Changes to the UK Student Visa Policy

From January 2024, international students, except those pursuing postgraduate research routes, will be unable to bring their family members to the UK.

The Home Office also intends to assess the current financial need. Students can bring their partners and children under the current visa rules provided they are enrolled in a minimum of nine-month postgraduate study and have at least £680 monthly for each dependent. Though it is yet unknown how this will change, the quantities will probably rise.

The Home Office will now limit overseas students from transferring to work visas while they are in the UK until they have finished their studies in order to address possible manipulation of the immigration system. This is an interesting shift as there isn’t any such restriction in place right now.

The Home Office claims these changes are meant to lower the record high net migration figures. The administration is still dedicated to drastically lowering the numbers even though it has dropped its 2010 pledge to bring net migration down to the tens of thousands.

Particularly in front of recent events like the COVID-19 epidemic and the UK’s exit from the EU, business executives could also be asking how these developments would effect them. These elements have caused changes in the employment market; some people have left the workforce completely and there is more economically inactive person owing to illness. Moreover, the leaving of some EU citizens from the UK has resulted in notable employment shortages, especially in areas like hotel industry.

Businesses still depend on the immigration system to import foreign workers for highly qualified workforce. On a transitory, transient basis, the immigration system only permits certain tasks for lower-skilled workers, such fruit pickers. Companies looking for low-skilled, long-term employees now have to look to the local labour market. With the UK government tightening limits on student dependents, this decline in the labour market may aggravate shortages in rather a few industries.

Businesses will also have difficulty directly sponsoring foreign students for work visas should they not have finished their courses. Under such circumstances, the student would have to leave the UK and seek to return, which would cause delays and extra expenses for the company as well as for them.

These legislative changes in student visa policy surely have far-reaching effects on companies in many different fields as well as on recruitment. Companies have to know and be able to adjust to these changes to guarantee a seamless transition and ongoing expansion.

Assistance with worker permits and immigration visas? Now on 020 8578 7778, get in touch with Silveroak Solicitors.