How should I appeal the rejection letter?

Stage 1
1

Hi all,

Today I got my rejection after just ten days of applying for the exceptional talent route. I had submitted the following documents:

Letters of Recommendation from the following people:

  • Co-Founder and CEO of my former employer in my home country
  • Co-Founder and CTO of my previous employer (UK-based)
  • My line Manager at my current company (UK-based)

For the mandatory criteria:

  • Reference letter from current employer highlighting high salary and equity options)
  • Payslip from former employer, and my job offer from Meta
  • Degree letter from a top ten uni + CFA Level One certificate + scholarships received
  • additional recommendation from a director at my current company
  • additional recommendation from a director at my former company

Evidence of innovation

  • Recommendation from a CEO and founder of a startup in my home country, where I helped the as an advisor/mentor, mentioning how my innovative solutions have helped them to grow
  • Snippet of a code used to automate of governance process in an innovative way in my current company + attestation letter from a colleague

Evidence of impact and contribution:

  • Snippet of a code used in a process that had a real impact in my current company + attestation letter from colleague
  • Snippet of a code used in a process that had a real impact in my previous company + attestation letter from colleague

This is their explanation:

The applicant should not be endorsed for the Exceptional Talent visa. He has not provided compelling and sufficient evidence to meet the criteria. He has applied under Optional Criteria 1 and 3 (OC1 and OC3). The three mandatory letters are complimentary to the applicant but we are unable to see how and why he has been recognised as an exceptional talent. We are unable to see evidence that demonstrates that he is one of the world’s leading data scientists at the forefront of his field. He is portrayed as a competent and responsible professional but the standard for this visa is higher than this. There is no sustained national or international recognition by way of reputed awards. Entrance test results for his undergraduate course are irrelevant for this criteria. There are no publications where he has influenced thinking in the data science field, or keynote speeches at leading industry conferences where he has shaped the direction of the sector. The university and CFA certifications aren’t relevant towards demonstrating exceptional talent. The salary slips and Facebook job offer also aren’t compelling evidence. We are unable to award the Mandatory Criteria. Regarding OC1, we are unable to see a track record of innovation in a new digital field or concept. Code snippets for the risk process at XXX don’t demonstrate any innovation that meets the threshold for this visa. And his work in location-based tracking and solutions isn’t new or invented by his. We see no IP or patent where he is a named inventor. We are unable to award OC1. Regarding OC3, the applicant has provided code snippets as evidence of his contributions. However, we are unable to see what is the impact of his technical contributions, what technical, business or operating metrics this resulted in and why they are significant. We are told that his work is critical to XXX but none of the reference letters indicate any kind of impact or metric. We are unable to award OC3. We are unable to endorse the applicant as he does not meet any criteria.

I’m deeply disappointed with the decision. Should I consider appealing, especially for promising talent, or has it already been automatically considered? What points should I clarify or address in my appeal letter? Any advice and guidance is appreciated.

2

Hey I think your application mostly consists of code snippets and letters which are hard to validate externally.
job offer from Meta: this doesn’t show any contribution or innovation. Working at meta and delivering features with a lot of users could show innovation and impact. Its not really something you can write to your cv as an achievement.
Degree letter from a top ten uni + CFA Level One certificate + scholarships received: this doesn’t shows that you are a leader. It shows you have a potential.
Recommendation from a CEO and founder of a startup in my home country, where I helped the as an advisor/mentor, mentioning how my innovative solutions have helped them to grow: this might be a OC2 evidence rather than showing innovation.
Hope it helps.

3

You need to read the technation guide properly and go through successful applications on this forum.

4

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

To clarify, I didn’t use my job offer as evidence of innovation or contribution, but rather I used it, along with my payslip from former employer, to demonstrate my career trajectory. Same goes for the the other piece of evidence on my degree and scholarship.

Considering my situation, do you think it’s worth appealing the decision? If so, what would be my strongest case?

Thanks.

6

You need to read the technation guide properly and go through successful applications on this forum.

I think I at least partly did.

I don’t know what “no publication” mean since I did not aim to fulfil the academic contribution criteria!

Additionally, some of the response seemed very strange, such as the statement that “Entrance test results for his undergraduate course are irrelevant for this criteria” - I did not use my entrance test results to meet any specific criteria, but rather briefly mentioned them as part of my personal background in my personal statement.

7

To clarify, I didn’t use my job offer as evidence of innovation or contribution, but rather I used it, along with my payslip from former employer, to demonstrate my career trajectory.

This doesn’t matter. You should try to show where you are at this point as a leader and global talent and what are your achievements in terms of innovation, impact and influence within the last 5 years. The other things you provided might seem like desperation to fill evidence unfortunately.

I don’t know the contents of your application but I think their explanation is clear. Data science is highly academic area. A lot of the companies doesn’t even hires undergraduates as DS. You need to prove you are a leader in your area and influence other data scientist somehow. Without papers, patents or talks or a commercially successful product it is hard to show. Might worth looking at the other ds applications in the forum.