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Global Talent visa: endorsement routes and fees

The Global Talent visa has no employer sponsor. Most applicants first pay £561 for an endorsement from an approved body, then £205 for the visa (£766 in total); prize winners pay £766 and skip the endorsement. Each grant lasts up to 5 years, and settlement is possible after 3 or 5 years depending on how you were endorsed.

The Global Talent visa is an unsponsored UK work route for people the Home Office treats as leaders, or potential leaders, in academia or research, arts and culture, or digital technology. There is no job offer and no employer sponsor. Instead, most applicants first ask an approved endorsing body to confirm that they meet the criteria for their field, and then apply for the visa itself using the endorsement letter. Someone who has won a prize on the Home Office list can skip the endorsement and apply for the visa directly.

This guide explains the two-part process, what each part costs as at 10 October 2026, who judges each field, how long each step takes, what the Immigration Rules say about extending and settling, and where partners and children fit. It describes the rules. It does not say whether any particular person meets them, and it does not say which route anyone should use.

Fees come from the Home Office fee table dated 8 October 2026 and from GOV.UK's Global Talent pages. Fees and rules change by regulation and by Statement of Changes, so check the current figure on GOV.UK before you pay anything.

The two-part process

Appendix Global Talent sets out the structure in its opening lines: for most individuals there is a two-part application process. The first part is an application for endorsement. The second part is an application for entry clearance (from outside the UK) or permission to stay (from inside the UK).

  • Part 1, endorsement. You apply on GOV.UK. The Home Office sends the application to an organisation approved for your field. The rules list what the endorsing body must be satisfied about, and the evidence it asks for. The outcome is an endorsement letter.
  • Part 2, the visa. You apply online for the visa itself and prove your identity. Outside the UK, that is done either with the UK Immigration: ID Check app or at a visa application centre. Inside the UK it is done with the app or at a UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services (UKVCAS) service point.
  • Prize route. If you are the named winner of a prize on the Home Office list, there is no Part 1. You apply for the visa and the Home Office checks publicly available information, such as the prize body's website, to confirm the win. GOV.UK says you are only asked for evidence of the win if they cannot find it.
  • Order. You can apply for the endorsement first, or apply for the endorsement and the visa at the same time. The rules say a person can make the endorsement application before making the application for permission, or both at the same time.

The endorsement is not the visa. The digital technology page states that you will not automatically get a visa because you have been endorsed. The visa application still has to meet the general requirements: the fee and the healthcare surcharge must be paid, biometrics given where required, the applicant must be 18 or over, and the application must not fall for refusal under the suitability rules.

What it costs, step by step

The Home Office fee table of 8 October 2026 lists these Global Talent figures, and GOV.UK's route page matches them:

  • Endorsement application: £561 (listed in the fee table as the fee for an approval letter from a competent body for an initial Global Talent application).
  • Visa, where an endorsement is used: £205 for the main applicant, whether applying from outside the UK or extending or switching inside it.
  • Visa, where no endorsement is needed (prize route): £766 for the main applicant.
  • Dependants: £766 for each partner or child, whichever way the main applicant applied.
  • Total for a main applicant using an endorsement: £561 + £205 = £766.

On top of the application fees, nearly everyone pays the immigration health surcharge. GOV.UK says it is usually £1,035 per year for each person applying, and £776 per year for applicants who are under 18 on the date of application. The surcharge is for the full length of the permission requested. The Global Talent grant can be for up to 5 years and the applicant chooses the length, so the surcharge changes with it.

Worked examples, using only those published figures:

  • One adult, endorsement route, 3-year visa: £561 + £205 + £3,105 surcharge = £3,871.
  • One adult, prize route, 5-year visa: £766 + £5,175 surcharge = £5,941.
  • Adult and partner, endorsement route for the adult, 3 years for both: £3,871 + (£766 + £3,105) = £7,742.
  • Add one child under 18 for 3 years: £766 + £2,328 surcharge = £3,094, which makes £10,836 for the family of three.

