You’re welcome, Cameron Hill. To answer your questions about what I did:
Firstly, is there a particular format you followed in terms of showcasing your work or did you just compile all documents on A4 paper unbound and send in the mail?
It may not be a good idea to ‘bind’ anything with a wire or staples as tempting as it seems, based on the idea I got from different forums and how a case worker handles the application (what if they want to scan the file?). But as a courtesy, I did ‘separate’ each ‘evidence’ (several pages long) with a cover sheet. For example:
“Evidence #1 — Patent Application for XXX
Satisfies criteria: XXX.
Contains: Full application filing, with XXX”
(followed by the actual evidence which was several pages long in some cases)
This doesn’t mean the case worker would ‘agree’ with my definition of “satisfies criteria” — it is up to their discretion and interpretation of the rules. I did what I found to be the best strategy for my purposes.
Secondly, I have experience building tech whilst also the business side, do you think it will hinder me if i showcase both or is it best or just focus on one?
I can’t comment on “what would be better for you” as that may be considered ‘legal advice’ but I personally included everything, including both my tech business experience (startups) as you can see in this article, press releases, blog posts, peer-reviewed research papers, and achievements outside of work.
Finally, I know you mentioned trying to stick to a double sided A4 piece of paper per piece of evidence, but you said you submitted 183 pages, realistically, what do you think is a happy medium?
I think it’s best to stick to the Home Office (PDF) guidelines which state clearly that every piece of evidence should be ‘no more than’ 2 A4 sheets. I do not recall if it says “double sided” (please verify this) and I remember submitting single-sided sheets. That being said, sometimes an evidence, for example, a press release about your work or a research paper you had published, does not fit into the “2 page” limit. Further, the Home Office guidelines, from what I remember, clearly stated to include “the actual work” and not merely hyperlinks to them — you may be able to include both but providing just the hyperlink may not be a good idea, in my personal opinion. Based on all this information, I decided to include a ‘complete copy’ of every piece of evidence without truncating anything, thereby overriding the “2 page” limit along with the hyperlink to the work present on the cover sheet. I am not claiming this to be legal advice or even the best advice and you should use your sound judgement in cases like these.
Hope it helps.
