Hundreds of Nigerian migrants are cheating the system by using a visa scheme meant for authors and other literary creatives.
They have made the most applications for the scheme, which also covers poets, oral storytellers and creators of graphic novels and comics.
Those who are successful are able to bring their family into the UK as dependents and stay for up to five years at a time.
The Nigerian migrants have also been the most successful in their applications, endorsed by the government quango Arts Council England, which can review and bolster applications for ‘Global Talent’ visas.
This includes those with exceptional talents in music, theatre and dance and those applying are expected to prove their skills.
Nigerians have put in 125 applications to the literature category over the past five years – more than double the 61 received from the US and far more than nations like Australia, Canada and New Zealand combined.
Of those, 70 were rejected, and 54 were endorsed – more than any other country represented in official figures.
The number of Global Talent visa applications being submitted from Nigeria has risen by 2,225 per cent since 2019.
Hundreds of Nigerian migrants are cheating the system by using a visa scheme meant for authors and other literary creatives
Immigration has reached record number for illegal and legal arrivals, as Labour face mounting pressures to curb the soaring number of migrants
There were just 12 applications in 2019, but this rose to 279 in 2024, figures from The Telegraph revealed.
Across that entire period, Nigerians made 729 applications across the Global Talent categories in dance, fashion, music, film and TV, theatre, combined arts, and visual arts.
They came second to the US who submitted 977.
However, Nigeria had the lowest number of endorsements after Ghana, with just 59 per cent.
Russia have submitted 725 applications, china had 492, Australia with 233 and India with 160.
Since 2019, more than 5,000 applications have been made across all nationalities, with 3,600 endorsed by the Arts Council.
Immigration has reached record number for illegal and legal arrivals, as Labour face mounting pressures to curb the soaring number of migrants.
The Home Office has not revealed how many of these endorsements then lead to visas being signed off.
