Disclaimer: This blog provides general immigration information, not legal advice. Laws and policies change frequently, and individual circumstances vary. Always do your own research and consider speaking with an accredited immigration lawyer before making any decisions. I am not affiliated with any government agency and am not responsible for outcomes based on this information. Official guidance on immigrating can be found on the UK Home Office website.
Eligibility Requirements:
You can apply for a Global Talent visa if you are at least 18 years old, and are a leader/potential leader in one of the following areas:
- Research or academia
- Arts and culture
- Digital technology
There are two ways to qualify to apply for this visa – one requiring an endorsement and one that does not.
If you’ve won an eligible prestigious prize, you will not need to be endorsed in order to apply.
If you’ve not won one of these prizes, you’ll need to be endorsed – so you can apply for endorsement, and then the Home Office will send your application to an ‘endorsing body’ with expertise in your field to see if you qualify. Typically, you’ll find out if you’ve been endorsed in 2-5 weeks. If you’ve successfully been endorsed, you can apply for the Global Talent visa.
Application Details:
- You must apply online, and the application will tell you whether you’ll need to schedule a biometrics appointment (in-person fingerprints, photograph, documents check) or not.
- A Global Talent visa application currently costs £766. If you are also applying for an endorsement, then you’ll pay £561 for that part of the application, and then £205 when applying for the visa itself.
- If including children/a partner in your application, it will be an additional £766 per person.
- You’ll also have to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge, which is currently £1,035 per person per year.
- If you apply while in the UK on a different visa, you’ll get a response in 8 weeks (you may be able to pay more to speed up that decision).
- If you are applying in the US, you’ll get a decision in about 3 weeks (again, you can pay more to find out sooner).
- The earliest you can apply for this visa is three months before you plan on being in the UK.
- If successful, this visa allows you to live and work in the UK for 5 years at a time. You can apply for 1-5 year extensions after this period, or (depending on what field you work in), after 3 or 5 years, you may be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (permanent settled status).
