UK Visa Updates: What Does the Immigration White Paper Mean for You

The UK government has proposed significant changes to the student and graduate visas, including shortening the Graduate Route to 18 months, in a white paper published on Monday, 12 May.

Other changes in the announcement include increased English-language proficiency requirement for dependants and stricter regulations for universities.

This blog explains everything that is happening and what it means for you. We don’t have an actual timeline on exactly when these changes will come into force, but we’ll keep you updated through our blogs and newsletters (sign up if you haven’t already).

Shortened Graduate Route visa

The government has said that the Graduate Route visa will be shortened to 18 months from the existing two years for Masters graduates. A change to the post-study work visa has been anticipated since the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) review last year but this is the first time there has been a specific number attached to it.

The Graduate Route is the UK’s post-study work route which allows graduates to live and work in the UK without needing sponsorship. You can only apply for this visa once and must move onto another visa, like the Skilled Workers visa, if you wish to stay in the UK longer.

Despite this change, the Graduate Route is still one of the longer post study work visas out there.  It is still longer than graduate visas in USA, Italy and Spain. However, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia do allow international graduates to stay longer.

Increased English-language proficiency requirements

There are no changes to the requirements for students. Adult dependants, however, will need to meet a higher language proficiency level than before. As of last year, only students on research programmes can bring dependants on a student visa. This means there is essentially no change for students on most Masters degrees (but check with your university if you’re looking to study a research Masters to be sure).

Adult dependants will need to have a CEFR level A1 (basic user) in English to start and will need to progress to a level A2 for any visa extensions.

Stricter regulations for universities

This one doesn’t affect students directly. However, it is important to know since it might affect the university you’re looking to study at. The government has said that universities will have to follow stricter rules to be able to keep enrolling international students.

You need to be sponsored by a university to be able to come to the UK on a student visa. So, it is important to keep an eye out for updates from your university in case anything changes in their ability to sponsor you.

We’ll keep you updated with further announcements once the UK government confirms the plan of when and how these changes will be implemented.

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