A blueprint for UK Global Talent Visa for Tech

Olorunfemi Davis

July 19, 2025

As a fellow tech enthusiast and a successful recipient of the UK Global Talent Visa (Exceptional Talent), I’m thrilled to share a comprehensive blueprint for navigating Stage 1: the endorsement process.

This guide is designed to empower talented individuals, especially those with a strong programming background, to showcase their significant contributions to the digital technology sector and secure their place in the vibrant UK tech ecosystem.

Understanding the UK Global Talent Visa

The UK Global Talent Visa, officially known as the Global Talent Visa, enables the brightest and best tech talent from around the world to come and work in the UK’s digital technology sector, contributing their cutting-edge expertise, creativity, and innovation. Tech Nation is the official Home Office designated endorsing body for digital technology applications.

This visa allows successful applicants to work, change employers, or be self-employed without further authorisation. It can be extended for up to five years, with the possibility of applying for permanent settlement in the UK.

The Endorsement Stage: Exceptional Talent vs. Exceptional Promise

This blueprint focuses on the endorsement stage (Stage 1) for those demonstrating “Exceptional Talent” (an existing leader) or “Exceptional Promise” (a potential leader). While my own background is firmly rooted in programming, particularly .NET C# development, the principles outlined here are universally applicable. My own journey serves as an inspiration for others on similar technical paths.

The Core of Endorsement Application: Demonstrating Impact across Multiple Companies

A robust application often hinges on showcasing significant technical or business contributions across multiple product-led organisations. Based on a successful application strategy, it is highly beneficial to detail your contributions to at least three distinct product companies within the last five years. For each of these firms, three crucial documents are required to illustrate and corroborate your impact, along with other essential supporting evidence.

Detailed Blueprint: Comprehensive Document Guide for Stage 1 Endorsement

To apply for the Global Talent Visa under the Tech Nation endorsement category, you are generally required to submit the following documents:

EVIDENCE FILES

The information requested below relates to the ten evidence files that you will upload as part of your application.

Note: Whilst you can use multiple documents to support each criteria, each document must only contain a single piece of related evidence.

Documents required in support of your mandatory ‘leading talent’ criteria for Exceptional Talent: You must provide at least 2 unique pieces of evidence.

Evidence: High remuneration for services rendered.pdf
Evidence: Publications.pdf
Evidence: Significant Technical Contribution @ Company X.pdf
Evidence Reference Letter from [top position name] @ Company X.pdf

Documents required in support of your first optional criteria for Exceptional Talent: You must provide at least 2 unique pieces of evidence.

Recognitions Outside Work: Mentorship.pdf
Recognitions Outside Work: Volunteering and Talks.pdf

Documents required in support of your second optional criteria for Exceptional Talent: You must provide at least 2 unique pieces of evidence.

Impact: Significant Technical Contribution @ Company Y.pdf
Impact Reference Letter from [top position name] @ Company Y.pdf
Impact: Significant Technical Contribution @ Company Z.pdf
Impact Reference Letter from [top position name] @ Company Z.pdf

To ensure a robust and compelling application, gather and meticulously prepare the following documents with more details:

1. Significant Technical Contribution to Companies X,Y,Z (Applicant’s Statement)

These documents, written by you, are your primary opportunity to articulate your direct involvement and the tangible impact you made.

Focus on Innovation and Impact: Detail your role in developing or deploying a technology stack or building technical infrastructure. Clearly show how your work was instrumental to the business, breaking down your impact into distinct pieces of work.
Concrete Examples and Metrics: Provide specific, quantifiable evidence. For instance, you can include screenshots from code repositories showing your commits, demonstrate the progression of products through multiple iterations with screenshots from app stores or during development, and highlight positive comments or compliments from leadership in platforms like Slack (with dates included). If your projects received media coverage, include it to show broader impact.
Technical Detail: Explain your methodologies. If you scaled a product, describe how you optimised database calls (e.g., SQL query optimisations) or applied vertical and horizontal scaling to improve performance and stability. Quantify improvements, such as reducing resource usage, API calls, or latency (e.g., “reduced resource usage by 30%”, “API calls by 50%”, or “latency by 10%”).
Problem-Solving: Highlight instances where you identified and resolved complex or long-standing technical challenges, demonstrating your acumen and resourcefulness.
Supported by Evidence: This statement should be supported by evidence like employment contracts, salary details, detailed knowledge of product architecture, and code contributions.

