I was granted the Global Talent visa in March 2023. Since then, I’ve switched companies twice and nearly doubled my income. Did the visa contribute to that? I’d say it certainly played a part.
After seven years at Yandex, I moved to the UK on a dependant visa linked to my girlfriend’s Skilled Worker visa. The first job I managed to get was a developer position at AWS. Although the dependant visa didn’t impose many restrictions, the fact of holding it didn’t inspire much confidence among employers. In that sense, the Skilled Worker visa works much better.
When we first moved to the UK, we weren’t aware of the Global Talent visa and assumed that one work visa between us would be enough — a sort of life hack. In practice, though, the main visa holder feels responsible for the dependant, which restricts their freedom and creates pressure where it isn’t needed. About six months after arriving, we realised we wanted to change that. Today, the Global Talent visa gives me the confidence to stand my ground at work and negotiate compensation more effectively. It’s also reassuring to be officially recognised as a ‘valuable’ immigrant, which makes overcoming the ‘immigrant syndrome’ much easier.
At that time, we had only been living in the UK for six months, and everything still felt very new. Anyone who has relocated knows that in the beginning almost everything is difficult — everything works a bit differently in a new country. The stress level was high, and delegating the work to professionals seemed like a good idea. On top of that, a friend of ours had just received a Global Talent visa through Immigram and was actively promoting its benefits.
After six months in the UK, we decided that we wanted to be independent of the job market and of our relationship with a single employer. On a friend’s advice, I reached out to a manager, and we had a call. We discussed the prospects and talked through the risks. It became clear that the case could be put together and that it was worth giving it a try.
The timeline is important here. Our first call was in January 2022. We started working very quickly: discussed everything, I received very rough drafts of recommendation letters, and began editing them. And then came February 22. Without any prior agreement, we essentially put the process on hold for about a year. We kept in touch occasionally to discuss the status, but there was no real progress. About a year later, once the shock of February 22 had moved into the background, I returned to editing and finalizing the letters.
Every case is individual, but if I could go back, I would have applied for the Global Talent visa from the very beginning, to avoid depending on circumstances and having greater freedom in making decisions. Relocation is a major source of stress for anyone, and I would recommend reducing that stress in every available way.
