Things would be made to look like our undercover reporter had been an artist for some time, said Peter (pictured)
Published7 hours ago
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 our investigation, 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.
Applicants 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.
We have discovered that wealthy migrants looking to cheat the system are 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 our 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 – had ever been refused a Global Talent visa, he said.
In the case of the two Nigerian men, our investigation was alerted to apparently faked newspaper articles reviewing their artistic work.
A well-known Nigerian art critic told us her name had been attached to online reviews praising the work 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," said Molara Wood.
Art critic Molara Wood told us her byline was added to online articles she had not written
Another woman we spoke to, who tried to get a talent visa via the tech route from India, told us 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 our investigation as "extremely serious" and said the company offering the £100,000 package to our reporter was already under investigation.
A spokesperson said they "will not tolerate anyone cheating the UK immigration system".
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".
'It doesn't matter whether you're an artist'
The man who told us artwork could be created in China for clients said he was from a company called iCareer Consultancy UK, based in Canary Wharf. That is also where its sister company, ADArt Global Ltd, which is registered with the government regulator to offer immigration advice, is based.
Social media posts by iCareer employees pitch Global Talent visas as a route for wealthy Chinese nationals to come to the UK, without the need to speak English.
Our Global Talent visa service has "guaranteed approval", Peter told followers on social media
During a phone call and subsequent meeting with our undercover reporter, who spoke in Mandarin, the iCareer consultant told us:
At least four of his clients had obtained a Global Talent visa this year – and he suggested he currently had 10 people in the process of applying
The company could supply an employee to pose as a client and network at gallery openings – to help build evidence for a visa application
For an extra £28,000 the reporter could win a Chinese art award sponsored by Forbes magazine, also to help bolster an application
iCareer denied selling visa services and claimed the consultant had left its employment before he spoke to the undercover reporter – despite continuing to be listed on the company's website and providing us with a contract with the company's name and contact email address.
We began investigating iCareer after receiving a tip-off about its activities in the aftermath of our first investigation into fraudulent asylum claims, when we exposed how law firms and advisers were helping migrants pretend to be gay to obtain asylum.
The company, founded in 2018, is based in a co-working office and advertises itself as providing job search and careers coaching.
A consultant, who gave his name as Peter, had posted multiple times on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohonshu.
In one post from February this year, he boasted: "It doesn't actually matter whether you're an artist… Our Global Talent visa service in the arts is fully inclusive, with guaranteed approval… We say we can do it even if you aren't an artist, because we include the artworks as well."
An ADArt brochure is filled with photos of art galleries
Included in his posts on another social media platform, under the username "iCareerPeter", were redacted names of people whose applications had been approved, he said.
While we could not clarify Peter's claims, a senior immigration lawyer, Harjap Singh Bhangal, who reviewed all our findings, said helping people pose as artists in this way amounted to a "sophisticated fraud".
The whole purpose "is to attempt to defraud the Home Office and convince them, and an endorser, that I'm a genuine person, a genuine artist," he explained.
Although introduced by the Conservatives, Global Talent visas have been enthusiastically championed by the current Labour government – even as it toughens rules elsewhere to try to reduce net migration.
About 6,600 were granted in 2025, with applications in the arts and culture category nearly doubling between 2023 and 2025.
Applications must be approved by the relevant body, which for arts and culture applications is Arts Council England. It endorsed just under half of the nearly 3,500 applications it received last year.
The only way around this is if applicants have won a major award. In the film and TV sector, for example, the award must be an Oscar, Bafta or Golden Globe in one of the main categories.
Arts Council England told us it took allegations of fraud seriously and investigated where evidence was "suggested to have been misleading or fraudulent".
We would be provided with up to 15 pieces of evidence, stated the contract we were sent
Peter told our undercover reporter it was not a problem if she had no background in art and could not speak English. He could help her get a visa for artists who show "exceptional promise", he said.
"We would handle the production of all your artworks," he explained, adding it was cheaper to commission artists in China than in the UK.
Our reporter would get up to 15 works and have to pay about 10,000 yuan (£1,120) postage to get the works from Beijing to London.
Fine art options included oil paintings, illustration, sculpture, installation, digital art and photography, he explained.
To help her application, Peter said iCareer would arrange exhibitions and media coverage critiquing the reporter's work. Some information would be backdated to make it look like she had been an artist for some time.
