First of all, a huge thanks to all the great contributors to this amazing forum. Reading through these posts really helped me preparing my application.
Thus, I think it’s my turn to give something back posting the summary of my application, in case it can be of any help to other applicants before the TN closure.
I applied for Exceptional Promise with OC2 and OC4 (sector: AI & Machine Learning, specialist skill: Research), from the UK (with Skilled Worker Visa).
Applied: Feb 16th
Endorsed: Feb 20th
(several edits through the weekend for what it’s worth)
My background:
PhD in Computer Science, with publications
Working in the UK as Research Scientist from last year
I had worked as freelance during my bachelor and master (openly stated in the application)
In the personal statement I covered:
My background, trying to mention the points covered by the recommendation letters
What I’ve done beyond my occupation (OC2), with references to the evidence
My current employment and how I’m contributing to the UK digital sector, again trying to cover the content of the recommendation letters
Why I moved to the UK already
Why I am applying for this visa
My plans for the future in the UK
I got the recommendation letters from:
Manager (with technical career) at my current company
My PhD supervisor (professor)
Professor from another university I worked with
When asking for the letters, I made the authors aware of the requirements from Tech Nation and I think that helped a lot in receiving good letters.
Evidence I used:
MC:
current contract with salary and bonuses
phd certificate
awards I won at conferences
OC2:
github contributions (covering two personal repositories with about 500 stars and 100 forks in total and other minor repositories)
reviewing activity for conferences/journals
OC4:
list of publications (with official links/DOI)
reviews of my phd thesis
phd certificate
awards I won at conferences
Overall, I had the feeling that the evidence for OC2 was the weakest, but I’m glad it was considered sufficient for the Exceptional Promise.
Now I applied to switch to the GTV (stage 2) and waiting for a decision from the Home Office (fingers crossed).
Note that you cannot leave the UK after completing stage 2 until you get a decision. I didn’t notice this before going through the process and it can be quite disruptive. I wasn’t given any options to get a faster decision.
I hope this can help! Please let me know if you have any questions, I’m happy to answers to them
Congratulations. Your OC2 is not weak, reviewing journals is a significant contribution besides you are scored on just one evidence for the optional criteria and you provided 2.
@stefano congratulations Stefano!
I have a question please: I see that you got a response in very short time, did you apply with the fast track option?
Thanks in advance
No, it was a regular application. I may have got a quick response due to the imminent closure of Tech Nation or maybe because I’m in the UK already (or both?).
As you can see in the initial post, I used my PhD certificate (official document from my university) as part of my MC and OC4.
I don’t know if it was accepted as evidence because I didn’t receive any feedback from Tech Nation (I think you don’t get any feedback if you get the endorsement).
For OC4, I also used my PhD thesis reviews (which were fairly positive) that may have helped, in addition to the PhD degree itself.
Update: I got the visa from the Home Office after about 6 weeks from the Stage 2 application.
Getting a decision after stage 2 was the longest part of the process in my case.
As stated here, you cannot get a faster decision on the Global Talent visa if you apply using the “UK Immigration: ID Check” app. Thus, be prepared not to leave the UK from the Stage 2 application until you get a decision (up to 8 weeks).
Congrtulations! I am a Phd student with a simialr background to you. I am currently struggling with OC2. May I know if your Github repos are the open-sourced code of your publications? I have several highly stared repos, but ther are all related to my publications. I am afraid that they doesn’t count for out-of-occupation works.
In my case, the github repos were re-implementations of other people’s articles, so they were not directly related to my publications (though the field was very much related).
If you have reviewed articles for conferences/journals, I would highly recommend including them too, in addition to the github repos. Teaching/tutoring might be considered valid as well, as long as it is not a mandatory part of your PhD course (assuming you’re applying for global promise).
I don’t know what was considered valid in my case, but in the unfortunate event the application is rejected, reasons for rejection should be mentioned in the letter as far as I know.
Hope this helps, keep us posted on your application
. Stage 1 - Stage 2 in one week.
