Will Skilled Worker Visas Attract More Indians to the U.K.?
November 2, 2023
While the United Kingdom government seeks to restrict immigrants, including from India, it is keen to attract skilled professionals.
This week, the government announced its second annual list of global universities, outside the U.K., whose science, technology, engineering, medicine, and math (STEM) graduates automatically qualify for High Potential Individual (HPI) Visas. The visa allows foreign graduates to stay and work in the U.K. for up to three years.
Foreign STEM students, graduating between November 1, 2023 and October 31, 2024, from any of the 39 universities on the list – full list shown below - are eligible for the HPI visas.
The U.K. government began offering the HPI visas last year, expecting to 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 HPI visas 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 an additional $1,600 in saving will be able to bring their families.
HPI visas are an attractive option for Indian STEM graduates from the 19 universities in the United States, which are on the U.K. list. Applicants do not need a job offer from an employer to qualify for the visa. The visas last two years for those with a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree and three years for those with a PhD. Once in the U.K., if sponsored by an employer, they can extend their stay on a long-term work visa.
In contrast, foreign STEM graduates in the U.S. can get practical training visas, of up to three years, only if sponsored by an employee. Also, the visas must be obtained within 90 days of graduation from a U.S. university.
Foreigners can apply for the U.K. HPI visas within five years after they earned their degrees. So, in effect, an Indian STEM graduate, from a U.S. university on the U.K. list, can complete three years of practical training work in the U.S. and then seek work in the U.K. on a HPI visa.
“The race to attract the brightest and best international talent is fierce,” notes the U.K. government statement on HPI visas. The government expects that Microsoft, Google, Apple, and other major global technology companies will expand their operations in the U.K., rather than in Canada, since the HPI visas make it easier for them to hire skilled foreigners. Also, the U.K. offers a larger domestic market than Canada as well as a base to serve the European markets.
Apparently, due to its new HPI visa policy, the U.K. granted nearly 70,000 skilled worker visas in the year ended June 2023, a third more than during the previous year. Indians were the primary recipients of the visas. The number of HPI and other skilled worker visas issued to Indians is likely to rise sharply in the current year.
Till recently, Canada was the major beneficiary of Indian migrants with advanced technical skill who cannot find work visas in the countries, chiefly the U.S., where they earned their degrees.
Canada still has a major advantage over the U.K.- and the U.S. - in luring Indian STEM graduates of U.S. universities. The wait for a permanent Canadian resident card, for those with advanced skills, is roughly five months. In the U.K., foreigners have to first finish the two or three years on the HPI visas; then find an employer to sponsor them for a work visa; and then try to get the employer to sponsor them for a permanent work visa. In the U.S., Indians face a 17 year wait to secure a green card, or permanent residency.
But in September, India Canada relations soured after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged that agents of the Government of India killed a Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Canada. Indian officials called the allegations absurd.
Last month, under pressure from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, Canada cut its diplomatic staff in India by two thirds, from 62 to 21; the staff processing Canadian visas in India was cut to 5, down from 27. As a result, there are now long delays in Canada’s processing of skilled and other visa applicants from India.
This should benefit the U.K. The government selected the top non-U.K. colleges in the World, whose graduates are eligible to apply for the HPI visas, based on their being among the top 50 on at least two lists, including the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
While there are six universities from China on the list, including Hong Kong University, no Indian university made the list. 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.
Securing a spot on the U.K. government list is a big boost to the global stature of the universities. Also, they are likely attracting more foreign applicants for their STEM degrees, since it offers a good chance of finding at least two to three years of work in the U.K.
Here are the 39 global universities on the United Kingdom’s High Potential Individual visa eligibility list for 2023-2024:
Alphabetical Rankings, Country
California Institute of Technology, USA
Columbia University, USA
Cornell University, USA
Delft University of Technology, Netherlands
Duke University, USA
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Switzerland
Fudan University, China
Harvard University, USA
Johns Hopkins University, USA
Karolinska Institute, Sweden
Kyoto University, Japan
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
McGill University, Canada
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
National University of Singapore, Singapore
New York University, USA
Northwestern University, USA
Paris Sciences et Lettres - PSL Research University, France
Peking University, China
Princeton University, USA
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Stanford University, USA
Technical University of Munich, Germany
Tsinghua University, China
University of British Columbia, Canada
University of California, Berkeley, USA
University of California, Los Angeles, USA
University of California, San Diego, USA
University of Chicago, USA
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
University of Melbourne, Australia
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, USA
University of Pennsylvania, USA
University of Tokyo, Japan
University of Toronto, Canada
University of Washington, USA
Yale University, USA
Zhejiang University, China
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