During the call, and a subsequent face-to-face meeting, Peter also outlined how he could help our reporter win a prestigious award for Chinese artists – sponsored by American media company, Forbes.
Our contract also stated we would get help winning a Forbes-sponsored award
Being a winner in the Forbes China Future Artists Awards would help her visa application, he said, but the additional fee would be about 250,000 yuan (£28,000). Money would be refunded if she did not win.
The BBC approached Forbes for comment and it confirmed to us that the awards are genuine and that ADArt, iCareer Consultancy's sister company, is a sponsor.
It said the judging process is based on the "high standards of Forbes globally" and handled by the Forbes China editorial team, with assistance from professional judges.
Also as part of the visa deception, our reporter would have to do some "work experience… online or in person", said Peter. The reporter asked how she could do this, given she could not speak English.
This was no problem, he responded – one of his colleagues could do it, and also pose as her at gallery openings, to network on her behalf.
Officials administering the visas "don't look at photographs" said Peter.
The whole process would take at least two years, he explained, meaning her application would not be ready until the end of 2028 or early 2029.
The price for the "fully inclusive" visa service would be 880,000 yuan (about £98,000) paid in three stages – with an additional 20% VAT due if our reporter chose to pay in sterling.
The BBC was sent "a contract to break the law", according to immigration lawyer Harjap Singh Bhangal
During the call, Peter sent over a contract setting out how iCareer would provide "necessary endorsement materials" for a visa application.
The reporter asked if there was any possibility the application wouldn't pass.
"There's no such possibility," Peter replied. "We keep working for you until we get the result."
He added that the reporter would be refunded if her application failed because of material provided by iCareer.
Immigration lawyer Harjap Singh Bhangal said Peter had sent us "a contract to break the law".
When we called Peter to confront him about the claims he had made to our undercover reporter, he denied he was willing to help people pretend to be artists or have artwork made.
"We are not doing anything wrong or illegal, all of our artists are real artists," he told us.
iCareer, via lawyers, subsequently said that Peter's employment had ended in early October, shortly before he spoke to the undercover reporter – adding that the company strongly denied "offering any visa services whatsoever".
"The meeting described by the BBC was not authorised by iCareer," it said. "We do not endorse the representations or purported services attributed to him."
The company added it had been unaware that Peter and another employee had made social media posts promoting these services and would investigate.
It said that ADArt, which has the same owner as iCareer and was described by Peter to the undercover reporter as another division within the iCareer group, "signs artists and helps them curate exhibitions and develop professional relationships".
Peter continued to be listed as an employee on iCareer's website, and on his own LinkedIn profile, until the company was contacted by the BBC, which iCareer described as an oversight.
Our undercover meeting with him took place in the same Canary Wharf building where iCareer and ADArt are based, a co-working space. He also provided us with an iCareer brochure and sent a contract with a corporate iCareer email contact address.
Immigration lawyer Harjap Singh Bhangal says he has no doubt that some fraudulent claims will get through.
We have learned that the two Nigerian men purporting to be fine art photographers – whose visas have now been revoked because of our investigation – successfully obtained talent visas on the basis of faked evidence.
Their deception first came to light when art critic Molara Wood discovered articles reviewing their work in the Nigerian Tribune – which were under her byline despite the fact she had not written them.
The articles were taken down after she alerted the paper's editors.
The Tribune told us it had identified a "staff member who had posted the articles on our website without authorisation".
It said the employee admitted that "an individual outside the organisation had supplied the articles" but that he had denied being paid for it.
Wood said the criticism attributed to her was of poor quality, as were the artworks.
"It is writing that I would not want associated with me," says Wood. "The images were not worthy of comment."
Part of the article, including artwork purporting to be by Silva Ndifon, that Molara Wood did not write
Other critics have also had the same thing happen to them, she says.
Artists applying for the Global Talent visa have to provide at least two examples of recent press coverage reviewing or profiling their work.
The two men who were supposedly reviewed by Wood – Silva Ndifon and Adanu Emmanuel Okoko – are now thought to be living in the UK.
While one of them does boast an online portfolio, it does not feature the kind of fine-art photography described in the article that Wood did not write. The other appears to have little to connect him to photography, or any other kind of art, beyond the article Wood found.
Neither responded to the BBC's requests for comment. After the Home Office was contacted by the BBC, it is now understood their visas are in the process of being revoked.
If you would like to contact our team about this story you can email on: politicsinvestigations@bbc.co.uk, external
Additional reporting by Ruhua Xianyu
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