Is there still a separate form for the endorsement in 2026?
No — there is a single GOV.UK Stage 1 endorsement form, and this is the one operational detail most guides still get wrong. Until 2025 you completed a separate application form and then a Home Office visa form. Since 4 August 2025 the separate form has been withdrawn, and you now apply for the Digital Technology endorsement through one GOV.UK form. Tech Nation remains the endorsing body that assesses your application; the change was to the paperwork, not the assessor. If you are reading a guide that still describes filling in a standalone Tech Nation application form as a live step, that guide has not been updated since the change, and small details it gives you may be equally stale.
This matters beyond pedantry. The single-form process changed where your evidence lives, how it is uploaded, and the order in which the questions are asked. A walkthrough written against the old two-form flow will send you looking for boxes that no longer exist and will not prepare you for the ones that do.
Source: GOV.UK — Global Talent: Digital Technology. Verified 5 July 2026; always re-check the live form and guidance before you apply.
What should I have ready before I open the form?
Prepare every attachment before you touch the form, because the form is mostly an upload wrapper — the decision is made on what you attach, not on what you type into it. The endorsement is assessed almost entirely on documents, so a half-built application started in the form itself tends to be a weak one. Have the following finished first: your CV, your 3 recommendation letters from senior referees, and your set of up to 10 evidence documents (each no more than 3 sides of A4), already mapped to the criteria they support. Confirm which route you are applying under before you begin, since that choice frames how a reviewer reads everything else.
The £561 endorsement fee is paid at this stage; the £205 visa fee comes later, at Stage 2, and the two are separate payments. Budgeting for the endorsement alone, and treating the visa stage as a distinct step, keeps the process honest in your own head as you fill the form in.
What does the identity section of the form ask for?
The opening section captures who you are and your contact and status details — name, nationality, contact address and your current immigration position. This part is administrative and rarely where applications fail, but two things are worth care. First, the name and details here must match the identity documents you rely on later, because inconsistency invites avoidable queries. Second, if you are applying from inside the UK — for example switching from a Skilled Worker visa — your current-leave details entered here connect to the timing of the whole application. In-UK applicants should note that the visa stage can take up to 8 weeks, so the status you record now is the status a reviewer sees against the clock.
Which route do I select, and where?
The form asks you to choose between Exceptional Talent and Exceptional Promise, and this is a decision, not a formality. Talent is for established leaders in the field and can lead to settlement after 3 years. Promise is for potential leaders — typically earlier in the arc of a career — and leads to settlement after 5 years. The form itself does not tell you which fits; it simply records your choice and then reads all of your evidence through that lens.
Choosing the wrong route is a quiet way to weaken an otherwise strong case: evidence that would comfortably clear the Promise bar can look thin when it is asked to carry a Talent claim, and vice versa. This is a case where "which one?" is exactly the question the form cannot answer for you. Our Talent versus Promise guide sets out the distinction, and the Fit Assessment gives you a scored route recommendation before you commit the choice to the form.
What does the criteria section actually assess?
The criteria section is where you confirm the mandatory criterion plus at least 2 of the 4 optional criteria, and map each piece of evidence to the criterion it supports. The form is not judging your talent in the abstract — it is testing how clearly your attached evidence proves each criterion you have selected. This is the heart of the application and the section that most rewards preparation.
A recurring failure pattern reported by applicants and advisers is the Mandatory Criterion failing even when the optional criteria pass: a candidate assembles impressive optional-criteria evidence but under-builds the mandatory one, and the whole application falls. Another is recognition that exists only inside the applicant's own employer, which reads as internal rather than sector-level standing. When you map evidence to criteria in this section, the useful discipline is to ask, for each attachment, "which single criterion is this here to prove, and would a stranger agree it proves it?" The endorsement criteria guide breaks down all five; the mapping is what the form is silently scoring.
Not sure your evidence maps cleanly to the criteria?
The £200 Fit Assessment scores your case component by component — mandatory criterion, OC1–OC4, letters and documentation — and tells you which route to select before you open the form.