Biometrics carry no fee. A tuberculosis test, if you are from a listed country, and translations, if documents are not in English or Welsh, are costs the fee table does not cover. GOV.UK says the £561 is paid when you apply for the endorsement and the £205 when you apply for the visa itself. Optional faster decisions have separate fees; GOV.UK says you may be able to pay for one and that you will be told when you apply.

Who endorses, field by field

GOV.UK gives each field its own page, its own evidence list and its own endorsing body. The rules (GTE 1.1 to GTE 8.10) set the criteria that body must apply.

Academia or research. GOV.UK describes four ways in: an eligible academic or research job offer, an individual fellowship, a research grant approved by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), or an eligible prize. The first three are the "fast track" routes. If none applies, the route is peer review by the Royal Society (science and medicine), the British Academy (humanities and social science) or the Royal Academy of Engineering (engineering and technology). The rules say a fast-track applicant must give specific evidence, for example written confirmation of a listed fellowship, or a declaration from the research organisation's human resources director. A UKRI-grant applicant must show a grant worth at least £30,000 that covers a minimum of two years. GOV.UK's overview gives 2 weeks for fast track and 5 weeks for peer review, and individual fast-track sub-pages give 1 or 2 weeks, so read the page for the route you would use.

Arts and culture. The field covers combined arts, dance, literature, music, theatre and visual arts, as well as architecture, fashion design, film and television, and the design industry. Arts Council England judges the application, and GOV.UK says that for some sub-fields another body judges on its behalf: the Royal Institute of British Architects for architecture, the British Fashion Council for fashion, the Producers' Alliance for Cinema and Television (Pact) for film and television, and the Design Business Association for design. GOV.UK gives a decision time of 8 weeks for this field.

Digital technology. Tech Nation reviews the application. GOV.UK gives usual endorsement decision times of 5 to 8 weeks. Applicants may come from a technical background, such as developers and data scientists, or a business background with commercial, investment or product expertise. The rules ask for a CV, three dated letters of recommendation from three different established experts who have detailed knowledge of the applicant's work over 12 months or more, and evidence against the criteria for either "exceptional talent" or "exceptional promise".

In every field the applicant is assessed as either a leader ("exceptional talent") or a potential leader ("exceptional promise"). The promise limb is usually for people earlier in their careers, and, as the settlement section below shows, the label can affect how soon settlement is possible.

The prize route

The prize route exists for people who have won a prize named on the Home Office list, published as the Global Talent eligible prestigious prize lists and reproduced in Appendix Global Talent: Prestigious Prizes. Two conditions apply under rule GT 4.1A: the applicant must be the named recipient (prizes given to an organisation or group the applicant is associated with are not acceptable), and the prize must not have been withdrawn or suspended. GOV.UK adds that other prizes awarded by the same institutions are not eligible, and that the prize must be named on the list.

Under the points table in GT 4.1, a person making an initial application who relies on a qualifying prize is awarded the 70 points needed, and so does an applicant relying on a valid endorsement. In both cases, the other tests in the appendix still apply: identity, suitability, age, tuberculosis screening where required, and the fee.

Because the prize route has no Part 1, the whole £766 is paid at the visa stage. There is no endorsing-body assessment to wait for, and no endorsement letter with a three-month validity window.

Timing: the three-month window and processing times

Three time limits matter in practice.

  • The endorsement letter expires for visa purposes. Rule GT 1.2(e) says that when applying for a first grant using an endorsement, the date of application must be no more than 3 months after the date on the endorsement letter. GOV.UK repeats this: you must apply for your visa within 3 months of receiving your endorsement letter.
  • How early you can apply from abroad. GOV.UK says the earliest you can apply for a visa is 3 months before you travel.
  • Decision times. Once you have applied online, proved your identity and provided documents, GOV.UK says you will usually get a decision on the visa within 3 weeks from outside the UK and 8 weeks from inside the UK. Longer waits can come from document verification, an interview, a family member who needs an appointment, or personal circumstances such as a criminal conviction.

If you apply for the endorsement and the visa at the same time and the endorsement is refused, the digital technology page says your visa application will be rejected and you will get the visa application fee back. That page also says that, when your permission to stay is about to expire, applying for the visa extends it until a decision is made, but applying for an endorsement, or for an endorsement review, does not extend your stay. In-UK applicants should read that sentence on the page for their own field before choosing the order of applications.

