The UK Global Talent Visa (Digital Technology route) is endorsed by Tech Nation against a single mandatory criterion plus four optional criteria. To be endorsed you must satisfy the mandatory criterion and at least two of the four optional criteria, evidenced within a maximum of ten documents of up to three sides of A4 each, alongside a CV and three recommendation letters. The self-check below walks you through those same areas in plain language so you can see, honestly, where your case is strong and where it is thin.
Where does your case look strong, and where does it look thin?
Answer each question with the option that is honestly closest to your situation. There is no login and nothing is stored or sent anywhere — the result is worked out in your own browser. Use the keyboard or a tap; each area offers Yes, Partly or Not yet.
This is an indicative, educational signal only — not an eligibility decision and not a scored assessment. A real endorsement turns on how your evidence is written and presented within the ten-document limit, which this quick self-rating cannot judge. The definitive scored answer is the £200 Fit Assessment.
Turn this signal into a scored answer.
The self-check is a starting point. The £200 Fit Assessment is the definitive scored assessment — your evidence scored out of 20, a Talent-versus-Promise route recommendation, a gap analysis and a 45-minute review call. Credited to any package within 14 days.
If the interactive self-check does not appear above, JavaScript is switched off in your browser. The six questions and how to read them are set out below, using exactly the same logic — you can score yourself on paper.
| Area | The question | What a strong answer looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Mandatory | Recognised or emerging leader in digital technology, beyond your employer? | External recognition of your standing, not only internal reputation |
| Optional 1 | External recognition of your work? | Independent awards, invited talks, press or expert references — not employer-organised |
| Optional 2 | Innovation you personally drove? | A product, technique, patent or architecture others adopted, attributed to you |
| Optional 3 | Significant contributions with measurable impact? | Quantified growth, scale, revenue or reliability, attributable to you individually |
| Optional 4 | Activities beyond your day-to-day role? | Sustained open source, external mentoring, teaching or standards work |
| Referees | Three senior, product-led referees? | Senior people at product-led digital technology organisations who know your work first-hand |
How to read it: to be endorsed you need the mandatory criterion plus at least two of the four optional criteria. If most of your answers are “Yes”, your case looks Strong; a mix of “Yes” and “Partly” reads as Promising; several “Not yet” answers mean there are Gaps to close. This is indicative only — the scored answer is the £200 Fit Assessment. Source: GOV.UK — Global Talent (Digital Technology), checked 6 July 2026.
How should I read my readiness signal?
Read it as a conversation starter, not a decision. The signal reflects how you rated yourself, and self-rating is generous by nature — most people mark themselves higher than an independent assessor would. A Strong signal means the raw material is likely there and the work is in presenting it well; Promising means the shape of a case exists but one or two areas need building or evidencing; Gaps to close means it is worth strengthening specific areas before you commit the £561 endorsement fee.
What the self-check deliberately cannot see is the thing that actually decides endorsements: how the evidence is written, curated and attributed to you within the ten-document limit. Two applicants with identical achievements are routinely judged differently on presentation alone. That is why every result on this page funnels to a scored assessment rather than pretending to be one.
What does each criterion actually mean?
The mandatory criterion asks you to show you are a leader or a potential leader in the digital technology field — recognition that reaches beyond your current employer. One of the most common reasons applications are not endorsed is recognition that exists only inside the applicant’s own company, so external signal is what matters here.
The four optional criteria, of which you need at least two, cover: external recognition of your work by the wider sector; innovation you personally drove as a founder or senior contributor; significant contributions to the field with measurable impact; and activities beyond your day-to-day role, such as open-source work, external mentoring, teaching or standards contribution. Academic or research contribution — published, peer-reviewed work — can support several of these where it is genuinely yours. Across all of them, the recurring failure mode reported by applicants and advisers is achievement stated at team level without individual attribution: “insufficient evidence of individual impact”. If you cannot yet point to what you specifically did, that is the gap to close first.
For the full criteria in Tech Nation’s own words, read our endorsement criteria guide, and if you are weighing which route fits, see Talent versus Promise. Settlement follows at three years for Exceptional Talent as a leader, or five years for Exceptional Promise as a potential leader.
Why do the referees decide so much?
Because recommendation letters are one of the single most common reasons a Digital Technology application is not endorsed. You need three letters, and they sit outside the ten-document evidence count. The recurring patterns reported by applicants and advisers are consistent: referees who are not senior enough, or who are not from product-led digital technology companies; and letters that are vague, generic, or that simply mirror the personal statement. Tech Nation’s own guidance flags weak letters as a primary reason for non-endorsement.
This is why the self-check asks about your referees as a distinct question. Strong evidence with weak letters is a weak application. If your honest answer here was “Partly” or “Not yet”, it is worth resolving early — our guide to recommendation letters explains what a senior, product-led referee looks like and how a strong letter is structured.
What does the £200 Fit Assessment add that this tool cannot?
The self-check gives you a signal from how you rate yourself. The £200 Fit Assessment is the definitive scored assessment: a component-by-component score out of 20 across the mandatory criterion, the four optional criteria, your letters and your documentation, with a Talent-versus-Promise route recommendation, a ten-document evidence plan, a referee strategy, a risk register and a written gap analysis. It includes a 45-minute review call — a live walkthrough of the report — and it is credited in full to any package within 14 days.
Between the two sits the free teaser inside the Endorsa Assessor: upload your documents, get an instant indicative band before any payment, then decide whether to run the full scored report. The logic is simple: £200 before you risk £766 in government fees, on a route where the endorsement is reported to pass around 1 in 4 applicants.* Getting Stage 1 right is where the money matters.
*Figure reported by applicants and advisers; the Home Office does not publish official route-level statistics. Treat as indicative, not guaranteed.
Frequently asked questions
No. This self-check is educational only. It gives an indicative readiness signal — Strong, Promising or Gaps to close — based on your own answers, and shows which areas look thin. It is not an eligibility decision and not a scored assessment. The definitive scored answer is the £200 Fit Assessment, which scores your evidence out of 20 and recommends a route. Endorsement criteria should always be checked on GOV.UK.
It covers the mandatory criterion plus the four optional criteria for the Digital Technology route: external recognition of leadership, innovation evidence, significant contributions to the field, and activities beyond your day-to-day role, along with academic or research contribution. It also asks whether you have three senior, product-led referees for your recommendation letters. To be endorsed you must satisfy the mandatory criterion plus at least two of the four optional criteria. Verify the current criteria on GOV.UK.
The Digital Technology endorsement requires the mandatory criterion plus at least two of the four optional criteria, evidenced within a maximum of ten documents of up to three sides of A4 each, alongside a CV and three recommendation letters. Verify the current requirement on GOV.UK before applying.
Because recommendation letters are one of the most common reasons applications are not endorsed. Referees who are not senior enough, or who are not from product-led digital technology companies, or letters that are vague or simply mirror the personal statement, are recurring patterns reported by applicants and advisers. The self-check flags this early so you can address it before you apply.
No. The self-check on this page is a quick educational signal based on how you rate yourself. The free teaser inside the Endorsa Assessor gives an instant indicative band from your uploaded documents before any payment. The £200 Fit Assessment is the definitive scored assessment: a component-by-component score out of 20, a Talent-versus-Promise route recommendation, an evidence gap analysis and a 45-minute review call.
Related reading: who qualifies, endorsement criteria, recommendation letters, true cost for your family, switching from Skilled Worker, refused — the 28-day review and all pain points.
Last updated: 6 July 2026. Criteria verified against GOV.UK on 6 July 2026 — always verify before applying.