UK Global Talent — Marat Saidov

This week, I received an endorsement for the UK Global Talent visa 🇬🇧

I am planning to move to London in early January. I’m really proud of this result.

Preparing the application was a serious project. I spent around six months putting together the case: evidence from my work, research, public talks, volunteering, mentoring, recommendation letters, and a clear argument for how it all fits the criteria.

I prepared the application myself, without support from immigration lawyers. I also did not use AI to write it; I only used it to pressure-test the case, find weak spots, and improve the next iteration.

The portfolio included work from different parts of my life: building ML and on-device AI features at Microsoft, research papers from my university years, public talks, and helping run an ML school in Serbia. All of these efforts supported each other and made the overall case stronger.

My main takeaway is simple: build things you genuinely care about, share what you learn, help other people, and keep track of your work. Over time, these efforts compound in ways that may not be obvious at first.

I feel grateful for being recognised after many years of effort.