Assessment panel feedback:
The applicant is employed as a Director of Operations at Dimjosh, an e-commerce platform. They have applied for the Exceptional Promise track, and have submitted evidence for the Mandatory Criteria as well as Optional Criteria 1 and 2.
With regards to the Mandatory Criteria, the letters of recommendation show significant indications that templates were used in their creation; there are similarities in the formatting of the headers and footers, and throughout the body of the letters, indicating that a party other than the letter’s author was involved their creation to a greater or lesser extent. The visa guidelines state templating may raise concerns regarding the validity of an application for this reason, and for this reasons we have discounted the letters as evidence.
The applicant has not submitted any evidence for the Mandatory Criteria beyond the letters, their CV and personal statement, so we are unable assess this criteria and have not awarded it.
With regards to Optional Criteria 1, the applicant has submitted evidence of contributing to an open source project, and evidence of leading business growth. None of this evidence is relevant to the requirements of this visa, since the majority describes various activities in businesses that do not meet the visa guidelines of a product-led digital technology business. There is evidence of activity with regards to an e-commerce platform, but there is no explanation why this work is innovative; it appears to be a basic e-commerce website with nominal revenues. We have not awarded this criteria.
With regards to Optional Criteria 2, the applicant has submitted evidence of speaking at the Youth Conference of Inter-Church Revival Mission, which is not a recognised event in the digital technology sector. There is also evidence of certification, which is not sufficient for this criteria. We have not awarded Optional Criteria 2.
In conclusion, the evidence has not met the requirements of the chosen criteria, and we are unable to endorse this application for Exceptional Promise.
The letters of recommendation. Focus on getting new letters, and do not use any template! This is a no-no.
Mandatory Criteria.
I suggest providing more reasons to show that your work is significant. Find a benchmark, appraisal within the company, annual staff assessment stating you are above the average, and your salary compared to the industry benchmark. You can see more examples in the Tech Nation guideline. https://technation.io/visa-tech-nation-visa-guide/#mandatory-criteria
By getting the right, appropriate, and strong letter, it may help you a lot in this criterion.
Optional Criteria 1:
Innovative is the KEYWORD. How is your work innovative?
Also please note that this criterion does not require you to prove the impact. If you think IMPACT is the key, you should go for Optional Criteria 3 instead.
Optional Criteria 2:
Perhaps you can prepare yourself to speak at a bigger event in the digital technology sector. Outreach them, selling yourself why they should have you on the stage. Find the event or organization that is recognized in the sector with the numbers of viewership or attendees as per guidelines. After then you may come back and resubmit your application.
otherwise, if you think the assessor is making a mistake, you can appeal or try to get the most feedback from the other assessor to use those feedback for your future application.
I am not sure how you plan on appealing this decision though it costs nothing but waiting time. You should focus on strengthening your case by finding evidence that aligns with Tech Nation criteria and submitting a new application.
