Post-Brexit immigration rules for international students
On 9th September 2019 UK home office has announced that international students will be allowed to stay in the UK for period of two years after graduation in order to find work or any suitable long term employment. In comparison with current system it only allows international students to stay for four months at post-graduation stage.
Background
Free movement would be terminated when the final exit day could be confirmed for UK leaving the European Union (EU). UK government proposes to run a unified immigration system. This means that the new system will not distinguish migrants’ nationality or where they are from but skill sets are prominent factor. The Government has announced that under the new single system at post Brexit stage, the priority will be given to highly skilled and skilled workers from all the countries. The Government states that they wish to attract the best and brightest ‘talented international students from either science, Maths or technology or engineering could gain valuable work experiences after their study in UK for them to build up successful careers. It is noted this new policy is applied to all international students who have studied any subjects from home office sponsored UK higher educations.
Who is eligible for applying new Graduate Visa?
In accordance with the information announced so far, it is confirmed that the new Graduate Visa will be available for any international students who are starting their undergraduate or above from academic year 2020-2021onwards. However it might be disappointing news for current international students who is studying this academic years from 2019-2020 as it is unclear whether this new Graduate visa could be applied retrospectively. It is worth noting that international students must study at a trusted UK university or higher educations which upholds immigration obligations. When further guidance or proposals are published, we will duly provide further details about current international students’ status.
It is clear that once the new graduate visa is implemented from academic year 2020-2021, the Government is with a view that no restrictions are imposed to international students for types of work they wish to undertake at their post study stage. Pursuant to current guidance from the Government, there is no capped numbers for international students who could extend their graduate visas for a period of two years should they wish to do so.
We have a team of experts at AI law who could assist your immigration matters either with administrative appeal or judicial review proceedings under the complex and ever-changing UK immigration law.
我們可以提供普通話，廣東話的法律服務，解除您語言溝通不變，請聯係我們 Aughton International (Ai) 奧頓國際律師事務所，電話01512944722 請聯係Lucy Lu 電子郵件: lucy.lu@ai-law.co.uk
