UK work visa abolished for internationals

Thanks, Conrad. It looks like the announcement is out: https://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/media-cent ... nt-changes. It doesn't look good for the PSW visa.

This also doesn't clarify the issue of whether dependents/spouses can work on programs longer than 1 year. Perhaps the fact that it doesn't specify is a good sign and they don't plan to change that. I'm mostly concerned about whether my wife will be able to work while I'm at LBS.

Summary of this announcement can be found here :
https://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/detail.as ... ubjectId=2

The most relevant points being:
* students at universities and publicly funded further education colleges will retain current work rights but all other students will have no right to work, and we will place restrictions on work placements at courses outside of universities;
* only postgraduate students at universities and government sponsored students will be allowed to bring their dependants. At the moment all students on longer courses are able to bring dependants;
* closure of the Post Study Work route, which allowed students two years to seek employment after their course ended. Only those graduates who have an offer of a skilled job from a sponsoring employer, in Tier 2 of the Points-Based System, will be able to stay to work

At least the 20 hours/week work feature and work for internship type items will be retained.

Can some please provide some more clarity on the "closure of post study route for internationals". Does this mean that if, as an international, you don't have a job offer by the time you graduate, you will have to leave UK?

do you have any idea if this is the case only for a 12 month program or do they give extra months even in the case of a longer duration course (LBS in my case). Otherwise, this would pose a problem for many students as I don't think everyone is place before graduation (the data for placements is usually for withing 3 months after graduating).

@bsd_lover, any inputs from your side regarding the duration of student visa and how many are placed before graduation would be much appreciated.

checked out the ukba's website and it says :
length of course : 12 months or more
length of stay allowed: The full length of the course plus four months after the end of the course

so looks like I have answered my question myself and everything seems to be better now

My student visa is valid till October even though the course ends in July - so perhaps those extra grace months are given by default. Not sure about the number of placements before graduation though. The general sense I get is that most people get *a* job by graduation, but hold out sometimes for *the* job. This might not be so easy to do under the new regime. I agree that this is a bigger issue for 1 year programs however.

In general I see these rules affecting INSEAD, HEC, IMD etc. more than they would affect LBS and Oxbridge.

Thanks for info. True it would be difficult to wait for "the" job and it does seem more difficult for students from outside the UK to get jobs and work permits.........

ukba has tried to differentiate between students studying at highly trusted uk institutions and everyone else which is inline with what they said earlier - that they want to attract genuine and bright students to the UK.

In any case, things have turned out to be a lot better than what it looked like earlier. I am personally quite relieved as I had declined an admit from Wharton for LBS before this chaos and did not want to end up regretting my decision.

Couldn't agree more. I'll bet it's a bummer for folks attending non-HTS schools, but the shakedown for most UK MBAs seems pretty good (read:almost the status quo). I turned down interviews at Berkeley and Duke before catching wind of these potential changes and was starting to regret the decision as well.

Hi redneck,

I have couple of questions for you regarding spouse-student visa.

1. Can a 12 month masters program student bring his or her spouse along?
2. Is there a restriction on the kind of job spouse can do? And is there a restriction on upper earning limit as such?

tc
nagarjuna

Hi nagarjuna,

As always, I want to be careful trying to clarify the UK Gov't position on this, but I think I can straightforwardly answer your questions.

1. No. It seems that the program must be post-graduate at a university and greater than 12 months. Now, is it possible that there is some leeway for programs that are right at 12 months? Perhaps. Some '12-month' programs could actually run 12.5 months, which would technically be greater than 12 months. Or perhaps the official start and end dates can be stretched accordingly. Obviously, the devil is in the details, so it's hard to say exactly how things will shake out for your program specifically. At this point, I would want to talk to someone more knowledgeable about how UK student visas actually work.

2. If you are, in fact, able to sponsor your spouse through your student visa (again, assuming through a post-grad course at university), your spouse can work. I haven't found anything suggesting any restrictions on the kind of work a sponsored spouse can do.

