Hello!
First of all, I want to say that this forum is really useful and helping to get a lot of valuable information about Global Talent visa application. It’s wonderful that people are so supportive here!
Just like others here, I’d like to ask to go through my list of documents and give a feedback on how it can be improved. I also have some questions (they are marked with italica), and would appreciate if you could help me with them. Thank you in advance!
My documents:
Personal statement
CV
I’m a front-end developer in Russia with about 10 years of experience working in product-led tech companies. Currently I’m working for a UK product-led tech company with a headquarter in London. They are able to provide a job offer to their UK entity for me, in case I get a Global Talent visa. If I write about it in the Personal Statement and it’s confirmed by a LOR, would it increase my chances?
3 LORs
- 1 from the Head of Product in a company I’m currently working in. It’s a large and quite recognizable international product-led fintech company with a headquarter in UK. The product is one of the market leaders, with 500k business users.
- As it’s a large company, it could be difficult to get a letter from CTO/CEO. So would it enough to be from the Head of Product? Or not really, and it should be from the CTO/CEO?
- 1 from a Founder and CEO of a local product-led tech company I previously worked in. The company has been developing a product which became top 3 of market leaders in Russia, it was sold to the local market leader. Now this person is a Founder and CEO of another local product-led tech company.
- I worked as a team lead and led the growth of the front-end team in the company from 2 to 6 developers and it can be confirmed by the LOR. Can the LOR in this case be considered as one of the evidences for the Mandatory criteria?
- 1 from a Founder and CEO of a local product-led tech company I worked previously in. At the time I was working there, the company joined the ranks of 30 best Russian startups according TechCrunch-com (recognizable startups and tech media). The product developed by the company is used by 700+ business users.
Mandatory criteria (recognised as a leading talent in the digital technology sector)
- An Open Source project I’ve created with 1000+ GitHub stars / 75k downloads / Featured in recognizable JavaScript Weekly email / twitter newsletter (518k followers) and React Status email / twitter newsletter (18k followers).
- An Open Source project I’ve created with 120+ GitHub stars / 12k downloads / Featured in ProductHunt (recognizable tech products media).
- An Open Source project I’ve created with 60+ GitHub stars / 6k downloads / Featured in React Status email / twitter newsletter. A Medium article with the introduction of this project has 6.5k views and 98 likes.
- An Open Source project (a plugin for a famous front-end tool) I’ve created with 10+ GitHub stars / 11k downloads.
Optional criteria 1 (OS2 - Out of work activity)
- A tech article written by me (5,707 reads) published by a recognizable tech media Hackernoon.com (3M+ monthly readers, 73k followers in Twitter, 34k followers in Facebook).
- An article on mentorship in tech companies (“How to work with juniors”) written by me (1,144 reads) published again by Hackernoon.com.
- An YouTube video of a tech talk I gave online for a developers community of my city (1,299 views and 1,972 views of the related slides). The talk was given in Russian, but I will describe the topic in English.
- I can also include a Reference Letter from the organizer of this event describing why I was asked to speak - would it make sense to include to increase my chances?
Optional criteria 2 (OC3 - Significant contributions as an employee)
- A reference from my current company about my position, salary information and equity options. Information from Glassdoor that this is considered high earning in Russia.
- Do I understand it correctly that one evidence can be chosen for several criteria? And then this item can also go to the Mandatory criteria?
- A letter of support from my current Product Manager highlighting my contributions to the team and the product.
- A letter of support from my current company’s Front-End Development Lead or the CTO of a company I previously worked in highlighting my contributions to the team and the product
- From whom would it be better here? Do these letters of support can also go to the Mandatory criteria?
I also have 2 tech articles on Medium I’ve written (1st - 15k views and 220 likes, 2nd - 15.9k views and 317 likes). Although, I’ve read in the Guide that Medium articles may not be suitable. Does it still make sense to add them instead of one of the letters of support, for example? Or a letter of support would be more valuable?
Overall, does my application seem good enough to meet Exceptional Talent criteria?
Maybe Exceptional Promise? (but I suppose I don’t fit with “Be at an early stage in their career” criteria with 10 years of experience)
Thank you again in advance!
