From Jan 2024 UK to restrict post-graduate students to bring family: Switching to work visa will stop

LONDON May 23: Britain said on Tuesday it would remove the right of some international students to bring family members into the country.

The interior ministry said the new measures, which target post-graduate students except those on research programmes, will help cut migration “substantially” and stop people from using student visas as a backdoor route to find work in Britain.

The package strips international students of the right to bring dependants unless they are on postgraduate courses currently designated as research programmes and removes the ability for international students to switch out of the student visa route into work before their studies have been completed.

The measures also include reviewing the maintenance requirements for students and dependants and steps to clamp down on “unscrupulous education agents who may be supporting inappropriate applications to sell immigration, not education”, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said.

“We have seen an unprecedented rise in the number of student dependents being brought into the country with visas,” interior minister Suella Braverman said in a statement.

“This is the fair thing to do to allow us to better protect our public services, while supporting the economy by allowing the students who contribute the most to keep coming here.”

Current rules allow postgraduate students studying courses lasting nine months or longer to bring partners and children to Britain, but the government said the number of dependants had jumped eightfold since 2019, to 136,000 people last year.

The changes will come into effect for students starting courses from January 2024, according to Sky News.

The graduate route, which allows international students to stay and work in the UK once they graduate, remains unchanged.

Britain will also remove the ability for international students to switch out of the student route into work routes before their studies have been completed, the interior ministry said.

The government will however work with the higher education sector to explore alternative options to ensure the brightest and best students can continue to bring dependents when they study at the UK’s world-leading universities.