May non-UK person recommend me?

You can get Letter of Recommendation from any person from any country - Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa Blog

Please, pay your attention that Talent Visa Help is not updated anymore. Starting from January 5, 2021, I don't proofread drafts of Personal Statements, Letters of Recommendation or any supporting documents. Also, I do not answer individual questions either via email or Linkedin. For more details, go to the Global Talent Visa Help Updates.

Please, donate to this page if Talent Visa Help was useful for you.

Recently, I have got a question about non-UK referees and decide to write a little bit more about this issue. Recommendation for Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa application is always a difficult subject to think about.
 

Sure, you can find the answer to this question on page 27 of the Tech Nation Guidelines for Tier 1 Exceptional Talent (Promise) Visa Applicants. Follow these rules and I will repeat this every time since I am doing this writing every my post. But also, I think you need to try your luck and look out of the box.

Hence, even if your referees will not be UK-based managers of C-suite level – do not worry too much. In my case, I had one recommendation letter from American person and another letter from Ukrainian expert. They both work in tech / investment companies with a stable international reputation. But again – they did not have any direct links with the UK.

So do not forget that your application is not just these letters! They need to prove a major fact – that you are a cool guy (or a smart lady). But you will not win even having unbelievably great recommendation letters but empty CV and dummy personal statement.
 
So do not think only about this issue of “UK based” or “non-UK based”. The Guidelines have a great word “international” regarding companies with transnational operations but without offices in the United Kingdom. Hence, your application can be successful even without this ideal option of having UK based referees.
 
Focus on your representation as a future star in technology or business and show that you have already done first steps towards your goal. I believe that a very important part of the Tier 1 Exceptional Promise Visa application is your personal statement. Write here about your projects and big ideas, your DIY activity and amateur researches. Why it will disrupt UK tech markets? Mention your past achievements but write about your goals only in the UK. Why the UK is quite unique country for you in business terms?
 
Finally – a small trick about visa personal statement 🙂
 
Write your personal statement. Change a title of country from the “UK” to any other (USA, Australia, South Korea, etc.). If it is still good – this personal visa statement will not win.
You need to write a piece of text only about you and the UK. You as a talent. And this really Great Britain as a country that is waiting for you.

Please, pay your attention that Talent Visa Help is not updated anymore. Starting from January 5, 2021, I don't proofread drafts of Personal Statements, Letters of Recommendation or any supporting documents. Also, I do not answer individual questions either via email or Linkedin. For more details, go to the Global Talent Visa Help Updates.

Please, donate to this page if Talent Visa Help was useful for you.

Talent Visa Help has been created for informational purpose and is not an official guidance for Global Talent Visa (Tier 1 Exceptional Talent Visa) application.

Talent Visa Help should not be used as a substitute for the official Tech Nation Guideline or Home Office Guideline. Talent Visa Help is NOT linked either with Tech Nation or Home Office. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the texts belong solely to the authors at Talent Visa Help. The contents of Talent Visa Help do not constitute legal advice and authors accept no liability for the accuracy of information provided. Applicants should always consult the official governmental guidance and seek professional immigration advice where appropriate.

For additional assistance, please, contact help@talentvisahelp.com

Author: Andrii Seleznov

TalentVisaHelp is an independent project to help more talents and promises to come to the United Kingdom. This project is created by Andrii Seleznov, Tier 1 Exceptional Promise visa recipient and Tech Nation Visa Ambassador in past. Andrii is an experienced entrepreneur, professional engineer and technical founder at Petiole. Additionally, Andrii is an Alumni Mentor at GIST Tech-I Competition and winner of local agritech Hackathons in Ukraine.

3 thoughts on “May non-UK person recommend me?”

  1. I have two strong referee from EU country but don’t have UK referee, so is it enough? Can I apply for exceptional promise without UK referee?

    Reply

    1. Hi S S Haq Shemul,
      I can say from my own experience – two non-UK referees are acceptable in application of Tier 1 Exceptional Promise Visa. I had the same situation (the US-based person and Ukrainian). At the same time, do not overestimate the importance of these Letters – your whole visa application has to be good in order to get Endorsement by the Tech Nation. So, please, work twice hard on Personal Statement and supporting documents too.
      Sincerely,
      Andrii Seleznov

      Reply

      1. Thanks a lot for your kind help. Its very encouraging to me.

        One more thing, I’ve tried to download recommendation letter and statement template from your app but as I am using on laptop I am unable to download them.

        Is there any other way to get them?

        Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *