UK Global Talent Visa (Tech Nation Endorsement)

In September 2024, I was endorsed by Tech Nation as an exceptional talent in technology under the UK Global Talent visa route.

What the Global Talent endorsement is

The Global Talent visa is the UK's immigration route for leaders, and potential leaders, in digital technology. Unlike a work visa, nobody sponsors you: an endorsing body examines years of evidence of impact inside and outside your day job and decides whether you qualify as exceptional talent. It's less a form than a career audit.

The work behind it

My evidence was sixteen years in the making: co-founding Sarshomar (a survey platform that raised $1M and reached one million users in its first month) and Jibres (an e-commerce platform serving 1,200+ businesses that won a national award), leading engineering teams, teaching 2,000+ students, open-source work, and mentoring. Building two companies in a challenging market, then starting again from zero in London, turned out to be the story the evidence told on its own.

If you're applying, honest advice

• Start collecting evidence early. Impact is easy to create and hard to reconstruct. Save the numbers, screenshots, and press as they happen.
• Show impact beyond your employer. Mentoring, open source, talks, and community work carry real weight. They prove the "leader in the field" claim your job title can't.
• Let numbers do the talking. "Served 1,200+ businesses" beats a paragraph of adjectives.
• Write a narrative, not a CV. The personal statement should explain why the field is better because you're in it, and what you'll do in the UK.

I regularly review Global Talent cases in mentoring sessions. Bring yours.

What it means to me

This endorsement is the one I hold most personally. It's the UK saying "we looked at everything you've built, and we want you here." I try to repay that welcome by helping the next engineer through the same door.