The UK has introduced a new “Global Talent Visa” that helps a candidate get to the UK on a 5 years stay if he/she is a leader or potential leader in the fields of academia or research, arts, and culture, or digital technology. For this visa, you do not need to show salary proofs or language requirements. The Global Talent route has replaced the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) route, talented individuals can be granted immigration permission to work without restriction.
Here, you will get to know the requirements and procedures for academia or research. Under this stream, you can apply for 5 years of visa if you are a leader or potential leader in the following fields:
- science
- medicine
- engineering
- humanities
Major benefits
In the fields of academia or research, the candidates can benefit from the global talent visa as follows:
They can;
- Become an employee, self-employed, and a director of a company;
- Change or terminate your work without informing the Home Office;
- Trip abroad and return to the UK;
- Bring your partner and children as your dependents to the UK;
- Get “Permanent Residency” so-called indefinite leave to remain after living in the UK for 3 to 5 years.
You can read here complete genralcriteria for the UK’s Global Talent Visa
General eligibility criteria
There are certain requirements for this category, but in general, the major are as follows:
- You may be eligible if you have an individual fellowship or;
- A qualified job offer as an academic or researcher or;
- A research grant that is passed by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The application process
To obtain a Global Talent Visa, you will be required to apply for an ‘endorsement’ as well as for the visa itself.
1- Applying for an endorsement
You submit a request for an endorsement to provide evidence that you are a leader or qualified leader in a related category. The Home Office will forward your request to be investigated by a UK institute (‘endorsing body’) with expertise in your category. How you apply relies on whether you:
- Have a qualified job offer as an academic or researcher;
- Have an individual fellowship;
- Have a research grant that is approved by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI);
- Are obtaining your application peer-reviewed.
You will receive your application result within:
- Through fast track: the result of your application may be sent within 7 days if you have a potential academic or research job, research grant, or individual fellowship.
- More than 35 days if you’re carrying your request peer-reviewed
Link to apply for online endorsement
2- Applying for the visa
In routine you receive a result about your visa within:
- 21 days if you are outside the UK
- 56 days if you are inside the UK
You may be able to pay for a faster result. How you do this depends on whether you are outside the UK or inside the UK.
Apply for Global Talent Visa Online
There are two ways to apply for a visa. One is you can apply for a Global Talent visa at the same time as you apply for endorsement. Secondly, you can apply for the visa after the confirmation of endorsement. In case your residence permit to live in the UK is near an end, applying for the visa will expand it until you have been given a result. If you submit your application and endorsement together and your endorsement is refused, your visa request will also be declined (in case your endorsement request is rejected, in this situation, you can request an endorsement review). Your visa application fee is refundable with a deduction of £ 25. You can submit your visa application 90 days prior to your journey.
How to get the endorsements?
1- Endorsement for Academia or Researcher
When you have a qualified job offer as an academic or researcher at an organization approved by the Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, and British Academy, you can easily apply for the visa. When you are unsuccessful to obtain endorsement for qualified work you should use another option to apply such as with an individual fellowship.
You can check here the list of approved research institutions or the list of officially recognized universities and colleges.
Kinds of eligible jobs
The job offer of the candidate should involve either directing or leading an individual or team in a research or innovation plan of work, being responsible for academic, research, or innovation leadership and progress.
Required Documents
You will provide a letter from the director of HR human resources (or parallel) at the company where you will do a job. The letter should consist of the given information:
- the name of the post and the section where you will work;
- that you have acknowledged the post;
- that the post was advertised and the application procedure was an open competition;
- that you have obtained a minimum of two references;
- that minimum of three academics from the company where you will work was on the interview panel;
- that a specialist of your field was a member of the application procedure-either during the interview if they work at the company or prior the candidate was offered the job if they work outside the organization.
Apply for endorsement
When you have arranged all the required documents you can apply for endorsement. To fill out the form you are required to see which endorsing body approves your discipline. You will obtain your application result within 7 days usually.
