UK has a special visa program wherein it gives out 200 visas each year to people who have shown exceptional talent, or exceptional potential, in the technology field. It's great for self-employed folks, and entrepreneurs.
I am preparing to apply for this visa.
Basically, I am stuck on two points.
1. How talented is 'exceptionally talented'?
It's hard to gauge how high the bar is set. I couldn't find much information about people who got this visa.
I am a 23-year old self-employed, self-taught developer who runs a couple of moderately-successful, profitable online ventures. I have a few hundred paying customers on my SaaS platform, and 10k+ license sales for my distributed software.
2. Need two recommendation letters from recognized experts in tech (doesn't have to be a UK-based expert)
How famous does the expert have to be? Does a $200k-revenue-founder work? or does it have to be a $100m-exit-founder?
I am flying to London next week, and was hoping to spend most of my time networking. It's a pretty long shot, but I am hoping I can get at least one recommendation letter out of it.
Does anyone on HN have experience with this visa type?
Any advice on how someone who is bad at networking can get a recommendation letter from a who's who of London's tech scene?
1) It was meant for The sort of folks that earn titles like "Principal Engineer"
2) It was going to be way easier to get a Tier-2 visa sponsorship.
My advice would be to reach out to the influential people who already follow your blog, have have gone to your talks, or who use your product.