2. Recommendation Letters from Company X,Y,Z (From a Top-Ranking Officials)

You will need letters from well-established individuals who are experts in the digital technology field and know your work over a period of at least 12 months. This letter should be from a senior leader within the company where you made significant contributions (e.g., CEO, CIO, CTO). It doesn’t matter if they are still at the firm or if they’ve moved to another company.

Content and Corroboration: The letter must directly support and expand upon the content you detailed in your “Significant Technical Contribution” document. It should:
Introduce the author and explain how they met and worked with you.
Highlight specific achievements and character traits they observed in your work.
Clearly explain why the author considers you exceptional or to have exceptional promise.
Crucially, state how your expertise and potential contributions would be a significant asset to the UK’s digital technology field, aligning with the UK’s ambitions in sectors like fintech or AI.
Format: The letter must be typed and dated. The body of the letter should be up to 3 single sides of A4 paper, excluding the author’s credentials and contact details. It must be signed by the author or on behalf of the recommending organisation. Include a telephone number, email address, and the organisation’s logo and registered address (if applicable). Provide the author’s CV or other proof of their credentials, such as a PDF document of their LinkedIn page. Digital signatures (e.g., DocuSign) are recommended to prove the document’s origin did not come from you.

3. Reference Letters from Company X,Y,Z (From Another Top-Ranking Officials)

This second letter from the same company should come from another senior official, such as an Engineering Lead or Head of Technology, offering another perspective on your work.

Direct Support and Validation: Like the recommendation letter, this document must directly corroborate the information in your “Significant Technical Contribution” statement. It should further validate your technical skills, work ethic, and specific contributions to projects.
Personal Character and Mentorship: This letter can also touch upon your personal development, mentorship activities, and dedication to fostering growth within teams.
Future Impact: Reinforce your potential to drive innovation and enhance organisational performance in the UK.
Format: The format requirements are identical to the recommendation letter (typed, dated, signed, contact info, credentials, and digital signature for authenticity).

General Tips for a Winning Application:

Start Early & Organise: Preparing a comprehensive application takes time. As a personal tip, I found using a spreadsheet to track required files, evidence, and responsible parties invaluable. This ensures no stone is left unturned.
Be Specific and Quantify: Instead of vague statements, provide concrete examples and quantify your achievements wherever possible (e.g., “reduced server code by 45%”, “managed 180,000 trades”, “garnered over 100,000 views” for articles).
Craft a Coherent Narrative: Ensure all your documents tell a consistent story of your journey, impact, and future aspirations in the UK.
Embrace Originality: While guides like this provide a framework, your application must be unique and reflect your individual experience and contributions. Each application should stand alone.
Leverage Existing Work: My application was endorsed within 15 days of deciding to apply (submitted Jan 14, 2025, endorsed Jan 21, 2025) and relied solely on existing work and evidence. This demonstrates that strong, pre-existing contributions are key.
If you identify obvious gaps and need to create more evidences, give yourself ample time and ensure 3 months pass in order to include the new evidences in your application.
Focus on Exceptional Evidence: Be discerning about the public profiles you highlight. Avoid featuring public sites like Stack Overflow accounts with zero or only a few gold badges, or GitHub profiles with minimal stars, unless they truly demonstrate exceptional impact. For instance, despite having several silver and bronze badges on Stack Overflow and some stars on GitHub, I chose not to feature them in my application as I determined they were not exceptional enough to significantly strengthen my case.