Endorsing bodies can be found here.
2- Endorsement for individual fellowship
Individual Fellowship is a great option if you are an experienced researcher looking to advance your career by working abroad. They provide exciting new learning opportunities and a chance to add some sparkle to your CV. The candidate may obtain speedy track endorsement if you have held an eligible fellowship in the last 1 year. The fellowship required to be approved by the:
- Royal Society, for science and medicine
- British Academy, for humanities
- Royal Academy of Engineering
You can apply as a leader in your section (exceptional talent) or potential leader in your section (exception promise) which depends on the fellowship you have. If your fellowship is not listed or you have another kind of grant, you may be able to obtain endorsement from the UK Research and Innovation. The core activity of the individual fellowship is a research training project, developed by the researcher in collaboration with their host organization, and designed to provide training through research. An integral part of the partnership is the training of complementary and transferable skills, for example, research management, intellectual property rights, entrepreneurship, public engagement, inter-sectoral or interdisciplinary knowledge transfer, building collaboration, and organizational skills.
Check if your fellowship is eligible.
Apply for endorsement
You will be required to submit a copy of your fellowship award letter. Once you have the letter you may apply for endorsement.
Endorsing bodies can be found here.
3- Endorsement for UK Research and Innovation
The candidate can be capable of endorsement if he is working on an award or research grant approved by Research and Innovation (UKRI).
You can check here the list of endorsed funders.
Requirements
Your grant must have been awarded by an organization on the list of endorsed funders. The company giving you the job in the UK must be authorized by the UKRI. The candidate must have:
- Minimum 2 years left on his employment or hosting contract;
- Spend a minimum of half of your time working on the grant;
- Be working on a minimum amount of grant £30,000.
The candidate must also either:
- Be named on the research grant application;
- Have his work title on the research grant application and demonstrate that he was recruited in an honest procedure.
If the candidate is principal investigator of co-investigator, he can do the job on more than 1 grant, so long as in total, they make up a minimum of half of his time. If the candidate does not receive endorsement by UKRI you can obtain endorsement by peer review.
Required documents
You will provide the confirmation from the endorsed funder in written form. This required to tell the amount of the grant is at least £30,000 and it will expire a minimum of 24 months. You will also submit a letter from the director of HR human resources (or parallel) at the company where you are working. This required to show that:
- the name of the post and the section where you will work;
- that you have acknowledged the post;
- that you are essential to the grant;
- that you will be spending a minimum of half of your agreed working time on the grant;
- description of the honest recruitment procedure, if you were specifically named on the grant request.
you are required to submit the document for the whole grant you are using for your endorsement request.
Apply for endorsement
When have collected all the documents you can apply for endorsement. You will get a result on your request in 7 days.
4- Endorsement for Peer review
What is peer review? Designed to evaluate the legitimacy, quality, and often authenticity of articles for peer-reviewed publications. Furthermore,its ultimate goal is to maintain the integrity of science by filtering out inaccurate or substandard articles. From a publisher’s point of view, peer-to-peer reviews, as a filter of functions, attract better quality articles to better quality journals and thus develop the brand of the journal. Running articles through a peer review process increases their value. That’s why publishers need to make sure that peer review is strong. When a candidate is no qualified for another track, he should obtain endorsement the having his application peer assessment. You can apply as a leader in your section (exceptional talent) or potential leader in your section (exception promise). Peer assessment is done by the:
- Royal Society, for science and medicine;
- British Academy, for humanities;
- Royal Academy of Engineering.
Eligibility criteria
The candidate is required to:
- Do a job in an approved research discipline;
- Be an active researcher – such as in university, research organization, or business;
- Have Ph.D. or parallel research experience, including clinical or industrial research.
A candidate does not require a job offer to apply. He has to fulfill the requirements, depending on if he is applying via exceptional promise or exceptional talent.
