By way of background, I am the COO and co-founder of a fintech startup (in financial compliance) in Singapore which serves SMEs in Singapore. Over the past 3 years we have been fortunate to scale Singapore revenues to over a million pounds. A year back I have relocated to UK (due to my husband’s job move and better prospects for my elder daughter education). This neatly fit with my startup goals on market expansion. The core intention is to launch in the UK market and we have already commenced the work here (setting up entity, tech integrations, market testing etc)
Since I am in the UK, I can continue on the company plans under my current visa. But I would like to apply for the Global Talent visa so that I am not dependant on my husbands job (risk in banking jobs of being fired at short notice) and secondly so that I can get the ILR in a shorter time of 3 years rather than 5 under my current visa.
If I just state the above though in my personal statement, Im doubtful the reason seem strong enough. Is there any other perspective that I can introduce - any other benefit of the visa?
Hi @SKK . Your personal statement is just 1 out of 15 documents you are going to demonstrate your capability. Which, I can see that you should not have much issue with the personal statement.
However, more importantly, you will need to build the rest of the documents up. Have you chose 2 out of the 4 optional criteria?
In case if you have not gone through Tech Nation Visa Guide - Tech Nation , please read it through clearly on every paragraph to make sure that you totally understand the guideline. Most people fail to do this to understand and later underestimate the requirements. Otherwise, you can list your documents for us to help evaluate and suggest further.
HI @alexnk - Thank you so much for your response. I’m just formulating my thoughts around the whole application, but where I was stuck right now is on the reason why I am applying and if it has merit.
Im applying for 2 reasons - 1) get independence from my husbands’ visa and 2) get a faster ILR so my daughter can educate here
The last para of my personal statement I state these 2 reasons and i wanted an opinion if this a fair ground to apply. Also if there is any other aspect / flavour that i could add in to boost the reason to apply
Separately, after the first few iterations, my personal statement has the following outline.
Introduce myself and my startup, explain its unique proposition and where we are right now in the company journey
Why, when I moved to the UK and how it neatly fits with our company expansion plans
The steps I have take since I have moved to the UK(setup entity, acquired licenses, launched and failed, rethinking scale strategy, tech integrations into govt APIs like open banking HMRC etc)
My contribution in bringing the company to where it is and the accolades its earned
Outside of work, my credibility in promoting more women into the workforce and my contributions on charity boards outside of work and how I intend to apply to UK
My experience before my startup (my corporate career, education and how its shaped me)
Why this visa is important to me 1> basically Im already in UK on skilled worker visa but it dependant on my husbands job and I want the independence 2> faster ILR
Any feedback on the statement would be very helpful.
Again, if you read the guideline clearly, you will see that you are wasting your own time by doing it incorrectly.
Personal Statement (maximum 1000 words in length) written by you to explain the contribution that you will make to the UK digital technology sector. The statement should be relevant and consistent to the rest of your application, including answers to the following questions and any other information you deem relevant:
Why do you want to come to the UK?
What is your planned occupation in the UK?
Which region or city of the UK are you planning to live in?
How will the UK digital technology sector benefit from your work? (Examples of this might include the technological advances you will bring, the creation or new markets, the planned growth of a digital technology company, the activities you will take part in outside of your direct occupation.)
Please read Tech Nation Visa Guide - Tech Nation! I know it is a long instruction, but it is the single source of truth. You can formulate your application evidence just by reading this guideline, and ensuring that your evidence meets these requirements. Try not to assume what you want to provide as evidence. @SKK
It is not necessary to state you are applying because your daughter or risk of your husband losing is job. Focus more in the impactful contribution you want to make in the UK digital technology sector. States some of the benefits the UK has over where you currently reside and how the UK has a wider market reach for your startup and other reasons that show you have done your research and thought this through.