Stay Updated: Rules on evidence can evolve (e.g., regarding Medium, Newspaper articles). Always refer to the latest official guidelines from Tech Nation and the Home Office as your ultimate source of truth.
Consult External Guides: Like yourself, I found this post https://medium.com/@DeolaJ/my-global-talent-visa-story-2941665a5279 by Adeola Adeyemo J to be incredibly instrumental in preparing my application. Such resources offer valuable insights from successful applicants. I also got a few tips from the posts he referenced.

How to Write Evidence of Significant Contribution to a Workplace

Showing your significant contributions is key. It’s all about demonstrating your crucial role, the technical depth of your work, and the real impact you had on your workplace, and maybe even the broader industry. This guide, drawing on strong examples, will help you craft compelling evidence while keeping all personal and identifiable information out.

1. Structure Your Contribution Narrative

Every significant contribution should be a concise, powerful story, usually for each major role or project you’ve had. A clear structure helps the assessor grasp your impact easily.

Catchy Title & Context: Start with a clear heading like “Significant Technical Contribution at [Company Name].” Briefly set the scene: your role, employment period, and the initial state of the project or product.
Company and Product Overview: Give a brief, high-level description of what the company does and the product or service you worked on. This provides vital context. For instance, was it a financial payment service, an investment app, or community software?
The Challenge/Problem: Clearly explain the problem, need, or opportunity that existed before you stepped in. This could be a product idea, a system needing to scale, or a crucial security compliance requirement.

2. Detail Your Technical Actions and Methodology

This is where you dive into how you tackled the challenge. Be precise about your responsibilities and the technical steps you took.

Active Involvement: Describe your direct participation in key decisions, product design, naming, architecture, planning, research, and technology discussions.
Core Development: Highlight your hands-on involvement in core development, such as initiating Backend API development or building mobile applications from MVP specifications.
Technical Enhancements: Detail specific technical improvements you implemented. Think about:
Performance Optimization: Refactoring critical APIs, conducting research, optimizing codebase through unit test refactoring. This could involve examining software, devising optimization plans for architecture, connectivity protocols, caching, API rate-limiting, and database queries. You can mention enhancing database calls by writing more efficient queries.
Scaling Solutions: Implementing vertical and horizontal scaling (e.g., allocating more RAM/CPU, adding dynamic load-balanced instances, increasing caching limits). Crucially, explain how you mitigated increased infrastructure costs with smart scripting.
Security & Compliance: Leading compliance efforts (e.g., PCI DSS), including creating security and incident response policies, training teams, refactoring codebase and database schemas for data protection, and running vulnerability tests.
Feature Development: Building new features that boosted product efficacy, or developing supporting applications like mobile OTP apps or web dashboards.
Quality Assurance: Significantly improving unit test code coverage and researching AI integration into testing processes.
Solving Complex Problems: Describe instances where you resolved long-standing technical issues, perhaps after extensive research and building a working demo.

3. Quantify Your Impact and Results

This is arguably the most critical part for proving “significant contribution.” Quantify your achievements using numbers, percentages, and clear outcomes whenever possible.

User Adoption and Reach: State the number of users your product reached (e.g., “thousands of users”) or the potential customer base it served (e.g., “90 million customers”).
Transaction/Usage Metrics: Provide specific statistics you tracked, such as total user count, stock trades, purchase volume, mutual fund subscriptions, or funds moved in.
Performance Improvements: Show before-and-after metrics. For example, mention a “significant speed, stability, performance and optimal User Experience.” Provide concrete figures like “30% reduction in resource RAM & CPU usage,” “50% fewer calls made to the API Backend & Database,” and “10% reduction in connectivity latency.”
Cost Efficiency: Highlight cost reductions achieved, such as mitigating infrastructure cost increases from 35% to a record ~10% while maintaining versatility.
Business Growth and Confidence: Explain how your work led to increased confidence from paying clients, attracted more clients and users, and boosted user-generated content and engagements. Mention if the product drove multiple income streams for the organization.
External Recognition/Funding: Include instances of formal recognition from your employer for “exceptional performance and impactful contributions.” If applicable, mention if your work contributed to the company securing funding or getting into prestigious accelerators like Y-Combinator.