Exceptional promise
For this stream, the candidate is at an initial position of his career, and obtained an eligible fellowship or held an advanced research position. To be eligible for your fellowship or research post must be:
- Awarded or held in the last 5 years
- Be assessed by the endorsing body to be ‘prestigious’
In case the candidate held an advanced research post it should:
- Be presently held, or have been held in the past 5 years
- Be assessed by the endorsing body to be parallel to eligible fellowship
Exceptional talent
Must apply to one of the following:
- You are a member of the National Academy;
- You have been awarded the prize that certifying body judges are considered ‘dignified’ and ‘internationally recognized’;
- You have a letter from a reputable UK organization that is involved in research in your field.
When you are ineligible for peer review
You may obtain a skilled worker visa if you are ineligible for peer review.
Required documents
You will provide a copy of your CV. It should be typed. It should outline your academic, career, and any publication record. It should be up to three single sides of the A4 paper. You will be required to include a letter of recommendation from an ‘eminent person’ in the UK. The endorsing body should judge that the person has ‘globally recognized skills’ in related fields. The letter should be about your Global talent application. The letter is written for any other reason will not be accepted. It should tell how:
- The eminent/famous person knows you;
- They think you demonstrate extraordinary talent or promise;
- You would benefit from being in the UK;
- You would contribute to the UK.
It should also describe what program you have for work in the future. The letter should be:
- Dated and typed;
- It should be up to three single sides of the A4 paper, excluding the author’s credentials and contact information;
- Be signed by the author or by anyone on behalf of the company recommending you;
- Include the contact number and email, and the company’s logo and registered address (if required )Come with the author’s CV or the evidence of their credential that the endorsing body will accept.
When you are applying with the exceptional talent you will also be required to submit one of the given below:
- Evidence that you are a member of a national academy;
- Evidence of a prize that the endorsing body judges to be ‘prestigious’ and ‘globally know’s;
- A letter of recommendation from an honorable UK organization linked to your research it must be signed by any senior, dated, and on headed paper.
How your application will be assessed?
When you submit your application the endorsing body will assess that you fulfill the eligibility criteria or not. It will also consider the below elements: The candidate’s career history- such as the international reparation and impact of your work
- The strength of the statement in your recommendation letter and of the proof in support of your request.
- How will you participate in UK research excellence and to wider society, including the economy, by being based in the UK?
- They also consider other elements, depending on if you are applying via exceptional promise or exceptional talent.
Exceptional promise assessment
The endorsing body will observe:
- Whether the candidate has provided sufficient proof to demonstrate he has the eligibility to be a future leader in his sector;
- How much extra funding he has secured during, or after, a related fellowship?
- Whether he can provide proof of a related prize or award for early career researchers;
- How specific his participation in his category is in relation to the career position he is in?
Exceptional talent assessment
The endorsing body will observe:
- Whether the candidate has won what they think to be a ‘prestigious’ award or prize
- Whether he has secured specific funding for his work in the previous ten years
- Whether he is regarded to be a leader in his field
Apply for endorsement
When have collected all the documents, you can apply for endorsement. You will get a result on your peer review request in 35 days. To fill the form, you need to check which endorsing body approves your discipline.
If your endorsement application is denied
After the negative decision, if the candidate thinks that his endorsement application was not judged correctly he can ask for a review. The review will be completed by the endorsing body that looked at his genuine application. The procedure of review is free of cost.
The candidate can request the review within 28 days after he gets the result. If your permit to live in the UK is about to end, applying for an endorsement review will not extend it.
Ask for review
Complete the Global Talent endorsement review form and email it to the Home Office. You will be sent an email within 28 days if your review has been successful. If the certifying body denies your application for the same reasons as you did before you will get an email. If you make a new application, you need to pay the fee again.
You cannot request a second review. If the certifying body refuses your application for new reasons: You will receive a letter – you may request a second review only for new reasons.