Hi,
I received an email from the Home Office today that I have successfully appealed and been endorsed. I had promised myself that if I am endorsed, I will share every bit of information that helped me in my journey. So here we go:
MC Evidence:
- Employment Contract & Payslip from Mar 2024 which includes 10% discretionary increase to bonus
- Internal excel dashboard that reflects success of a Product A that I developed in terms of revenue generated demonstrating that we are on our way to exceed revenue expectations
- Participation in top tier podcast (screenshot on Twitter that said it was the best episode of the year and link)
- Event A I presented in where 18,000 people were present (website has my name + letter from organiser talking about how important my research is, why I was invited and how successful the panel was)
LORs:
- Professor & Chair of CS department in a top tier university
- Managing Director of a non-profit where I have done some volunteer work in data science
- Former Executive Director at my current company who was my signing manager
OC1 Evidence:
- Letter from Director stating revenue impact of analysis I spearheaded + PPT showcasing my analysis and role in project
- PPT showcasing an ML project I am leading
- PPT regarding my analysis, role and internal slide showing revenue we have generated for Product A
OC4 Evidence:
- Letter from Director of LMN program (extremely selective program in top tier UK university) saying I was top 1% of cohort
- Grant letter saying I was awarded $X for application of digital technology in non-profit
- Award of excellence that recognizes “top 10% of graduating class” + Scholarship letters
Additional Thoughts:
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After receiving the initial decision from Tech Nation, I booked a 15 minute free consultation session with a Tech Nation lawyer about my application. The lawyer advised to pull out and spotlight strong elements embedded in my documents. This is when I started drafting a response and kept refining it for a week. I even shared this in a post on this forum and leveraged the feedback that I received. At some point, I knew I couldn’t edit anymore, so I took my partner’s advice and started searching for a lawyer to go over and fine tune my appeal. I found my lawyer through this forum—John Kiely at Howard Kennedy LLP—to whom I am eternally grateful. John was beyond helpful, extremely proactive and the perfect cheerleader. When John sent me the revised appeal document, I knew I couldn’t have written so boldly about myself. I took his version, had a meeting with him to understand what he considered the weakest areas and spent a few more days editing the document before finally submitting it.
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My two cents: You know your documents better than anyone else. Use your documents and words within it profusely. Take comments out of letters or statements to bring home your point defending why the reviewer’s decision doesn’t fully weigh your experience and evidence. After you have done your best, have someone who is an expert or whom you trust, look through your appeal and your application to give you feedback.
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I walked into the application process thinking it would be a breeze… but it is quite literally the opposite of that. It is beyond stressful and utterly unpredictable. This process has truly taught me that no one is an island unto themselves so don’t resist learning from someone else who has gone through the process: Respect their opinion and leverage their experience. I think what worked for me in my appeal is taking my time, welcoming feedback and seeking expert advice before submitting.
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I am against checking your application on the portal and counting edits. I did it everyday, multiple times a day, during the application submission and learned the hard way that it is detrimental and sucks out all your energy. So, if you can, try not to. Better to be shocked once than toil.
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I am in utter gratitude to @Francisca_Chiedu, @pahuja and @Anurag_Singh for their feedback on my initial post and for their feedback over the years on this forum that has helped me in my application.
