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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