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/cmsc...
> does the CTO need to be part of a company that you worked/still work for?
No, there's no difference, it can be any company. Moreover, there are no requirements about whether this company or person needs to be from the UK; it can be any country in the world.
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
[1] https://www.oecd.org/tax/automatic-exchange/crs-implementati...
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.
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.
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.
London was relatively competitive when the exchange rate was above $1.5 for a pound. Note that it was approaching $2 for most of the 2000s until the financial crisis.
You could make bank easily in London as a contractor (very low taxes), maybe more than in the Silicon Valley.
Then over the last decade the exchange rate plumetted and the cost of rent/home doubled, while salaries and daily rates didn't move. Why they didn't move? There's too much talent and not a lot of companies with big pockets.
Most of the FAANG and assimilated that drove up salaries in the valley have no presence in London.
So yes, obviously less desirable than making 400k in SF, but as far as Europe goes it doesn't get much better anywhere else.
Sure, I'm just saying that if you qualify for a highly skilled visa you can probably get one anywhere, so it's better to compare options before you put down roots and you're subject to sunk cost fallacy.
A UK passport used to be a great asset but after Brexit I think the value has gone down significantly.
If you're on this forum all your potential employees will probably meet the requirements easily.
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
Bonus advice: Consider a lower cost city Edinburgh, Bristol, Newcastle, Brighton, and chase the startup dream rather than working at larger company.
Also I wish our Government ever considered reciprocity for the people here; since the only places we can easily go now are England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Having said that we do need talent; best of luck to applicants.
One thing to bear in mind too, places like Edinburgh and Bristol have huge gaps...you can easily find somewhere in Edinburgh that is £400/month for one person, the area won't be great, I have lived in those places and the crime is usually drug-related so it isn't actually too bad (nothing compared to London, nowhere close) but there are options.
So this is a post about people coming to the UK to do, relatively, high paid work...this is nothing like most big cities in the US, Tokyo, Switzerland, Toronto, Sydney or Melbourne...London is pretty expensive, but it has come down a lot and isn't a "crisis" imo (if you don't mind living outside London and commuting...I will admit Essex is quite terrible though). As an example, lots of people coming here from HK, and (from what I have heard) they can't believe how cheap property is here.
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."