While an in-UK application is pending, you must not travel outside the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man. GOV.UK says the application will be withdrawn if you do.

If the endorsement is refused

The digital technology page sets out a review process for a refused endorsement, and the arts and research pages carry a similar section. As that page describes it:

  • The review is done by the endorsing body that looked at the original application.
  • There is no fee.
  • It looks at specific areas you raise, for example a piece of evidence that was not properly looked at or a mistake in how the application was processed. If nothing was wrong with how the process was followed, the application will not be reconsidered.
  • You cannot give new evidence as part of the review.
  • You must request the review within 28 days after you get the decision, by filling in the Global Talent endorsement review form and emailing it to the Home Office. You will be told by email within 28 days whether the review succeeded.
  • If the endorsing body refuses again for the same reasons, you get an email, you cannot ask for another review, and you pay the fee again if you make a new application. If it refuses for new reasons, you get a letter and can ask for another review on the new reasons only.

Separately, a refused visa application (as opposed to a refused endorsement) can be challenged by administrative review under Appendix AR; rule GT 6.2 says so. See the administrative review guide for fees and deadlines.

What the visa allows

Rule GT 7.1 says permission is granted for the number of years the applicant requests, up to 5 years on each application, and GT 7.2 says there is no limit on the total period of permission on the route. The conditions in GT 7.3 are:

  • no access to public funds;
  • work, including self-employment and voluntary work, is permitted, except as a professional sportsperson (including as a sports coach);
  • study is permitted, subject to the Academic Technology Approval Scheme condition in Appendix ATAS.

GOV.UK adds that you can be an employee, self-employed or a director, and that you can change or stop doing your job without telling the Home Office. It also says there are no language or minimum salary eligibility requirements for the visa itself. That last point only covers the visa. The settlement rules, covered below, have an English language requirement.

Someone already in the UK cannot switch to Global Talent if their last permission was as a Visitor, Short-term Student, Parent of a Child Student, Seasonal Worker, Domestic Worker in a Private Household, or outside the Immigration Rules (rule GT 1.5ZA). Students can switch only if they have completed the course they were sponsored to study, or have been studying a full-time PhD for at least 24 months (rule GT 1.5A). GOV.UK also says anyone with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme does not need a visa.

Extending the visa

Extensions use the same fee (£766 per person at inside-the-UK rates in the fee table, with the same surcharge arrangement) and the same online route. The points rule in GT 5.1 is different from the initial one. An applicant who has, or last had, Global Talent permission must have earned money in the UK during the last period of permission in the relevant field:

  • the field related to the prize subject matter, if the first grant used a prize; or
  • the field in which they were previously endorsed, if the first grant used an endorsement.

If the first grant used an endorsement, that endorsement must not have been withdrawn and the endorsing body must still be approved by the Home Office on the decision date. GOV.UK tells applicants to send evidence of earnings, with payslips as an example.

Each extension can be for 1 to 5 years, chosen by the applicant. Partners and children apply separately to extend, either at the same time or at any time before their current permission expires.

Settlement, and the proposal that could change it

Global Talent is a route to settlement (indefinite leave to remain). Under rule GT 11.1, the qualifying period is a continuous 3 years in the UK if the applicant was endorsed by the Royal Society, the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering or UKRI; or was endorsed under the exceptional talent criteria by Arts Council England or Tech Nation; or was granted the first permission using a listed prize. Under GT 11.2 it is 5 years if the applicant was endorsed under the exceptional promise criteria by Arts Council England or Tech Nation. Time with permission (not as a dependant) on a list of routes counts, including Skilled Worker, Innovator Founder and Scale-up (GT 11.3).

Other settlement conditions in the appendix:

  • the endorsement must not have been withdrawn, and the applicant must have earned money in the UK in the relevant field during the last period of permission (GT 10.1 and GT 10.2);
  • the continuous residence requirement in Appendix Continuous Residence applies, which limits absences to 180 days in any 12-month period, with exceptions that include research activity abroad by people endorsed by the bodies named in the rule (CR 3.1 and CR 3.4);
  • English (speaking and listening) at B1 for applications before 26 March 2027 and B2 for applications on or after that date (GT 13.1), and the Knowledge of Life in the UK test;
  • the settlement fee is £3,226 per person (see the ILR fee guide).

