Can I file an appeal if I was denied Exceptional Promise?

Stage 1
1

After 6 months of reviewing every comment and endorsement from this platform, I applied and was rejected because I applied for Exceptional Promise rather than Exceptional Talent.

Here is the assessment panel’s feedback.

Assessment panel feedback:
The applicant applied under the Exceptional Promise visa route, selecting optional criteria 1 and 3.

The application is not appropriate for this visa route.

Exceptional promise requires the applicant to be early in their career, this is understood to mean less than five years in digital tech.

The applicant has far more than five years in digital tech, their personal statement talking about work they did as far back as 2013, supported by their CV and linkedin profile. A referee stating that the applicant began their career in digital tech 12 years ago.

The applicant cannot meet the requirements of the mandatory criteria, as the criteria in the exceptional promise route looks to assess potential and emerging recognition of someone early in their career. The applicant is far beyond the criteria limit.

The applicant does not meet the requirements of optional criteria 1. The evidence presented does not describe what is innovative about the applicant’s work and support the claims with evidence.

The applicant is not a founder in product led digital tech and has not proven innovation as a founder in product led digital tech.

The evidence presented shows they are a founder in IT services.

The applicant does not meet the requirements of optional criteria 3. The evidence does not connect
contributions to a product led digital tech company with impact convincingly. Claims made in letters are not supported by further evidence.

The applicant does not meet the threshold for this criteria.

Overall the applicant does not meet the requirements of the exceptional promise visa career length
guidelines and do not meet any of the requirements of the visa.

We do not endorse this application.

Here are the details submitted

3LORs

  1. Recommendation letter Forbes member Council showcasing how talented I am managing the company Software Team and also showing that I am currently Lead Software Engineer managing a team of 12 Senior Engineers.

  2. Recommendation letter from Senior Manager Amazon Tokyo, showcasing how talented I was starting my career as back as 2013 where I was the overall best software engineer under his circa and also showing how I and my team went for Microsoft Imagine Cup and we build the first HIV Detector using Saliva and we took fourth in Africa.

  3. Recommendation letter form the CEO of a giant legal Tech company in Africa where I was part of the team that build the first Legal Process in Africa currently being used by more than 350,000 users and generating more than $4,000,000 annually and he also mention that we build a mobile voting app as at 2015 and we won the Best Innovation of the year with a grant of N20,000,000 (45,000 Pounds).

MC: My Offer letter with my current employee
MC - Reference letter from Head of Department and CIO of my current employee and also a Forbes member
MC - Letter of Confirmation and 2021 Annual Performance Review
MC - Offer Letter from my previous employee (one of the leading legal tech in Africa).
MC - Reference Letter from Team Lead Product Engineer of my previous employee.
OC 1 - Offer Letter from my third company where I worked
OC 1 - Recommendation Letter from the CTO and Co-founder my third previous employee
OC 2 - Company registration for my startup company in Nigeria and in the United State of America respectively.
OC 2 My GitHub Account and Projects completed for the past 5 years.
OC 2 Award recognition as the Best Innovative of the Year by NSE (Nigeria Society of Engineers) and also a top finalist in WAMAS (West Africa Mobile Games and Awards) (2015 and 2016 respectively).

Please can I appeal?

@Francisca_Chiedu @ahsan_fayaz @yusuf_adebanjo @kurtulus_yilmaz @pralayankari @Kieran
@alex @orchide_irakoze_sr

I submitted Exceptional Promise hoping that no matter the case I will be endorse and this humility came to hunt me.

2

It’s disregarding the instructions which cost you the MC, as they clearly state who should apply to what, but unfortunately that’s not it.
They also disqualified your OC1 for not being related to product-led companies, and your OC3 for only being supported by letters alone and nothing else, which as they state in the guide is not enough.

Their rejection reasoning doesn’t go hand in hand with what you said you submitted (OC1 & OC2). Could it be that got more parts of your submission wrong, like the criteria selection?

As it stands I don’t believe you have a chance in appealing. You cannot change your outcome without improving your evidence.

P.S.
About the recommendations, take note that ONLY product-led companies count, and only recommendors from product-led companies are considered.

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3

Thank you for your observation.

However, I disagree

They also disqualified your OC1 for not being related to product-led companies, and your OC3 for only being supported by letters alone and nothing else, which as they state in the guide is not enough.

I’ve worked in product-led digital companies (LegalTech, Fintech, EdTech, etc.).

I shared my Gitlab and Github account details as evidence, and I have more than enough evidence; I was as surprised as you are.

However, I appreciate your prompt feedback.

What do you think I should do if you could give me some advice?

4

According to what you pasted they disqualified your evidence for OC1 because you didn’t show innovation in a product-led company, they say that you brought evidence proving that you are the founder of an IT services company, which doesn’t count.

If you believe that they are wrong then you should appeal on that.

Again, according to what you pasted you didn’t appply for OC2 but OC3, therefore none of this evidence is relevant.

You can appeal and claim that you accidently messed up the form, selecting Exceptional Promise the wrong OC criteria. There’s a small chance, because even then you still failed your OC1, unless you think they didn’t understand your evidence and they do show innovation in a product-led company.

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5

Much appreciation.

Can I submit a new application now?

How likely am I to be accepted if I reapply?

6

Appeal first to have more feedback. You have nothing to lose

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7

AFAIK, all applications are completely independent so a second application has the same chances as a first. It’s only about your ability to prove you’re a talent/promise.

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8

You don’t qualify for the exceptional promise because you have more than 5 years experience. Exceptional promise is not something that you could qualify if you are not qualified to the exceptional talent. On the other hand you submitted evidence older than 5 years old which can’t be used in the application. I don’t think you have chance on the appeal.

9

Thank you for your feedback, @vudu.

What recommendations do you have for the next course of action?

10

You should do a new application for exceptional talent instead and try to present relevant evidence within last 5 years. I am not sure if appealing would be any useful because you have huge problems with your application as I mentioned.

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