4. Demonstrate Collaboration and Leadership

Highlighting your ability to work effectively with others and guide teams adds significant weight to your contribution.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Emphasize your collaboration with various colleagues, including Software Architects, Business Analysts, Software Testers, Quality Assurance Engineers, Database Administrators, leads, and management.
Guidance and Mentorship: State how you guided other teams, such as Technical Writers in documentation or Mobile App and web frontend teams in building optimal UI/UX. You might also mention mentoring software developers.
Influence on Company Standards: Indicate if you introduced key product and team enhancements, such as API versioning, rate limiting, API key security, or establishing company-adopted coding standards.

5. Provide Tangible Proof (Appendices)

Support all claims with concrete evidence. The examples show a variety of effective proofs.

Screenshots: Include screenshots of the product (from app stores, test environments), embedded product in partner applications, database summaries, code repositories showing your contributions (e.g., commit counts), live API swagger URLs, internal communication recognizing your work, and development activities.
Links: Provide links to relevant external resources like live product URLs, Swagger documentation, Google Drive folders with more screenshots or documents, Y-Combinator or CrunchBase profiles (if relevant to funding/incubation), or even blog posts you wrote detailing solutions to specific technical challenges.
Metrics/Data: Refer to “my data” or tables that clearly present the statistics and results you achieved.
Media Coverage: If applicable, include screenshots or links to news media coverage related to projects you worked on.

Key Tips for Writing Your Evidence:

Be Specific and Factual: Avoid vague statements. Use concrete examples and technical details.
Focus on Your Contribution: While collaboration is important, clearly articulate your specific role and actions. Use “I” statements to describe what you did.
Emphasize Technical Depth: Explain complex technical problems and your sophisticated solutions.
Show Initiative and Problem-Solving: Describe how you identified issues, researched solutions, and independently drove resolution.
Conciseness and Clarity: While detailed, ensure your writing is clear and easy to understand, even for a non-technical audience (though assessors are typically experts).
Consistency: Ensure the dates, roles, and achievements align across your different evidence pieces.
Proofread Thoroughly: Errors can detract from the professionalism of your application.

By following these guidelines and drawing on how your own contributions were documented, you can build a strong case for your significant technical contributions to a workplace.

Ready to start compiling your evidence?

Crafting Outstanding Documents: A Guide to Readability and Impact

To create a compelling and easily digestible document that truly stands out, focus on a strategic blend of clear structure, strong visual evidence, and engaging content presentation. This guide distills best practices from successful documents, and includes vital considerations for visual elements and modern writing tools, to help you articulate your achievements and insights with maximum impact.

1. Establish a Clear and Hierarchical Structure

A well-structured document is easy to navigate and understand, guiding the reader through your narrative seamlessly.

Use Descriptive Main Titles: Begin each major section with a clear, concise, and descriptive main title (e.g., “Professional Remuneration”, “Public Contributions”, or “Major Project Successes”). This helps set expectations for the content within.
Break Down Content with Sub-Titles: Within these main sections, employ distinct sub-titles to divide content into smaller, more manageable segments (e.g., “Earnings Overview”, “Platform Engagement Metrics”, “Performance Optimisation Initiatives”, or “Recent Developments”). This hierarchical approach significantly enhances readability and allows readers to quickly pinpoint information.
Adhere to Page Limits: It is crucial that each evidence section (or similar logical unit) does not exceed 3 A4 pages. This necessitates careful curation of content and judicious use of visuals to ensure conciseness and impact.

2. Integrate Comprehensive Visual Evidence

Visuals are incredibly powerful tools for substantiating claims and providing immediate proof. They break up text and make your document far more engaging.

