UK Graduate Visa Being Misused: Home Minister

Web Desk — The United Kingdom (UK) Home Secretary James Cleverly has expressed doubts that international students may have used the country’s graduate route visa as a cheap way of getting work visas, The Guardian has reported.

The minister wrote a letter to Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) asking for a review of the graduate route visa. He wrote, “We want to ensure the Graduate route is not being abused. In particular, that some of the demand for study visas is not being driven more by a desire for immigration rather than education.”

Foreigners can stay in UK even without a work offer from a UK employer but they must have a graduate visa to stay in the country for at least two years.

According to Cleverly, the evaluation was necessary to ascertain the potential misuse of graduate route visas.

The minister warned that the consequences could be serious for the universities found responsible for immigration abuse or visa exploitation.

As part of its efforts to discourage illegal immigrants, the UK government in May 2023 announced to bar postgraduate master students to bring dependents to the country.

Cleverly asked the MAC to complete the review by May 14 which will include investigation of potential proof of misuse of the graduate route.

The review will also include statistics and trends of international students getting a study visa to enter the UK job market later through the graduate route.