A dependent partner needs 5 continuous years with permission as a dependent partner (GT 30.1).

Earned settlement is different from all of the above. It is a proposal in a Home Office consultation, not a rule. The consultation paper proposes a 10-year baseline qualifying period with reductions, and it proposes that 3 years of continuous residence as a Global Talent worker or Innovator Founder would carry a reduction of 7 years. It also says it is consulting on a 5-year reduction for family members of this group. See the earned settlement guide for what is proposed and for the dates published. Until the Immigration Rules change, the periods above are the ones in Appendix Global Talent.

Partners and children

A dependant can apply as a partner or child. GOV.UK defines a partner as a husband, wife, civil partner or unmarried partner, and says you must be able to prove one of: a marriage or civil partnership recognised in the UK; living together in a relationship for at least 2 years when you apply; or a relationship of at least 2 years where you cannot live together, for example because of work or study in different places or because it is not accepted in your culture. A child must be under 18 (including a child born in the UK during your stay), or over 18 and currently holding permission as your dependant, and must live with you unless away in full-time education, and must not be married or in a civil partnership.

Each family member pays the £766 fee and the surcharge, and applies separately, giving the main applicant's application number. Dependants' permission usually ends on the same date as the main applicant's. They can work, except as a sportsperson or coach, and study. Children born in the UK during your stay do not automatically become British citizens; GOV.UK says you must apply for the child's dependant visa if you want to travel in and out of the UK with them.

Dependants cannot apply to switch from some statuses, including a visit visa, short-term student visa, seasonal worker visa, immigration bail, or permission given outside the Immigration Rules.

When people use a regulated adviser

The endorsement criteria are field-specific, and the evidence lists are long. Applicants sometimes pay a regulated adviser or solicitor to check that their documents answer the right criteria, that letters of recommendation meet the format rules, or that the order of applications works for their immigration history. In England, Wales and Scotland, only IAA-registered advisers, solicitors and a few other regulated persons can lawfully give immigration advice. An adviser must give you a client care letter before work starts. See the guides on choosing an adviser and on questions to ask first.

The Migratio directory lists IAA-registered advisers (with their level) and SRA-regulated solicitors, each with their regulator and registration number. Migratio is not regulated by the IAA or the SRA and does not give immigration advice. This page explains how the rules work; it does not tell you what to do in your case.

Questions people ask

How much does the Global Talent visa cost in the UK?

£766 for the main applicant. With an endorsement, that is £561 for the endorsement and £205 for the visa. With a listed prize, it is £766 at the visa stage. Each partner or child pays £766. The healthcare surcharge is usually £1,035 per year per adult, on top.

Do I need a job offer for a Global Talent visa?

No. GOV.UK says you do not need a job offer to get the visa. You need either an endorsement from an approved body for your field or a prize on the Home Office list.

How long does a Global Talent endorsement take?

GOV.UK gives about 8 weeks for arts and culture, 5 to 8 weeks for digital technology, and 1 to 2 weeks for academic and research fast-track routes (5 weeks for peer review). The visa then usually takes 3 weeks from outside the UK and 8 weeks from inside.

How long is the Global Talent endorsement letter valid for the visa?

For a first grant, the visa application must be made no more than 3 months after the date on the endorsement letter (rule GT 1.2(e)).

When can a Global Talent visa holder apply for settlement?

After a continuous 3 years for those endorsed by the named academic bodies, those endorsed as exceptional talent by Arts Council England or Tech Nation, and listed prize winners; after 5 years for exceptional promise endorsements by Arts Council England or Tech Nation (rules GT 11.1 and GT 11.2).

Is earned settlement already in force for Global Talent holders?

No. Earned settlement is a government proposal that went to consultation. The Global Talent appendix on GOV.UK still contains the 3-year and 5-year qualifying periods. Read the earned settlement guide for the dates and what is proposed.

Sources

Last checked 2026-10-10.

Related guides

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