GTV Stage 1 Application Review - Software Engineer

Stage 1
1

Hello everyone,

I’ve been working on my Global Talent Visa (Exceptional Talent) application and would really appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

I have 10 years of experience in mobile app development, mobile SDKs, and mobile games. I initially joined my current company as a senior developer and later became a partner.

Reference Letters:

R1: Founder of my current company and a UK citizen angel investor.
R2: CEO and founder of a partner company. I led the iOS development and technical direction of a mobile app project that was featured multiple times on the App Store and Google Play. The app is currently the #1 in its category in Turkey.
R3: Founder of a mobile gaming company that uses a tool I developed. He is a London-educated angel investor whose company has over 400 million users.
R4: CEO and founder of another partner company, who was listed in the Fortune 40 under 40. We co-developed a mobile game where I handled Unity client development and served as CTO.

I need to drop one of these references but I’m struggling to decide which.

⸻

Mandatory Criteria (MC):

MC1:
• I am the CTO and lead mobile developer of a tool used by hundreds of mobile apps and games.
• Evidence includes:
• Internal dashboard screenshots showing publisher revenue through our tool
• Contribution graphs from private GitHub repositories
• Code snippets
• Internal supporting letter outlining my contribution

MC2:
• For the mobile app referenced in Letter 2:
• Firebase analytics screenshots
• Internal revenue dashboards
• Apple benchmark data
• Code screenshots

MC3: Share transfer agreement proving that I became a shareholder after joining the company as an employee

MC4: Diagrams showcasing the innovative aspects of the tool

MC5: Government-issued certificate confirming our company is an official R&D center

⸻

Optional Criteria:

OC1.1 – For the tool:
• Code screenshots
• My GitHub profile showing contributions to private repos
• Public profile listing my work on over 40 SDKs
• Supporting letter from the CEO of current company

OC1.2 – For the mobile app:
• Code screenshots
• Document confirming my co-founder status
• Apple benchmark analytics

OC3.1 – For the mobile app:
• Client invoices
• Statistics from third-party analytics tools
• Supporting letter from a colleague to confirm my contribution
• Screenshots showing featured placements

OC3.2 – For the tool:
• Payment confirmation emails from international partners
• Sample client invoices
• Revenue breakdown by year
• Public link showing tool usage statistics
• Code sample from a game project using the tool

@Akash_Joshi @Francisca_Chiedu @May @mahesh3110 and anyone who wants to help thank you in advance.

2

Hi @mhmtkrgz

You have a good set!

In MC, MC4 and MC5 won’t stand as independent evidences: all your evidences are relating to the same company hence need to be tied together in the same evidence doc as these two don’t qualify for valid examples of evidences for MC. In addition, all your evidences are from internal work however in MC you need to prove how you are recognized in the whole industry hence having atleast 1 public evidence would help strengthen. For your existing evidences and letter, ensure that they relate the impact to the industry to show a larger significance.

OC1.1 and 2: ensure you clearly present what was the innovation here and your significant contribution to this innovation. You can do this in the letter of 1st doc however OC1.2 looks weak on how this aligns to the criteria.

OC3 letter needs to highlight the impact of your contribution more than the contribution itself. This section needs improvement to prove how your self-claims are attributed to the quantified impact.

You can use one of the LORs as a reference letter in OC1.2 or OC3.2 wherever it fits best.

1 Like
3

Your experience in mobile development is definitely a strong asset. The people who wrote your reference letters are clearly accomplished, which is a great start. When I’ve seen successful applications, they often have a clear narrative about the applicant’s impact, what they want to do in the UK, and the other requirements mentioned in the official docs.

Deciding which reference to omit is always a tough call. While R2 highlights a successful app, R1 establishes your foundational role and partnership. R3 is crucial as it demonstrates the wide adoption of your tool by a company with a massive user base. R4 provides a high-profile endorsement and underscores your CTO-level responsibilities. Therefore, R2, while good, might showcase a narrower scope of impact compared to the others.

For your Mandatory and Optional Criteria, you’ve gathered a lot of evidence. Make sure each piece of evidence directly and obviously supports the specific point you’re making for that criterion. For instance, with revenue dashboards or analytics, explicitly state what the numbers mean for your innovative contributions or impact.

4

Thank you very much for your feedback. @pahuja and @Akash_Joshi

I’ll revise my application based on your suggestions and post an updated version for your comments. But first, I have a few questions:

1.Multiple Roles (Mobile Developer, Game Developer, CTO):

I’ve held different roles — sometimes simultaneously — such as mobile developer, game developer, and CTO.

Could this variety of roles cause confusion in my application?

How can I present this more clearly?

Would it be better to leave some roles out altogether?

2.Proving My Contribution:

How can I clearly demonstrate that the evidence I’m providing reflects my individual contribution?

For example:

  • A mobile app I developed was featured on the App Store. I wrote the code, and I have screenshots and user reviews — but how do I prove my contribution to the app?
  • I worked as the CTO of a mobile game that reached over 1 million users. How can I effectively show the value of my contribution in that context?
5

Having multiple roles is fine. You need to highlight the ones for which you have strong backing evidence to show impact on company/industry and to clear the criteria. If there are few roles that aren’t relevant for evidences then you can put those as an additional section in your cv.

You can show individual contribution by additional supporting evidences like reference letters, media links/PR if your name was mentioned in them, code commits showing your name.

6
  1. It would definitely be easier to show a career progression, if it exists. That would be just be better for explaining the evidence - no other reason.
  2. GitHub contributions graph and screenshots of PRs.