A burning question from all applicants - Is my art covered by this visa?

The more creative and esoteric or pioneering a discipline you pursue, the more pertinent this questions will be for you. For example, considering my cultural proximity to Korea and K-Pop, I receive these questions often. I've finally received a response - of a kind - from Arts Council England this month.

As suspected, the areas of art assessed by the Council appears to be rather 'traditional' e.g. for Dance = Ballet, Music = traditional instrumentalist, but do read on and draw your own impression/ conclusion.

I've shared both my questions and their response below as they were received.

1.      Specifically please could you confirm whether the following Visual Arts disciplines are assessed by ACE for endorsement:

a.     ceramics, 

b.    drawing, 

c.     painting, 

d.    sculpture, 

e.     printmaking, 

f.      Book Arts,

g.     Textile design, 

h.       crafts, 

i.       photography, 

j.       architecture,

k.     industrial design, 

l.       graphic design, 

m.     fashion design, 

n.    interior design,

o.     decorative art,

For Visual Arts we assess a wide variety of disciplines. From the list of disciplines provided most of these (apart from industrial design, *most areas of fashion design, **some areas of graphic design, architecture and interior design) are assessed by Arts Council England.

Ceramics, Textile design and Crafts (*including some areas that could be classified as fashion design) would need to be items specifically made for exhibition and not for commercial purposes. For example – ‘The making of notionally functional or decorative crafted objects. A crafted object is one which has been made by hand, not manufactured (although it may include limited production runs using automated or semi-automated processes eg printing on textiles). It has often been made by the hand of the product's designer, and shows their skill and creativity. Crafts include traditional/heritage crafts which use skills and techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation and contemporary crafts using characterised by innovative techniques and use of materials.’

**Some areas of graphic design, architecture and interior design can be considered however, this cannot be commercial, must be specifically related to the arts and cannot include production or construction of items/buildings.

As there is not an exhaustive list of every discipline that we assess, we advise applicants in our published eligibility guidance that applicants should contact us if they require advice on what disciplines we do or do not assess.

  4. Specifically please could you confirm whether the following Music disciplines are assessed by ACE for endorsement under Tier 1 Exceptional Talent/ Promise:

a.        K-Pop (Korean Pop) music performers (singers, group members)

b.        K-pop concert designers, concert/ music video producers and directors, musicians,

c.         Contemporary music band members (heavy metal, rock, indie genre), alternatively, a list of musical genres covered by ACE

For Music we assess a wide variety of disciplines. From the list provided we could consider all of the disciplines listed. In general for music we support:

Classical, Baroque, Early Music, Chamber, Orchestral, Choral, Choirs, Vocal Ensembles, Gospel, Brass bands, Opera, Popular (pop, rock, soul, country, funk, hip-hop, r&b, urban, blues, singer-songwriters, electronic music), Jazz, Experimental, Swing, Big Band, Folk (traditional music and song indigenous to the British Isles), World Music (music primarily associated with a specific nation outside of the British Isles)

Members of bands or groups will need to apply separately and provide evidence that proves their individual promise/talent – in accordance with the eligibility criteria.

As there is not an exhaustive list of every discipline that we assess, we advise applicants in our published eligibility guidance that applicants should contact us if they require advice on what disciplines we do or do not assess.

5.     Finally, The composition of the decision-making panel at ACE.

Arts Council England are not the decision makers for Tier 1 Visas. The application and decision-making process is undertaken by the Home Office. Arts Council England's role is to provide an assessment of an application against the published criteria for Exceptional Talent/Promise – which is carried out by one of our pool of artform specialists from our teams across the country – which is then moderated and signed off by a Senior Manager who checks that guidance has been followed appropriately before returning the recommendation to the Home Office.

As usual, my thoughts on any potential applicants for endorsement is that an endorsement application is infinitely worth a try (rather than not). A refusal from this application does not prejudice any future visa application and unlike a visa application, it does not require you to surrender your passport for assessment. Ultimately the more esoteric your discipline, the stronger the case for making an application for Art Council to assess. Therefore, the only way to 'find out' your chances of success is to prepare and submit an application straight away. 

If you would like to start an assessment of your application, please contact me here.

I had these stats from 2015 but didn't publish them at the time - didn't seem significant. Tech City (or Tech Nation) endorsement statistics for foreign Tech Start Ups are in. From 2015. 

N.B. I have made a new request this month and the results are expected in the next 40 days. Will be updating my post then.

As with all Tier 1 Exceptional Talent endorsements, these are lesser known and rarely explored visa routes in general. The application threshold is not necessarily high but they are specialised to the route you are taking (e.g. artists, tech start up with C Suite roles, business operation and management to IPO stage etc.).  For Tech City applicants, endorsement letters from the industry mentors is also useful so a general tip would be to get yourself, and your business, known to as many influential people as possible, and build your network. Easier said than done of course, but hey, you've come this far, set up your startup, managed to get your ideas realised into operation. You can do it!

The 2017 stats from Arts Council England is in.

