Tier 4 Student Visas Regulations To Tighten

07 Sep 2010

Immigration Minister Damian Green said that the levels of student immigration under the Tier 4 student visa were "unsustainable". The Immigration Minister has suggested that the UK is not attracting the best students as only half of the students will be attending University level courses. UK Home Office research suggests that one fifth of students are still in the UK after five years.

Immigration Minister Green stated the following:

"We can't assume that everyone coming here has skills the UK workforce cannot offer."

"We need to tighten the regulations so that every student coming in is benefitting us"

On a positive note the Immigration Minister had the following to say:

"I don't want to interfere with the success stories of our universities."

Immigration Minister Green also stated that the Coalition Government had taken over an immigration system from the previous Labour Government that was "largely out of control":

"What these figures tell me is that we also need to look at all the other routes [aside from employment] by which people come into this country, maybe for education, for family reunion reasons and also, in particular, routes that lead to permanent settlement,"

Reform of the UK student visa system can be expected and a limit on the number of Tier 4 student visas issued in future. Work visas such as the Tier 1 Post Study work visa, the highly skilled Tier 1 General visa and Tier 2 General visa will also be looked at. There are rumors that Tier 1 Post Study Work visa might be discontinued.

It is being speculated that Britain would now issue visas only to students headed to the nation for research or full-fledged degree courses in reputed institutions. The decision by the British government would come at a time when it is being alleged that several students exploit their visas by signing up for short-term courses when their main aim is to permanently settle in the country. Such students usually enroll for short-term courses in "bogus" colleges that are run by immigrants or other institutions where it is easy to get admissions.

Earlier, the British government had tightened the rules for visas issued to the country with several new necessary requirements such as being fluent in English and a good economic status. Also, the number of hours that students were allowed to work in a week had been reduced and restrictions had been put on bringing spouses

British Immigration Minister Damien Green has said that the nation required a visa system wherein good students were encouraged for admission to well trusted institutions that scrutinized their applicants closely and rejected applicants that would not be of much benefit to the nation.