✅ other: approval
Story of the approval of a petition by a construction project manager who met 7 criteria, including a critical role and international awards.
Case details
Submission: 4.12.2025
Criteria claimed: 7
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✓Critical role
Recommendation letters, employment contracts, letters of appreciation, project information.
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✓International award
Bolashak scholarship (Болашак), certificate with translation, comparative analysis with other scholarships.
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✓Membership in associations
Association for Project Management, selection through a special panel.
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✓Media
2 articles in national newspapers, evidentiary base and media information.
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✓Academic publications
Publications at international student conferences, a third-place diploma.
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✓Judging
Participation in selecting participants for an international training and a tender for consulting services.
How it went
Approval dated 4.12.2025. Applied as a construction project manager, met 7 criteria:
1: Critical role in major international organizations/significant projects. In addition to recommendation letters from colleagues, I attached employment contracts, letters of appreciation, an order appointing an award, project/company information from the company’s official website and foreign media. I even attached an email stating that all questions regarding budget planning could be referred to me — this was when I participated in the development of a new Tula (Тула) to optimize the company’s business processes.
2: International award — I have the Bolashak scholarship (Болашак) for studying abroad. I provided a certificate with translation; on the Web Archive I found information from 2017 when the scholarship was awarded. I provided data on how many people applied and how many were ultimately awarded — this is available in open sources. As a separate item I made a comparative analysis of Bolashak/Fulbright/ Chevening. I also described other people in the same field who received this scholarship and where they are now and what they do. I cited a World Bank study discussing the contribution of Bolashak alumni to the country, etc.
3: Membership in associations — here I described only one organization I belonged to from 2023–2025: Association for Project Management — selection is done by a special panel and the selection itself takes place in two stages; otherwise, like other organizations, they look at work experience and, of course, a fee must be paid.
4: Media about me: 2 articles in national newspapers, one written in December 2023, the other in April 2024. Evidence base: the articles themselves and their translations, information about the media outlets, circulation — the first is 45K per month, I don’t honestly remember the other but it’s less than 45K. In addition, I attached another article stating that one of the newspapers where I was published received a presidential award.
5: Academic publications. All my academic articles were published in 2014 while I was still at university. But all of them were published in international student conferences; for one of them I even received a third-place diploma. For each article I provided details about the conference, its participants, the editors of the proceedings, and the co-authors. In two cases my co-authors were a professor from our department, I wrote a bit about him and attached his university profile. I also attached the diploma and the articles with translations.
6: Judging: 1) I participated in selecting participants for an international training on energy-efficient modernization of residential buildings in Beijing. Since the competition was run by my organization where I worked at the time, I attached the job description to show that this was not part of my duties. I also provided the announcement of the competition that described all selection criteria, deadlines, etc., and the letter announcing the finalists.
- Tender for consulting services in the same organization. In addition to the announcement, I showed the org chart where I highlighted those who were on the jury and a letter stating that the technical assessment had been completed, plus the documents themselves.
Key insight
“It is important to provide exhaustive evidence for each criterion, including documents confirming the critical role and international achievements.”
Saya (@imsaysay)
2025-12-04
Petition approval
Author of the story
Saya (@imsaysay), from the chat @talentvisahelp. Original message in the chat.
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