Direct Visual Proof: Embed screenshots and images that directly support your claims. This might include:
- Screenshots of financial records, payment confirmations, or contractual agreements.
- Images of product interfaces from app stores or test environments.
- Screenshots demonstrating code contributions, repository activity, or development progress.
- Visualisations of platform statistics, analytics dashboards, or key performance indicators.
- Photographs from professional events, community gatherings, or project launches.
Contextual Visuals: Use images to establish context or show impact, such as a product as a community tool or media coverage of a project.
Clear and Concise Captions: Every image must have a concise and descriptive caption that explains its relevance and what it depicts (e.g., “The image below shows my April 2022 salary of GBP…”, “The image below shows a stat from HashNode”, “The image below shows screenshots of the product from top application stores”).
Image Clarity and Resolution: All images must be clear to the highest resolution possible to ensure readability and professionalism.
Taking Screenshots: Take screenshots from Monitors or Screens with high resolution because of quality.
Strategic Placement and Frequency: Place images directly relevant to the text they support [inferred from sources, e.g., an image of an Upwork profile immediately follows the text discussing Upwork earnings]. Use images as frequently as necessary to substantiate claims, but judiciously to remain within the 3 A4 page limit per evidence section.
Image Size and Purpose: It is not a must to add an image that shows an entire screenshot. A good image can be just a few inches or centimetres in height, focusing only on the most relevant information. Each image must count; it should serve a clear purpose and directly contribute to the evidence or explanation being provided.

3. Leverage External Links for Verification and Depth

For detailed evidence or supplementary information that would otherwise clutter your document, utilise external links effectively. This strategy allows for comprehensive verification while keeping your main document streamlined.

Secure Cloud Storage for Documentation: Provide links to secure cloud storage folders containing comprehensive documentation. This can include screenshots of contracts, invoices, detailed statements, database summaries, email correspondences, project reviews, or specific code commits. This approach offers in-depth validation without overwhelming the reader.
Public Profile and Platform Links: Include links to your professional profiles (e.g., technical content platforms, professional networking sites, or freelancing platforms) or relevant public resources. This extends to project pages, demo sites, company profiles (e.g., for startup accelerators or industry databases), code repositories, API documentation, and relevant news articles or social media posts. These links offer immediate access to additional context and validation of your work and achievements.

4. Present Quantifiable Impact and Data Clearly

Demonstrating your impact with specific, measurable data is crucial for conveying the value of your contributions.

Specific Metrics and Numbers: Whenever feasible, quantify your achievements and contributions using precise numbers, percentages, and metrics. This provides concrete evidence of your impact. Focus on metrics such as user base growth, code contribution volume, resource optimisation percentages, or community member counts.
Tables for Data Summaries: Employ tables to present statistics and quantifiable results in a clear, organised, and concise manner. This format is excellent for summarising complex data points, illustrating improvements over time, or showcasing specific achievements against targets.

5. Adopt Engaging Content Presentation Techniques

Beyond structure and data, the way you narrate your story significantly impacts reader engagement.

Effective Use of Bullet Points: Utilise bullet points judiciously for listing key achievements, responsibilities, methodologies, or policy creations. This breaks down information into easily digestible points, greatly improving readability and scannability.
Problem-Solution Narratives: Where appropriate, frame your contributions within a problem-solution narrative. Clearly describe a challenge or pain point that existed, and then detail how your actions, expertise, or initiatives led to a successful resolution (e.g., scaling a product due to strain on infrastructure, resolving a critical technical problem, or spearheading compliance initiatives).
Highlight the “Why”: For sections outlining contributions beyond direct project work, such as mentorship, explain your motivation or philosophy (e.g., “Why Mentor?”). This adds a personal and insightful dimension to your contributions.
Specific Examples and Brief Anecdotes: Weave in specific examples or short anecdotes to illustrate your points and make your narrative more relatable and memorable. This could involve describing how you solved an unexpected technical challenge or recounting a brief interaction that demonstrates the positive reception of your work.

