This week I'm going to concentrate on HOW we got our visas to go the UK. Every country has its own types of visas that are available for those looking to move permanently. We did A LOT of research to see what was out there (we needed a type of 'self-employed' visa and those are a bit more difficult to find). We had actually looked briefly at this visa a while ago but thought it would be too much work and might not work for us. However, after more research (and more silence from Canada), we decided to go for it!
UK: Global Talent Visa
This visa is in two parts:
Stage 1 - endorsement
Stage 2 - visa application
You must first be endorsed by the proper governing body (either for Exceptional Promise or Exceptional Talent) and once endorsed, you can then apply for the visa (which is usually guaranteed IF you've been endorsed).
There are three fields you can apply for:
Academia or research
Arts and culture (our field)
Digital technology
We decided to go for Exceptional Talent via the Arts Council England (arts/culture).
On November 3, 2023 we applied for the endorsement from the Arts Council (exactly 3 years after applying to Canada). The email said to allow 8 weeks for a decision. We had to pay part of the visa application fee at this stage.
Requirements for the endorsement for Exceptional Talent:
- 3 Letters of recommendation (1 from a UK-based cultural organization, 1 from another cultural organization from any country, and 1 from a cultural organization OR an eminent individual with recognized expertise in your field)
- CV or resume
- 10 pieces of Supporting evidence (from at least 2 of the 3 categories):
Media recognition (reviews from at least 2 countries)
International Awards (at least one from any country)
Proof of appearances: publications, distribution of your work in at least 2 countries (concerts, music distribution/streaming/sales)
All evidence (10 pieces) must be from the last 5 years. This is important! For us, that made it a bit more difficult as most of our albums/performances/reviews were from earlier in our careers.
Also very important: INTERNATIONAL! They want to see that your music has been performed by people in other countries, streamed/sold internationally, or that you have performed in other countries (besides your own).
Here is what we included in our application for endorsement:
- Cover letter, listing everything we included in the endorsement application
- CV (showing many albums, performances, premieres, sheet music published, teaching, etc)
- 3 letters of recommendation (including 1 from our music publisher in London)
- 4 pieces of evidence – media (including 4 recent reviews of our latest album: 1 from Hong Kong, 1 from the UK, and 2 from the U.S.)
- 6 pieces of evidence – proof of appearances (including masterclasses given, a performance of Scott's work in Australia, international sheet music sales, Apple streaming from all over the world, a video from the International Viola Society, and a video series on a reputable website)
Important things to note:
Generally, you cannot use blogs or social media posts as evidence (for Exceptional Talent). I'm not sure if this is also the case for Exceptional Promise. This is pretty unfortunate since so many companies/magazines/newspapers have now gone online and post on social media.
Those applying for Exceptional Talent are usually farther along in their careers while those applying for Exceptional Promise have less experience. If you are endorsed for Exceptional Talent you will get a 3-year visa after which you can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (aka Permanent Residency). Those endorsed for Exceptional Promise will get a 5-year visa, meaning they cannot apply for ILR until those 5 years are up.
On December 14, 2023 we received the endorsement.
On January 1st, 2024 we applied for the visa. We included our endorsement letter and passport info, as well as our intended date of arrival in the UK. We paid the rest of the visa application fees here AND the IHS fees (health surcharge fees for immigrants while on a temporary visa).
Immediately after this step, we booked appointments at the local USCIS center for biometrics (photos, fingerprints, etc). This was booked through VFS Global but we were lucky enough to have a center only 15 minutes away and didn't need to go to the NY VFS office. Once we had these in hand, we sent our passports and biometrics to the VFS NY office via UPS.
They received our passports/biometrics and sent them to the UK office for approval. Once we got a notice that our passports were on their way back to us, we were expecting an approval email at the same time. This doesn't happen (strange, right?). We had to wait until we got our passports in hand!
On January 12, 2024 we received our official visa approvals and had our passports back with the vignette (visa sticker) in them. They gave us a 3-month window to arrive in the UK from our preferred date we entered in the application. This worked out great!
Timeline:
September/October 2023: collect documents needed for endorsement (this can take a while, especially getting the letters of recommendation)
11/3/23: applied for endorsement
12/14/23: received endorsement
1/1/24: applied for visa
1/12/24: received visa approvals/passports
While this visa takes a lot of work gathering documents, it's definitely worth it. That part is over but we still have SO much to do between finding a rental, switching phones over, organizing all of our belongings to see what we are bringing and what we are leaving behind, changing addresses, selling the car, selling the house, and saying goodbye to friends and family.
We are excited for our upcoming move to the UK!
More next week….