Hi all! I am in the very early stages of this process and still trying to find out if this visa is right for me, if I have a chance at qualifying for it.
I work in VR/AR video games as an artist. I believe TN is the one that would endorse me, I saw some others with similar backgrounds. I don’t think the art route fits that closely to what I do, let me know if that’s wrong!
Letters -
Person 1 - Owner of 1 game company I worked for: There are a few owners of this company, can I asked for 2 letters or would I only be able to send in 1?
Person 2 - Board President of a large academic org that puts on a leading conference: This person doesn’t have a huge online presence but they do important work like write books and put on a huge event for games.
Person 3 - Unknown, but I have some ideas based on if I can submit 2 letters from one company. I’m also wondering if an art director would be a good person to get a letter from? They work with me now but the company is so large that I’m not sure if they are high enough on the ladder to count.
Criteria 1: Show they have been recognized as having potential to be a leading talent in the digital technology field in the last 5 years.
Game one:
- One game I worked on had a 15 person team in 2021. This game was nominated for 22 awards and won 5. 6 of those nominations were for art. Of the wins, they were all for the general best game or best indie game.
- This game was also showcased at the Tribeca Film Festival.
- This game was on the cover of Game Informer with my art on the cover and inside the issue. My name was not mentioned here though but I can ask if the owner for one of my letters can include that.
- I was selected for a major scholarship while working on this game, my image is on their website too. This scholarship focused on mentorship and also put on a major award show and conference for games that I’ve been able to attend twice as a special guest/learning experience. I was one of two scholars that got to hand out the awards on stage during the live show. (We were nominated for 4 of these awards but we didn’t win.)
- I also helped set up a talk for this at the biggest game dev conference in my country too but I didn’t talk at this. I’m not sure if I have a way of proving this other then showing screenshots of a conversation I had with the organizer and maybe a statement saying I was the person who connected others together or if this is even enough.
Game 2:
- Another game I worked on with a team of 9 was nominated for “Best DLC” in 2023.
Other accomplishments:
- I currently work at a FAANG company developing VR tech which will contribute significantly to this industry. Question: I’m not sure how I can show this off without breaking NDA. I think we will show some stuff I was a major contributor for but my name will not be attached to it directly, no ones will be though.
- I showcased an art model/avatar in a gallery for an online VR event that had about 12,000 attendees world wide.
- I developed 3 other indie games with small teams with 3 to 5 people that we released on Steam or Itch.io. One was invited to a local game convention but it only had about 200 attendees.
As for the second set of criteria, I think I can prove “innovation as a founder of a product led digital technology company or as an employee working on a new digital field or concept” with the work I do at the FAANG company if I can figure out how to show that off.
I’m a little less confident for the next one, “recognition beyond the applicant’s occupation that contributes to the advancement of the field” but perhaps with the work I did on the first game it would satisfy this? With the Tribeca Film Festival, magazine, and being on stage at a big awards show.
Finally, my last question:
If I go through the whole process and I’m granted the visa, how long do you have to enter the UK? Is it something that has happen within a few months or are you able to go within the amount of years you have selected to have your visa for?
Thank you for taking the time to read through this with me. I really appreciate everyone here.