Photo credit: CBC
Companies are offering to help migrants pose as talented artists and tech experts to make fraudulent UK visa applications under a fast-track immigration scheme, the BBC has found.
The UK government’s Global Talent visa was launched in 2020 to attract the “brightest and best” scientists and researchers from around the world. It is also open to creative artists.
Following BBC’s investigations, the Home Office is now revoking visas issued to two Nigerian men who claimed to be fine art photographers, because it believes they were obtained by deception.
Applic
ants for Global Talent visas are not interviewed. People granted them need to prove they are exceptionally talented or promising in their field. They can then bring their families to the UK, and there is a potentially quick path to permanent residency – in three or five years.
The BBC discovered that wealthy migrants looking to cheat the system were being offered fake art portfolios which they can pass off as their own work for a large fee.
A consultant from one company in London told a BBC undercover reporter – who was posing as a potential client – that his firm could supply artwork produced in China, as well as arrange exhibitions, media coverage and letters of recommendation.
No clients taking the “fully inclusive” package – costing more than 100,000 pounds – had ever been refused a Global Talent visa, he said.
In the case of the two Nigerian men, a BBC investigation was alerted to apparently faked newspaper articles reviewing their artistic work.
A well-known Nigerian art critic told the investigators her name had been attached to online reviews praising the work of the two seemingly obscure artists.
Another woman who tried to get a talent visa via the tech route from India told the BBC that a company she had used fabricated evidence for her application – including a made-up mentoring award and material falsely suggesting she had been a speaker at an event. Her application was rejected.
The Home Office described the findings of the BBC investigation as “extremely serious” and said the company offering the 100,000 pounds package to a BBC reporter was already under investigation.
They added that the Global Talent route was already under review and “the home secretary will take whatever action is needed to stop it being abused”.
