What the New UK Immigration Changes Mean to International Students

UK immigration rules saw numerous changes on 1^st October 2013, and these changes most notably affect international students and visitors. If you are planning on studying in the UK reading the following information is a must. The British government believes that the changes which have been made will make the UK a more appealing place to studying for international students as they are being offered more opportunities upon completion of their studies.

What’s new?

With the changes that have come into force under the new rules some students will be allowed to work as interns. This comes under Tier 5, the government-authorised exchange system; so if you wish to attempt finding yourself an internship while in the UK it would be highly recommended that you delve deeper into this.

The new rules will also make it easier for entrepreneurs who have graduates to switch to Tier 2 of the immigration visa, allowing them to be acknowledged as skilled workers in the country. This means that graduates will be able to take up skilled jobs in the UK for which they have obtained their degree.

Expanding checks

The changes to the immigration rules are very international student friendly although some changes have also included expanded checks. The point of expanding the checks is to ensure that applications for visas are completely genuine. This applies to both work and student visas, and will ensure that those applying are intending to meet the conditions for which they have applied.

The UK government, amongst others have seen applications which were not necessarily genuine in the past, and these checks will allow the allocated student visa spaces in countries and territories who have links with the UK to be obtainable by genuine applicants.

Studying while visiting

Under the new changes which have come into effect it is possible for tourists and business visitors to participate in study even though it is not there main purpose for the visit to the UK. This change is important as it should allow for the development of English language for visitors, should be good for corporate training and should also have a huge benefit on the tourism sector as people will be visiting for shorter periods and not as a full-time student. The other bonus that this change provides is an opportunity for short-term course to be taken and a visa can be granted specifically for this.

What else?

These changes have also had an influence on setting the new youth mobility scheme quotas for 2014, this means that countries like Hong Kong will be added to a list which contains the participating countries and territories. This means changes in the number of allocated spaces for the countries and territories on that list, allowing more students the possibility of experiencing life as a student in the UK.

With over 300,000 non-EU internationals studying higher education in the UK it seems fair that more are given the opportunity to continue into employment or further studying (through an internship)in the country which helped them gain their skills.