I've been requesting the stats from Arts Council since around 2015. A quick comparison of applicants for the 'Artist Visa' looks like this. A few comments:

1. Bearing in mind that Arts Council England is allocated 250 endorsements each year - 125 between 6 April to 30 September, then the remaining 125 + whatever remains from the first period between 1 October - 5 April, the total annual number of applicants do not come close to the maximum endorsement of 250 allocated to Arts Council.
2. The total number of applications, especially for Tier 1 Exceptional Promise category has increased in 2016 (from 106 in 2015 to 209 in 2016 = circa. a whopping %51 increase). This is still a lesser known category of visa but the reason for the increase could be as a result of something small like my workshop provided for the Korean Cultural Centre in London towards the end of 2016 *smugface*
3. The figure for 2017 could be from Jan 2017 onward which may not give us the most accurate picture of the competition (see para. 1 above - 250 allocation is divided in to two chunks throughout the year, ending and starting in April and October). Nevertheless, this figure includes applications received and decided up to and including 13 April 2017, which was the date of my request to the Council. It would be fairly safe to assume that the current 2017 figures don't yet take into account any applications received from the new year of allocation which began on 6 April 2017.
4. Despite the increase in the no. of applications, success rate still remains high.
5. If you want to see where your application would stand, get in touch for an initial assessment/ consultation. Go to Book Consultation.  

My FOI request to the Royal Academy of Engineers came back at Easter.

It was a bit disappointing to see that the numbers were bunched up together between 2015 - 13 April 2017, because the Royal Academy of Engineers were allocated a finite number of endorsements each year (150 per year, split into two periods, i.e. 75 between 6 April - 30 September and 75 + whatever is left over from the first period between 1 October - 5 April). But still incredibly useful statistics nevertheless. Between some 2.5 years (2015 - April 2017), the Royal Academy would have been allocated over 300 endorsement by the UKVI but only 56 applicants (representing circa. 19% of all available endorsement) even attempted the application for endorsement. (Exceptional Talent categories tend to be fewer because of the high threshold so that's normal). Both Exp Talent and Exp Promise categories, more than a majority of the applicants succeeded (72% avrg.). Finally, there doesn't appear to be the Academy-own production of leaflets or information sheet on this visa route. They refer to the UKVI guidance only.

1. Still too few are applying for endorsement under the category (19% of all available endorsements).
2. Once you do apply, the success rate is fairly high (72% on average across both categories).
3. Perhaps information on Tier 1 Exceptional Talent/ Promise is not so widely known or available. Well, fear not! Solicitor Cho shall be posting updates and further information on this throughout the year.
4. Conclusion? It's definitely worth a try!

Incidentally, I loved the RA's politeness and speedy response. Much appreciated and it was a pleasure dealing with the Academy.

Is a Sole Representative's spouse who joins the main applicant later in the UK eligible to apply for ILR?

(i.e. even if they have lived in the UK for fewer than 5 years in total? Or even if they have been outside the UK for more than 6 months in each of the 5 years?)

Yes, they are. The relevant immigration rules Part 5: Working in the UK, para.196D states the requirements for dependants of a Representative of an overseas Business ("Sole Representative"), which includes a continuous period of 5 year residence. Additionally, Home Office Staff Guidance (v.13.0 April 2016) on assessing this 'continuous period of 5 years' states that no more than 180 days of absence within each year of the whole 5 years residence is allowed. While the main applicant must meet this residence requirement of continuous 5 years, there is no such requirement for their dependants.

See screen captures below. Please note this is not intended to be legal advice for anyone but general information, available on the UKVI's website. For tailored advice, please book a consultation.

YMS 멘토링의 밤, 제 5회 (주영 한국 대사관 주최) 2015년 6월 9일 [14 JUN 2015]

안녕하세요, YMS 여러분! 조은영 변호사 입니다.

지난 화요일 6월 9일에 멘토링의 밤 에 만나 뵙게 되어서 반가웠습니다.

약속드린데로 화요일에 발표한 내용 및 못다한 질문에 대한 답, 그리고 수정할 부분에 대해서 아래에 정리 하였으니 참고 바랍니다:

2015년 6월 9일 저녁 발표내용

YMS 전환 (Switching) 가능 비자 차트 다운로드
YMS 에서 Tier 2 (General) '전환' 방법 타임라인 다운로드

View fullsize

잠깐 설명을 하자면, 현재 YMS (Youth Mobility Scheme) 라는 category 는 Points Based System 중 Tier 5 의 Sub category 에 속한 비자로써 위에 chart 는 여기서 어느 종류의 비자가 가능한지 한눈에 볼수 있도록 만든 것 입니다. 맨 위 오른쪽에 있는 Tier 1 (Entrepreneur) 비자 부터 시계방향으로 돌아가면서 보시면 됩니다.

여기에서 알아두면 좋은 점:

• * 표시가 되어 있는 것은 이 비자의 장점이나 특별히 알아두면 좋은 사항을 뜻하는 것이고,
• 전구등 표시가 되어 있는 것은 좋은 아이디어나 역시 중요한 사항을 알려 드리는 부분입니다.
• 마지막으로 ! 표시가 되어 있는 것은 특별히 불리하거나 매우 중요한/ 조심해야 할 사항을 알려 드리는 부분 입니다.

Tier 5 에서 Tier 2 (General) '전환' timeline chart 는 6월 9일 저녁에 발표한 내용을 좀 더 알아보기 쉽도록 고쳐 보았습니다. 결론은 YMS로 영국에 도착해서 2년이라는 비교적 자유로운 시간이 주어지지만 영국에서 장차 Tier 2 (General) 로 구직하여 정착하기 위해서는 좀더 부지런하게 장래의 취직을 위해 준비하시면 좋다는 결론 입니다. 

N.B. 위에 chart 의 비자 종류는 Points Based System 비자와 아주 간단한 Partner visa, 그리고 EEA Partner 비자를 잠깐 소개한 것 입니다. 따라서 PBS 비자 종류 외에도 Sole Representative Ancestry, Returning Residents, 등등 개인의 특별 사항에 따라서 가능한 비자들이 있다는 것을 알아 두시면 좋을 겁니다.