Firms sell fake art portfolios to game UK Global Talent visas, BBC finds

> **The Home Office is revoking Global Talent visas issued to two Nigerian men who claimed to be fine art photographers, after the BBC's investigation found evidence they were obtained by deception.** A spokesperson called the findings "extremely serious" and said the company behind a £100,000 package pitched to the BBC's undercover reporter was already under investigation. The department said it "will not tolerate anyone cheating the UK immigration system," adding that the Global Talent route is already under review and "the home secretary will take whatever action is needed to stop it being abused." > The reporter posed as a wealthy potential client speaking Mandarin, and a consultant from London firm iCareer Consultancy UK — who gave his name as Peter, and whose real name is Shilong Guan — said his company could supply artwork produced in China, plus exhibitions, media coverage and letters of recommendation. No client on the "fully inclusive" package, which costs more than £100,000, had ever been refused a Global Talent visa, he claimed. He told her a lack of art background and no English were no obstacle: iCareer would handle "the production of all your artworks," up to 15 pieces, with roughly 10,000 yuan (£1,120) in postage from Beijing to London. The menu included oil paintings, illustration, sculpture, installation, digital art and photography, and some information would be backdated to suggest she'd been an artist for years. > Guan's social media posts did the selling in public. On Xiaohonshu in February he wrote that it "doesn't actually matter whether you're an artist… Our Global Talent visa service in the arts is fully inclusive, with guaranteed approval." He said at least four clients had secured visas this year and about 10 were mid-application, and offered to send an employee to pose as the client and network at gallery openings. An extra £28,000, he said, could secure a Chinese art award sponsored by Forbes — a win at the Forbes China Future Artists Awards would strengthen the application. > iCareer denied selling visa services and said the consultant had left its employment before he spoke to the undercover reporter — even though he was still listed on its website and the contract handed over carried the company's name and contact email. The firm, founded in 2018, operates from a Canary Wharf co-working office and advertises job search and careers coaching; sister company ADArt Global Ltd, registered with the government regulator to give immigration advice, shares the address. > Separately, the BBC was alerted to apparently faked newspaper articles reviewing the artistic work of the two Nigerian men. Art critic Molara Wood said her byline had been attached to online reviews of the two seemingly obscure artists. "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 visa through the tech route from India said the company she used invented a mentoring award and material falsely suggesting she had spoken at an event; her application was rejected. > About 6,600 Global Talent visas were granted in 2025, and arts and culture applications nearly doubled between 2023 and 2025. Applicants aren't interviewed, and endorsement for arts applicants sits with Arts Council England, which approved just under half of the nearly 3,500 applications it received last year. The only way to skip endorsement is a major award — for film and TV, an Oscar, Bafta or Golden Globe in a main category. Arts Council England said it takes fraud allegations seriously. Immigration lawyer Harjap Singh Bhangal, who reviewed the BBC's findings, called the setup a "sophisticated fraud" designed "to defraud the Home Office and convince them, and an endorser, that I'm a genuine person, a genuine artist."

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Firms sell fake art portfolios to game UK Global Talent visas, BBC finds

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The BBC has caught London firms offering to fake entire art careers — Chinese-made artworks, ghostwritten reviews, backdated exhibitions — to win UK Global Talent visas. One package topped £100,000 with a claimed 100% approval record, and the Home Office is already revoking two visas it says were obtained by deception.

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