Emma's Visa Fee Support Fundraiser
Donation protected
Hello everyone! As many of you know, I’m currently in the process of switching my visa so I can continue to live in the UK. I’ve lived here for over three years now and my whole life, creative career, and professional career are here. The process for switching my visa has been incredibly stressful, challenging, and quite scary. But I am positive about the outcome and working on it each day, I feel more and more optimistic.
For anyone who doesn’t know (and just to give more details to everyone), I’m applying for the Global Talent Visa. I'm applying as an Exceptional Promise candidate under the Arts and Culture category, as an artist with a combined-arts practice. The exceptional promise route is for artists who are in the early stages of their career, but are exceptional artists in their field, and show great promise towards becoming a leader in their field.
This visa works in two parts - the first being endorsement, and the second which is the visa application itself. For endorsement, I have to gather loads of material - letters of rec, full CV of professional history, and a range of evidence of appearances, showcases and so on - all proving my case that I’m an active artist who shows great potential. I then submit all this information to the Arts Council of England, where they can either approve or deny endorsement for me for the Global Talent Visa. The second part basically shows that I have the endorsement (once approved), and then the UK Government does its checks, and hopefully then I will then receive the visa. Once approved, this visa will grant me 5 more years to live and work in the UK, where I can continue to grow my creative and professional career here, in London! This visa is also great because after 5 years, I also have the chance to renew my visa, rather than the tediousness of switching my visa - which is what I am doing now.
Although this visa is amazing and promising, it is also incredibly expensive. The endorsement application costs £524, the visa application costs £192, along with the biggest fee - the immigration healthcare surcharge which is up to £5,175. The immigration healthcare surcharge is paid based on how many years the visa is for, it’s an estimated £1,035 per year, and if I’d like to have the five year visa time frame, it thus would come to the £5,175 fee. All together the costs of the visa will be around £5,891.
And this is where I am asking for your help! I love the life I’ve built here in the UK, and I’m not ready to let it go! Unfortunately, living in London is quite expensive, and I don’t have the proper savings to cover the costs of the visa myself, as I would have liked to. I’m beyond dedicated to growing my creative career here - hosting more markets, community events, exhibitions and much more! I’ve also just received an incredibly amazing promotion at my job, which I am so excited about! I have so many prospects and goals for 2025 and beyond, and I would be forever grateful for your support in my visa journey and helping me stay in the UK! I’ll be working extra shifts, doubles, and saving up every penny I can in the next few months, and any help given will make this nerve-wracking and stressful process, a lot less hard! Any bit helps! I would be beyond grateful and overjoyed for any support that could make these astronomical visa fees less of a burden! Thank you SO much in advance!
Thank you for even taking the time to read this statement about all this visa craziness. I’m quite stressed, so it feels even better to put my feelings down in words, and explain what I am working on right now, and it’s struggles!
If you can’t give in monetary form, that’s totally understandable, but reach out to me! I would love any support in my visa process that you can give, whether it’s proof reading something I’ve written or providing a testimony for any of my events you’ve attended - if you can think of a way to help, I’d appreciate it!
If you’re new here (and have made it this far), you can find more information about me and my practice on my instagram page: here or my market project instagram page: here. I host and curate community-based artists market events, smaller pop-up and showcase my work all around London town!
Lastly, if you’d like any further information about the visa and its fees, I’m providing some extra links below.
Again, THANK YOU for your help and time! I deeply appreciate it :)
Links:
Organizer
Emma Sielaff
Organizer
England