Britain Seeks to Attract Indian Graduates of Top American Universities

British Flag. Source Wikimedia Commons

June 1, 2022

Foreign graduates of universities in the United Kingdom are allowed to stay and work in the country for up to two years. This week, the U.K. government began offering temporary work visas for science, technology, engineering, medicine and math (STEM) foreign graduates of the top 37 non-UK based universities in the world – 20 of them in the U.S.

The new “High Potential Individual” visas “means that the UK will grow as a leading international hub for innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. We want the businesses of tomorrow to be built here today,” U.K. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said in a statement. U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel noted in a statement, that she is “proud to be launching this new and exciting route…which puts ability and talent first – not where someone comes from.” Both Sunak and Patel are of Indian origin.

The U.K government expects the new visas will attract the "brightest and best" from around the world, early in their careers, in cyber security, medical research and other advanced areas “to drive both economic growth as well as technological and medical advances.” The graduates from foreign universities “will complement the pool of high achieving graduates from UK universities.”

The new visa will cost roughly $2,000 in total, including a fee which allows migrants to the UK to use the National Health Service. Those with at least $1,600 in saving will be able to bring their families.

Indeed, the new U.K. temporary work visas are an attractive option for foreign graduates, especially those educated in the U.S. If sponsored by an employer, foreign graduates in the U.S. can get practical training visas lasting one year and, for those with STEM degrees, up to three years. In contrast, the new U.K. visas last two years for those with a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree and three years for those with a PhD. More important, unlike in the U.S., applicants do not need a job offer; also, their country of origin is immaterial. Once in the U.K., the visa recipients can extend their stay on a long-term work visa, if sponsored by an employer.  

Unlike the U.S. training visas, which must be obtained within 90 days of graduation, graduates who earned their degrees in the last five years, from the 37 universities, are eligible for the U.K. visa. So, in effect, an Indian STEM graduate from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Cornell or one of the other institutions among the 20 U.S. universities, can complete three years of practical training work in the U.S. and then seek work in the U.K. on the High Potential visa.   

So far, Canada has been the major beneficiary of foreign migrants with advanced technical skill who cannot find work visas in the countries, chiefly the U.S., where they earned their degrees. For instance, during the five years ending 2021, Canadian cities surpassed other North American cities in technology jobs in North America, according to a report by CBRE, a Dallas, U.S. based commercial real estate services and investment firm. Toronto benefitted the most among the Canadian cities, adding 81,200 jobs, while producing 26,338 STEM degrees in the same time period “for a net brain gain of 54,862 tech jobs.”

There are an estimated 85,000 Indian students in the U.S. mostly pursuing graduate degrees, with four out of five in the STEM field. In addition, there are an estimated 80,000 Indians working on practical training visas in the U.S. Not all Indian graduates of the top U.S. universities, even those with STEM degrees, secure U.S. training visas. Even among those who do, many cannot find sponsors for work visas after their training visas expire.

In addition, more than a million Indians on work visas, mostly in technical jobs in the U.S., are awaiting approval of their permanent resident visas or green cards. The current estimated wait time for a green card, for an Indian, is around seventeen years, assuming the applicant works for the same employer – which would be unusual given the regular job cuts by U.S. based companies.

The inability of many Indians to find training and work visas and the long, uncertain wait for green cards in the U.S. has been a boost to Canada. Facing a shortage of labor and with a rapidly aging population, Canada welcomes skilled immigrants, especially those with advanced U.S. STEM degrees. Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, IBM and other large U.S. companies have expanded their hiring in Canada. They can easily hire the skilled foreigners they need in Canada, including Indian graduates from U.S. universities, with the help of Canada-based recruiters such as MobSquad.  

The U.K. government expects its new temporary work visas will enable Apple and the other major global technology companies to hire foreigners in the U.K., perhaps instead of in Canada. After all, the U.K. is a larger domestic market than Canada as well as a base to serve the European markets.

The U.K. government selected the top 37 non-U.K. colleges in the World, whose graduates are eligible to apply for the High Potential visas, based on their being among the top 50 on at least two lists, including the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Three universities from Canada are on the list: McGill, the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto. From the U.S., Brown and Dartmouth, two of the eight Ivy League universities, are not on the list while the University of Texas, Austin and the University of California, San Diego are included. China’s Tsinghua and Beijing Universities are on the list while no Indian university is included. The U.K. government’s decisions to offer visas to graduates of the 37 universities is a major boost to the stature of those universities. They will likely attract more foreign students even as the competition among universities to be selected among the top 50 intensifies.

The competition for advanced technical talent among the Western countries is also intense. “The race to attract the brightest and best international talent is fierce,” notes the U.K. government statement on High Potential visas.

Canada, though, still has an advantage over the U.K. in luring U.S. -educated Indian STEM talent. The wait for a permanent Canadian resident card, for those with advanced skills, is three months. In the U.K., foreigners have to first finish the two or three years of training, and then find an employer to sponsor them for a work visa, and then try to get a permanent visa.  

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