This section provides guidance on leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

Maintain Originality: When composing your documents, type 100% of your content with your own words, from beginning to end. This is crucial to maintain your originality and ensure your unique voice and thinking are present.
AI for Refinement Only: You may then use AI tools or grammar checkers like Grammarly solely to fix grammar, punctuation, and structure. Do not allow these tools to rewrite your core content or introduce new ideas.
Specific AI Prompts: When utilising AI for refinement, explicitly include instructions in your prompt such as “Maintain your original words” and “Keep it original”. This directive helps ensure that the AI focuses on improving the mechanics of your writing without altering your actual narrative or personal voice, ensuring that your genuine words are being reviewed when you submit your application.

By thoughtfully incorporating these stylistic and structural elements, your document will not only be informative but also highly scannable, visually compelling, and powerfully substantiated, allowing your achievements and unique contributions to truly stand out.

Planning your finances.

Below is a detailed breakdown of the fees you can expect to pay for the UK Global Talent Visa. Please note that all fees are subject to change by the UK Home Office, so always refer to the official GOV.UK website for the most up-to-date figures at the time of your application.

Stage 1: Endorsement Application Fee

Main Applicant Only: £561 (approximately USD 757 — this figure will fluctuate with exchange rates)
This fee is non-refundable, even if your endorsement application is refused.

Once your Stage 1 (endorsement) is approved, you have three months to use this endorsement to apply for your visa. If you do not apply within this timeframe, the endorsement will expire, and you will need to reapply for endorsement.

Stage 2: Visa Application Fees & Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS)

These fees are paid when you submit your visa application after receiving your endorsement.

For the Main Applicant (5-Year Visa):

Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS): £5,175.00 (calculated as £1,035 per year x 5 years)
Approximate USD Equivalent: USD 6,986.25 (This figure will fluctuate with exchange rates)
Visa Application Fee: £205.00
Approximate USD Equivalent: USD 276.75 (This figure will fluctuate with exchange rates)

For Each Adult Dependant (Spouse/Partner — 5-Year Visa):

Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS): £5,175.00 (calculated as £1,035 per year x 5 years)
Approximate USD Equivalent: USD 6,986.25 (This figure will fluctuate with exchange rates)
Visa Application Fee: £766.00
Approximate USD Equivalent: USD 1,034.10 (This figure will fluctuate with exchange rates)

For Each Child Dependant (Under 18–5-Year Visa):

Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS): £3,880.00 (calculated as £776 per year x 5 years)
Approximate USD Equivalent: USD 5,238.00 (This figure will fluctuate with exchange rates)
Visa Application Fee: £766.00
Approximate USD Equivalent: USD 1,034.10 (This figure will fluctuate with exchange rates)

Note on Visa Duration: The Immigration Health Surcharge is calculated per year of your visa. For shorter visa durations (1–4 years), you would adjust the IHS fee accordingly (e.g., for 3 years, multiply the annual IHS by 3). The visa application fees generally remain fixed regardless of the visa length.

Important Payment Tips:

For Applicants from Nigeria: Consider using a traditional Commercial Bank Card. Some banks, like Access Bank, offer USD-denominated cards. While these might have daily spending limits (e.g., USD 10,000 daily), they can be sufficient to cover your fees over a few days. You will typically need a domiciliary USD account to obtain such a card. It’s generally advised to avoid fintech cards for these significant international payments due to potential issues or higher fees.
Currency Considerations: Visa and IHS fees will be charged in either USD or Pounds Sterling, depending on the country from which you are applying. To avoid excessive bank charges from currency conversion, try to use payment cards denominated in the currency you are being charged in (e.g., a USD card for USD charges, or a GBP card for GBP charges).

Use the calculator below to calculate your fees.

See the Pen CodePen Embed by (@Olorunfemi-Davis) on CodePen.

Summary

The UK is actively seeking global talent to further its position as a leading tech ecosystem. By meticulously documenting your achievements and illustrating your significant impact, especially within product companies, you can build a compelling case for your own UK Global Talent Visa endorsement.

Your programming background, like my own in .NET C# development which has led to contributions in fintech, cloud infrastructure management, and mobile applications, can serve as a powerful foundation to demonstrate your leadership and potential in this exciting sector.

Good luck on your application journey!