I just received a Not Endorsed for Exceptional Talent

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1

Hello Everyone,

I submitted my application for exceptional talent on April 6th and I just got a response that I didn’t meet the requirement.

The application is explained in detail below,

I’m the CEO of a Fintech company with thousands of customers in Nigeria. Our application has been downloaded more than 10K times on the play store and apple stores, previously I also founded a sms app which has been downloaded by more than 50K times on Google play.

  1. I got references from the CEO of a Fintech company in Nigeria ( the company that processes payments for the Nigeria Immigration service)

  2. I also got from the VP of another leading fintech company in Nigeria who is well aware of my work and our relationship with their company.

  3. I also got from a Leading Manager of the top 2 switching company in Nigeria who attested to my technical prowess as well as that of the company I lead.

For Mandatory evidence - I attached news clippings where I was featured commenting on Fintech and the technology. I also submitted my shareholding document and company registration documents as well licenses, integration certifications from Nibss for my company.

For OC1 - I submitted my products - a fintech product , contribution on GitHub and my SMS product as proof of innovation

For OC3 - I submitted Google Analytics of both products, application dashboards and Evidence of commercials of the company and/or product.

I would really appreciate if you could help review my submissions before I work on an appeal.

Thanks and I’ll be looking forward.

I also want to know if I can file appeal as exceptional promise instead of talent this time around.

2

Hey Olumide, sorry to gear about that, let’s see what we can come up with.

I have a hunch that the main area would be the recommendation letters, one of the requirements there is for people to be familiar with your work and I assume for most cases that means working with you personally, not just being aware of the work through the grape wine.

Could you specify how close these three people that wrote you the letters were and did you actually work with them on a day-to-day basis, say, in the same workplace or conducted long-term partnerships (seems to be true for the 2nd letter)

3

Hello MNeverOff,

Thanks for your response. The letters of recommendation were from people with long term partnerships - the least been one year of partnership.

None of them have worked with me in the same workplace, I’ve been a Founder/CEO all my career meaning I could only get recommended by partner companies who I have a working relationship with.

All the three are representatives (A CEO, Vice President, and a Senior Manager) of partner companies our company and I work with on a daily basis due to the nature of our partnership.

4

Hi Olumide, Sorry to hear about this response.

It appears you didn’t provide any evidence related to work you’ve done outside of your day to day work. Is the Github contribution work-related or for an open source project?

For OC1 you put in the word “impact”. Is this what you optimised for with your evidences? OC1 from the tech nation guidelines seeks examples of innovation and not necessarily impact. OC3 leans towards impact related evidences.

OC2 on the TN guide asks for work done outside of your day to day. Evidence of commercials etc don’t seem to fit this criteria.

I am referring to this for the definition of OC1, OC2, OC3, and OC4 https://technation.io/visa-tech-nation-visa-guide/#optional-criteria . Does OC1 and OC2 you posted above directly map to OC1 and OC2 in the TN guide?

This is just my view and I do not consider myself an expert at this at all so I may be off. Hopefully the more experienced members here will pop in and help.

5

It is not recommendation letter . I got same response aswell today with almost similar experience . It is obvious that the Technation does not check evidence in most cases. They only glance through. They work with personal statements in most scenarios . I have founded my company , launched several softwares available for purchase online. Sold thousands of copies , Developed several android mobile apps available on google playstore and other appstores with several links and screenshots including my developer acct details

Submitted several documents company registration account statements other activities on digital marketing eccommerce projects .submitted many websites which I have built for clients including products management projects!

They never check any of those documents .
These people have quota for applicants from Africa aswell and they are still treating 2022 applications as 2021. They are endorsing at random and rejecting at random. So whoever reviewed an application might feel like endorsing depending on how happy his or her mood his .

They don’t consider talent for promise anymore since the new rules published in first week of April

The process now seems to me as gambling . I am not considering a review for now . Focusing on other relevant activities!

6

Hello Westside,

Thanks for your response. I actually chose and provided evidences for OC1 and OC3.

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7

Hi Olumide,

What was the Assessor’s feedback? It is based on this feedback, you will appeal.

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8

Based on what you have listed, it is not clear how many evidence you submitted. The assessor’s feedback should be your basis for an appeal.

9

Hi @Olumide_Omotoso,
So sorry about your rejection. I’m glad you’re prepping for an appeal.
I think you need to share a screenshot of the assessor’s response here so that more experienced folks can advise accordingly.

10

Based on some of the evidence you provided, like building many website for clients, you application sounds more like you do outsourcing or consultancy so you may not necessarily have met the requirements of this visa. The emphasis has been on product-led digital technology company.

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11

What did you submit for the mandatory criterion? The issue may be proof of leadership.

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