Where do the CV and recommendation letters go on the form?
Your CV and your 3 recommendation letters are attached in their own part of the form and, importantly, they sit outside the 10-document evidence count — so they do not consume any of your 10 evidence slots. You provide exactly 3 letters, not more; a common misconception is that adding a fourth or fifth strengthens the case, when the requirement is 3 and padding beyond that does not help.
The letters are one of the most-cited reasons for non-endorsement, so treat this part of the form as high-stakes rather than a box to tick. The failure modes reported again and again are referees who are not senior enough or not from product-led digital-technology companies, and letters that are vague, generic, or simply mirror the personal statement back. A letter that restates your own claims in someone else's signature adds nothing a reviewer can weigh. Our recommendation letters guide covers who should write them and what a strong one contains.
How does the evidence section handle my 10 documents?
The evidence section takes a maximum of 10 documents, each up to 3 sides of A4, and this constraint is the single most operationally important limit on the form. Ten documents at three pages is not much room, so every document has to earn its place and every page has to work. Uploading a 40-page conference programme to prove you spoke at it wastes the format; a single clean page evidencing your specific contribution does the job.
The recurring evidence failures reported by applicants and advisers are worth holding in mind as you choose your 10. Achievements stated at team level without individual attribution read as "insufficient evidence of individual impact" — the form gives you no field to explain the team-versus-you distinction, so the documents themselves must make your individual contribution unmistakable. Optional-criteria evidence is often rejected on technicalities: employer-paid or employer-organised speaking, internal-only mentoring, or articles that are generic or were published just before applying. And evidence outside the relevant recency window is a common own goal. The evidence guide works through how to assemble the 10-document pack so each item maps cleanly to a criterion.
What happens after I submit the form?
Once you submit and pay the £561 endorsement fee, Tech Nation assesses the application and a decision usually follows within 5 to 8 weeks. There is no free-text stage after submission to add the point you forgot — which is why the preparation before the form matters more than the form itself. If the endorsement is granted, you move to Stage 2, the Home Office visa application, where the £205 visa fee and the Immigration Health Surcharge (usually £1,035 per year for each person applying) are paid.
If the endorsement is refused, there is no statutory appeal, but there is a free, non-statutory endorsement review that must be requested within 28 days of the decision. A review challenges process errors only and does not allow you to add new evidence — a further reason to get the 10-document pack right on the single form the first time. Our page on the 28-day window after a refusal covers the review and the reapply decision in full.
Frequently asked questions
No. Since 4 August 2025 the separate application form has been withdrawn. You now complete a single GOV.UK Stage 1 endorsement form. Tech Nation remains the endorsing body for the Digital Technology route; the change was to the form, not the assessor. Verify on GOV.UK before you apply.
The evidence section takes a maximum of 10 documents, each up to 3 sides of A4. Your CV and your 3 recommendation letters sit outside that count, so they do not use up any of the 10 slots. Verify current limits on GOV.UK.
You confirm you are meeting the mandatory criterion plus at least 2 of the 4 optional criteria, and you map each piece of evidence to the criterion it supports. The form does not judge your talent in the abstract — it assesses how clearly your evidence proves each selected criterion.
Yes. The form asks you to select the route. Talent is for established leaders and can lead to settlement after 3 years; Promise is for potential leaders and leads to settlement after 5 years. The choice shapes how your evidence is read, so decide it before you start filling in the form.
The GOV.UK endorsement form is completed online and you should prepare your CV, 3 letters and up to 10 evidence documents before you begin, because the substance is in the attachments rather than free-text boxes. Always follow the on-screen GOV.UK guidance for the current save-and-return behaviour.
Related reading: what changed in 2025/26, endorsement criteria, evidence (10 documents), recommendation letters, Talent vs Promise, plus the personal statement guide, our process and the pain points hub.
Last updated: 5 July 2026. Facts on this page were verified against GOV.UK on 5 July 2026 — always verify the live form before applying.