If you do not hold a valid UK or EU passport, you should be aware that the Home Office/UK Border Agency has rigorous conditions that need to be met before the necessary visa will be issued. Without this, you will not be able to come to the National Opera Studio.

If you are offered a place on the Young Artists' Programme, this will be a conditional offer and will only be confirmed if you are able to secure the necessary visa and work permits by 1 August 2022.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you obtain a visa.

 
Exceptional Promise Visa application guidelines

 
National Opera Studio Young Artist conditional offer-holders are currently eligible to apply for a Tier 1 Exceptional Promise Visa. You can find out more about the requirements for this type of visa here:
 
https://www.gov.uk/tier-1-exceptional-talent/overview  
 
You must be able to demonstrate that you are professionally engaged in producing work of outstanding quality which has been presented internationally, can show recent and regular activity of being engaged professionally as a practitioner in your field; and can show a growing track record in at least one country other than your country of residence.
 
As evidence of your Exceptional Promise, the Arts Council will expect you to provide three letters of endorsement:
 

• The first letter must be from a UK-based arts or cultural organisation, institution or company which is well-established nationally and/or internationally and widely acknowledged as possessing expertise in the field.
   
• The second letter must be from another arts or cultural organisation, institution or company which is well-established nationally and/or internationally and widely acknowledged as possessing expertise in the field. This second organisation may be UK- or overseas-based.
   
• The third letter may be either from a third arts or cultural organisation, institution or company (UK- or overseas- based) which is well-established nationally and/or internationally and widely acknowledged as possessing expertise in its field or from an eminent individual with internationally recognised expertise in the applicant’s specialist field.

 
At least one of the three letters must be from a UK-based organisation; only one of the three letters can be from an individual.
 
Letters of endorsement must:

• be dated;
   
• if from an organisation, be:
   
• written on headed paper; and
• signed by the author who must be an authorised member of the organisation such as the Chief Executive, Artistic Director, Principal or Chair;
   
• include details of the author’s credentials (for example, a CV/resume) and how they know you (personal relationship or reputation);
   
• detail your achievements in your specialist field and how in the opinion of the author you have demonstrated that you have the potential to become a world leader in your field (Exceptional Promise);
   
• describe how you would benefit from living in the UK and the contribution you could make to cultural life here. They should also provide details of your achievements any of your future professional engagements in the UK that they are aware of; and
   
• include full contact details of the author including personal email address and direct telephone number so that personal contact can be made.

 
Letters of endorsement must be written specifically for this purpose and include all of the information detailed above. A general all-purpose reference letter is not acceptable.
 
The evidence you supply (which includes the letters of endorsement) must consist of no more than ten documents. You must provide evidence to support two or more of the following:
 

• Two or more examples of media recognition such as articles and/or reviews from national publications or broadcasting companies in at least one country other than the applicant's country of residence. Event listings or advertisements will not be accepted.
   
• Proof of having won or been nominated or shortlisted for international awards for excellence or domestic awards in another country (the Arts Council will judge whether a particular award provides appropriate evidence of recognition in the applicant's field).
   
• Proof of appearances or performances in the past three years in contexts which are internationally recognised in the applicant's field or evidence of international distribution and audiences for the applicant's work (the Arts Council will judge whether such appearances, performances or distribution provide appropriate evidence of international recognition in the applicant's field).

 
Any evidence submitted must be paper-based. Evidence cannot include other objects, DVDs or CDs, digital files or web links (if an applicant wishes to use the content of a web-page as one of their ten permitted supporting documents, they must provide a printed copy of the page which clearly shows the uniform resource locator (URL) for the page.) Please note that a ‘document’ is defined as a single article, review, letter etc. If more than the permitted ten documents are submitted, only the first ten documents listed will be looked at; additional evidence in excess of the permitted ten documents will be disregarded. If the documents are in a language other than English, authorised English translations need to be provided or the documents cannot be accepted as evidence.