Companies are offering to help migrants pose as talented artists and tech experts in fraudulent applications for the United Kingdom's Global Talent visa, a BBC investigation found. The visa, launched in 2020 to attract the "brightest and best" scientists, researchers, and creative artists, does not require an interview. People granted it can bring their families and have a potentially quick path to permanent residency in three or five years. After the investigation, the Home Office is revoking visas issued to two Nigerian men who claimed to be fine art photographers, because it believes the visas were obtained by deception. The department called the findings "extremely serious" and said it "will not tolerate anyone cheating the UK immigration system." It added that the route is already under review and that "the home secretary will take whatever action is needed to stop it being abused."
A consultant from a London firm, iCareer Consultancy UK, told a BBC undercover reporter posing as a potential client that the company could supply artwork produced in China, and arrange exhibitions, media coverage, and letters of recommendation. He said no client taking the "fully inclusive" package, costing more than £100,000, had ever been refused. In a later meeting he priced the service at 880,000 yuan, about £98,000, paid in three stages, plus 20 percent VAT if paid in sterling, and said the process would take at least two years. For an extra 250,000 yuan, about £28,000, he said the reporter could win a Chinese art award sponsored by Forbes, with the money refunded if she did not win. He also said a colleague could pose as the client at gallery openings and do "work experience," and that officials "don't look at photographs." Asked if an application might fail, he said, "There's no such possibility." "We keep working for you until we get the result."
The consultant, who used the name Peter and whose real name is Shilong Guan, had posted on Chinese social media that "it doesn't actually matter whether you're an artist" because "we include the artworks as well," and that he recommended the arts route because other paths to settlement had a high English-language requirement. A senior immigration lawyer, Harjap Singh Bhangal, who reviewed the BBC's findings, said helping people pose as artists in this way amounted to a "sophisticated fraud" and that Peter had sent "a contract to break the law." About 6,600 Global Talent visas were granted in 2025, the BBC reported, and arts and culture applications nearly doubled between 2023 and 2025. Arts Council England, which endorses arts applications, endorsed just under half of the nearly 3,500 it received last year and said it investigated where evidence was "suggested to have been misleading or fraudulent." Forbes told the BBC the awards are genuine, that iCareer's sister company ADArt Global Ltd is a sponsor, and that judging is handled by the Forbes China editorial team.
When the BBC confronted Guan, he denied being willing to help people pretend to be artists. iCareer, through lawyers, said his employment had ended in early October, shortly before he spoke to the reporter, that the meeting was not authorized, and that the company denied offering visa services. The BBC said he was still listed on the company's website and had provided a contract with the company's name and email. In the case of the two Nigerian men, a well-known Nigerian art critic, Molara Wood, told the BBC her name had been attached to online reviews of their work. "There is a real problem whereupon fake articles are being implanted onto newspaper websites using bylines of reputable culture journalists," she said. A woman who tried the tech route from India told the BBC a company she used fabricated evidence, including a made-up mentoring award; her application was rejected. The Home Office said the company that offered the £100,000 package was already under investigation. The verified findings are the undercover offers, the official response, and two visas now being revoked. They are not a claim that the entire Global Talent route is fake.