Hope that helps. Another resource I found very helpful was the following PDF from the UK Home Office summarizing their student visa changes: https://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... policy.pdf.

Cheers,
redneck2011

hmmm.. It makes one year MBA for married people difficult. That too, when the Oxbridge have average age as 30 (most of the people would have been married by then).



Thank you redneck. I read that pdf before and somehow missed the "and" between "post graduate" and "more than 12 months".

Someone has already mentioned this but students on postgrad courses of 12 months or more are allowed to bring dependents so the Cambridge MBA is fine for students who would like to bring their dependents.

Conrad Chua
Head MBA Admissions
The CambridgeMBA
follow us on twitter @CambridgeMBA

Thanks CambridgeMBA for details

I have couple of queries on your previous posts

1) Do you have any information about Visa durations for students enrolled for 12 month program.
Your 22nd Mar post says that UKBA generally grants 4 month extension. But is it kind of general practice or depends on case to case?
2) I am Indian MBA aspirant. I read somewhere that despite having done degree in english now international students whose mother tongue is not english will have to give TOFEL or other equivalent exams.

THe UKBA generally gives a 16 month visa for people who are attending a 12-month programme. Hopefully they will continue to do so.

Under the change in rules, your institution must assess your English competency unless you are a national from one of UKBA's majority English speaking countries, or studied in one of those countries. India is not on the list.

Hope this helps.

Conrad Chua
Head MBA Admissions
Cambridge Judge Business School

Hi
So does this mean that an applicant from India will not get a TOEFL waiver from Cambridge even if his/her medium of Study/instruction in college is English? And even if that is mentioned in his/her transcript ?

Regards
Subrata Dass

p.s the candidate in question is me , I have already sat for GMAT and plan to apply for the 2012-13 session , but am yet to take TOEFL

@subratadass

The UKBA's new regulations mean that if you are a non-EU student, you are only given a language waiver when you apply for a visa if you are a national of, or completed undergrad in, one of the countries that the UKBA lists as having English-speaking majority countries. Unfortunately, that list is quite small and India is not one of those countries. If it is any consolation to you, I am from Singapore which is not on the list and yet I am quite sure that the English competency of the average Singaporean is higher than citizens of most of the countries on that list.

If you do not have an exemption, you will have to demonstrate your English competency through TOEFL, IELTS or some other approved language test.

We are currently looking into how we can harmonise our current English requirements with the UKBA regulations for the classes entering in 2012. I would encourage you to take TOEFL while you can.

Conrad Chua
Head MBA Admissions
Cambridge Judge Business School

As per my understanding it should not be an issue. Pls see the extract from the UKBA website below and I am assuming that B schools are higher education institutes. So we have the third point in which institute can choose to assess your language abilities by their own methods. This does not include any tests. I am an indian and I will be applying for my visa sometime in june and I have not given the Toefl. Remind me later and I will let you know in case I faced any issue. As of now LBS has not asked us to appear for toefl etc and people who have given it have also been asked not to submit their scores as it is not required. Hope this helps.

Extract:
How will your English language skills be assessed? (Applicants whose CAS is assigned on or after 21 April 2011)

If you will be taking a course at NQF 6/QCF 6/SCQF 9 at a higher education institution, and you are not a gifted student or a national of a majority English-speaking country, your education provider must ensure that you:

have successfully completed an academic qualification, at least equivalent to a UK bachelor's degree, which was taught in a majority English-speaking country (see below); or

have successfully completed a course as a Tier 4 (Child) student (or under the student rules that were in force before 31 March 2009, if you were given permission to stay in the UK while you were under 18 years old) - the course must have lasted for at least 6 months, and must have ended no more than 2 years before the date when your sponsor assigns your CAS; or

are proficient at CEFR level B2 in each of the 4 components of language learning (reading, writing, speaking and listening), by choosing its own method of assessing your English language ability.