, never disclosing identities without permission.

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What we can always offer is to prepare a custom preliminary case strategy for you and explain how we would approach your specific situation, so that you can clearly see what we can offer in your unique case. Please request a call, and if you qualify, we’ll be happy to help.

Our focus is deliberately narrow: the tech industry. Within this specialisation, we work extensively with both business and technical profiles – the split is roughly 50/50.

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We have successfully supported applicants across a wide range of roles and seniority levels – from co-founders of world-leading tech companies to analysts with just a few years of experience.

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What remains constant is our confidence and expertise in one area: helping professionals in the tech industry succeed on the Global Talent route. So whether your strength is commercial leadership or technical expertise, we know how to package your achievements effectively.

To learn about the package best suited to your situation, please complete our eligibility assessment or request a personal consultation.

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Our pricing philosophy is simple: we aim to deliver superior quality and depth of work at the best possible price. We are not the cheapest option on the market – but we are noticeably more efficient and more affordable than traditional law firms or professional service providers.

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Why do we believe we offer the best value for money?
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1. No inflated overheads. We work remotely and do not rent expensive offices in London, New York, or San Francisco. With us, you’re not paying for polished wood panels in a main-square office, or for lawyers’ suits and watches – you’re paying for results, delivered in the smartest, most effective, and modern way.
2. Efficient team structure. Our team is distributed across Europe and the US, but not concentrated in the world’s most expensive cities. Just like talent in tech can be anywhere, so can talent in our team.
3. More effort invested. Compared to traditional firms, more people dedicate significantly more hours to your case, ensuring thorough preparation.
4. There are dedicated team members who work exclusively on your case full time – they are fully engaged, deeply involved, and immersed in your context. Without the constant switching between projects (which is typical in traditional firms), we deliver better results with more nuance and greater depth.
5. Proven expertise. These efficiencies allow us to reinvest in building systems and expertise that make us one of the world’s leading teams in Global Talent applications.

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In short: we deliver more value, deeper involvement, and stronger results – at great cost.

This is one of the most frequent questions we hear. The short answer is: recognition is a mandatory criterion – you must show some evidence of recognition.

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The longer answer is more nuanced and depends on your situation.

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First, expectations for recognition vary between the Talent and Promise routes, with Promise having a lower threshold.

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Second, there are many different ways to demonstrate recognition. Sometimes we help clients uncover strong evidence in places they hadn’t considered. Even people who don’t see themselves as having a strong public profile may already have sufficient evidence of recognition – they just never thought of it that way. Of course, this is not very common, but it does happen.

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If that’s not the case, we also offer a PR Boost service to strengthen your public presence. This can help highlight and promote your achievements – though it takes time and only works if there is already a solid foundation of expertise and accomplishments to showcase.

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So, recognition is necessary – but it doesn’t always mean media publications or keynote speeches. As with every aspect of the Global Talent Visa, there are many nuances. We specialise in uncovering unique aspects of our clients’ profiles and know how to classify and position them effectively.

The best way to find out is to complete our eligibility assessment quiz. It’s designed to give you a quick sense of where you currently stand and what gaps may need to be addressed.

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Afterwards, you can request a call with an expert, where we review your profile in detail and provide an honest assessment.

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Please note: we do not provide legal advice and we do not evaluate your profile against immigration law. Our scope is narrower – we analyse your case based on practical “business logic” and comparisons with previous successful and unsuccessful applications. We do not interpret immigration law. If you require that type of advice, you should consult an immigration lawyer or solicitor.

We reject far more clients than we take on. Our first step with every client is to carefully evaluate how their profile fits the Global Talent criteria: what strengths they bring, where the gaps are, and whether those gaps can realistically be addressed.

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Only when we are convinced that we can build a strong case with a high probability of success do we propose cooperation. We are always honest about how we perceive your chances and what we can do to improve them:
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• For some clients, we are confident that with the right packaging, endorsement is very likely – and we tell them so directly.
• For others, achievements may be too shallow, uncertain, or open to interpretation. In these cases, even with our best effort, the chances may be closer to 50/50 – and we are clear about that.
• For many, the profile at this stage simply does not meet the threshold. In such cases, we decline to take them on, but we provide practical suggestions on how to strengthen their profile and revisit the application later.

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This way, if we agree to work together, you can be confident that we truly believe in your chances.