Confidentiality Policy.

1. Our Commitment

Talentvisa, together with Sterling Law and Sterling Max, treats all client information as strictly confidential. Everything you share with us, whether during an initial enquiry, through our eligibility tests and AI assessment tools, or throughout your engagement, is handled with the highest standards of professional discretion. Confidentiality is not merely a legal obligation for us; it is a foundational principle of how we operate.

This policy should be read alongside our Privacy Policy, which explains the technical and legal framework governing how personal data is processed on this website.

2. Scope of This Policy

This Confidentiality Policy applies to all information shared by clients and prospective clients, including:

• Personal identity, contact and immigration details
• Career history, achievements, evidence portfolios and supporting documents
• Eligibility test answers, scores, free-text inputs and the path you took through the assessment
• Communications and inputs shared during AI strategy reports (when launched), strategy calls and full-engagement matters
• Family and dependant data shared for visa applications
• Financial information shared during fee discussions or visa-cost planning

3. AI-Powered Features & Third-party Processing

Our website includes a free eligibility test (no third-party processing) and a paid AI strategy report (currently in waitlist). The AI strategy report combines three signals (your free-test answers, your CV and your LinkedIn profile) and runs them through a deterministic scoring rubric. When it launches, your inputs may be processed by a regulated large-language-model provider strictly for the purpose of generating your report. When you use these tools:

• Inputs and outputs are not used to train third-party models
• The AI processing is performed under data-processing agreements that bind the provider to confidentiality consistent with this policy
• Sterling Law retains AI-session data for up to 2 years for quality and audit purposes
• You are advised not to share highly sensitive identifiers (passport numbers, bank account details) in chat or upload fields

4. Our Partner Network

Talentvisa works with a curated network of trusted partners to deliver comprehensive services. All partners operate under confidentiality obligations and data processing agreements consistent with this policy. Information is only shared with a partner when it is directly required for a service you have requested or enquired about.

Our principal partners are:

• Sterling Law: Legal 500 immigration law firm, SRA №630147. The regulated legal entity delivering all professional advice and submissions.
• Sterling Max: Sterling Law's immigration brand for tech, science and exceptional-individual cases.
• Endorsing bodies (Tech Nation, Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, British Academy, UKRI, Arts Council England, and partners PACT, RIBA, BFC). Only the documents required to obtain endorsement, with your explicit authorisation, are shared.
• UK Home Office / UKVI: for visa-stage applications, as required by law.

You contract with Sterling Law as the regulated entity. Where services involve a partner, we will identify this to you in advance. All partners are bound by the same confidentiality standards, professional obligations, and data processing agreements.

5. Legal Professional Privilege

Where services are delivered through or in conjunction with Sterling Law, your communications benefit from legal professional privilege under English law. This means:

• Communications between you and Sterling Law solicitors made for the dominant purpose of legal advice are confidential and protected from disclosure
• Documents prepared in contemplation of legal proceedings receive litigation privilege
• Privilege belongs to you, the client; Sterling Law cannot waive it without your consent

Privilege applies to communications with Sterling Law's solicitors and their staff. It does not automatically extend to communications with non-lawyer partners in our network, though all partners remain bound by contractual confidentiality obligations.

6. Information Barriers

We maintain strict information barriers between separate client matters. Your information is accessible only to team members and partners who require it for the direct delivery of services to you. Where potential conflicts of interest arise between clients, we operate appropriate ethical screens to ensure information is not inappropriately shared.

7. Staff & Contractor Obligations

All Sterling Law employees, paralegals, lawyers and contractors:

• Sign confidentiality undertakings as a condition of employment or engagement
• Receive regular training on confidentiality, GDPR and SRA professional duties
• Are subject to the SRA Code of Conduct, which imposes a strict professional duty of confidentiality on solicitors
• Operate role-based access controls within our case-management systems

8. Disclosure of Confidential Information

We will only disclose your confidential information:

• With your express written consent
• To a partner identified to you, where required to deliver a service you have requested
• To the Home Office, endorsing body or other regulatory body, solely as required for your immigration application
• Where required by law (e.g. court order, statutory disclosure obligation, anti-money-laundering reporting)
• Where reasonably necessary to defend ourselves in legal proceedings brought by you against us

9. Anonymised Use of Case Data

From time to time we may use anonymised, generalised information about cases (e.g. "we recently obtained Tech Nation Talent endorsement for a senior fintech engineer") for marketing, training or thought-leadership purposes. We will never use any information that could reasonably identify you, your employer, or your specific application without your explicit prior consent.

10. Storage & Security

• All client documents are stored on UK-based or EU-based servers under appropriate data-protection safeguards
• Access is logged, audited and restricted by role
• Encryption in transit (TLS) and at rest is applied to all sensitive matter files
• Physical files (where applicable) are stored in locked premises at Temple Chambers, London EC4Y 0DT

11. Termination & Retention

Confidentiality obligations continue indefinitely after the engagement ends. We retain matter files for 7 years following case closure, in line with SRA record-keeping requirements, after which secure destruction is performed.

12. Breach Reporting

In the unlikely event of a confidentiality breach, we will:

• Notify you without undue delay where the breach is likely to result in a high risk to your rights or freedoms
• Notify the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) within 72 hours where required under UK GDPR Article 33
• Take immediate remedial action to contain and mitigate the impact
• Conduct a root-cause review and implement preventative measures

13. Contact & Complaints

If you have questions about this Confidentiality Policy or wish to raise a concern about how confidential information has been handled, contact us at:

• Email: confidentiality@talentvisa.online
• Phone: +44 20 7822 8535
• Post: Sterling Law, Temple Chambers, 3-7 Temple Avenue, London EC4Y 0DT

If you remain unsatisfied with our response, you may complain to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (sra.org.uk/consumers) or the Legal Ombudsman (legalombudsman.org.uk).