Working in the UK after your studies (including Graduate visa)

The Graduate visa is an immigration route which allows international students to stay in the UK for two years (three years for PhD), for work experience, after successfully completing a degree programme.

The visa costs £715 and applicants have to pay an Immigration Health Surcharge of £624 per year of the visa.

You can do any type of work, including self-employment but you cannot be a professional sportsperson or coach.

The visa is not extendable and does not count towards settlement but it will be possible to switch into the Skilled Worker route, if a suitable job is identified.

You should not apply for the Graduate Visa until you have received an email from the Visa Compliance Team advising you that you can now apply.

You are eligible to apply if you meet the requirements below:

• You are an international student who has successfully completed a degree at undergraduate level or above at a Higher Education Provider with a track record of compliance*, and; 
• You have a valid Student visa and are in the UK at the time you make your application, and; 
• You have not had a Graduate or Doctoral Extension Scheme (DES) visa before (this means you can only get the Graduate visa once), and; 
• If, in the 12 months before you apply, you were sponsored by a Government or Scholarship body, which covered both fees and living costs, or that financial sponsorship ended in the last 12 months, you must provide written evidence from the provider, confirming that they are happy for you to remain in the UK.

Dependents

• If you are accompanied by family members, who hold dependent visas, they can apply to extend their visa to remain with you. However, new dependents are not allowed, with the exception of babies born in the UK, who have yet to apply for a dependent visa.

*The University of York is a Higher Education Provider with a track record of compliance.

For more details, please see UKCISA's guidance on the Graduate Visa.

The Visa Compliance Team will email you to notify you when you can make your graduate visa application

You should not apply until you receive this email.

Further information and the application can be found on the Government website.

If you experience any problems completing the application or have any questions, please contact an Immigration Adviser.

You can only study with a Graduate visa if your chosen course is not eligible for a Student visa. For example you could not study an in-person Undergraduate, Masters or PhD course on a Graduate visa. If you wanted to study one of these courses you would need to switch back to a Student visa and you would not be able to start the course until you have been granted your Student visa

You can only be granted the Graduate visa once, so you would not be able to receive another one after completing a new course. 

You should not apply for the Graduate Visa until you have received an email from the Visa Compliance Team advising you that you can now apply. This is because to be eligible the University must have confirmed your successful completion to UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI).

If your Student visa is due to expire within four months from when you submit your thesis for examination (ie the submission before your viva), or any time when you do not have enough time left on your visa for your viva and a corrections period, the University will probably not be in a position to confirm your successful completion before your visa expires. It is likely that you will require some corrections after your viva and the University can only confirm your successful completion after you have submitted your final thesis with corrections. Instead the University can consider a further CAS request from you to renew your Student Visa to complete your corrections in the UK and then later apply for the Graduate Visa if you are successful with your PhD.

Please note that a new CAS will only be issued if you need to be in the UK to complete your PhD, it cannot be issued for the sole purpose of waiting to apply for a Graduate visa. 

You can find guidance on renewing your Student Visa on our web-pages.

If you already have a job offer which qualifies for sponsorship you may want to consider a Skilled Worker visa as a better option. There is further guidance on Skilled Worker visas below.

If you are not a PhD student (eg Bachelors or Masters student) and are seeking an extension on your final assignment, you should consider how the extension could affect your eligibility to the Graduate visa. 

To be eligible the University must have confirmed your successful completion to UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI).

If you have received an extension on your final assignment it is likely that you will have to wait longer than others for your award to be confirmed and for successful completion to be confirmed with UKVI.

If your award cannot be confirmed before your visa expiry date it will not be possible for you to apply for the Graduate visa as your Student visa must still be valid when you apply. It will not be possible to extend your Student visa to wait for your award to be confirmed.

Your academic department will be best placed to advise you on when they expect your award to be confirmed but if you have any questions specifically about a visa, either your current visa or a new Graduate visa application, you should contact an Immigration Adviser.

The marking and assessment boycott which affected Summer 2023 finalists has now ended. Students who are expected to be eligible for the Graduate visa will be made a marking and assessment priority to ensure that they do not miss the opportunity to apply.

• Further information about the marking and assessment boycott

You must have a suitable job offer from a licensed Skilled Worker sponsor.

Most students use the Skilled Worker visa if they wish to stay and work in the UK after they have finished their studies. Students applying from within the UK with a Student Visa are classed as 'new entrants'. 

Students applying outside the UK whose last UK visa was a Student Visa and are within two years of the visa expiry date, are also classed as 'new entrants'. 

For Student visa holders wishing to switch into the Skilled Worker route the requirements are:

• The employer must be licensed by the Home Office and issue you with a Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS).
• The job must qualify as a Skilled Worker role; the employer should know if this is the case.
• The minimum salary requirement will vary with each job, but new entrants must meet the '70% of going rate' requirement, or £20,480; whichever amount is higher. 
• No financial evidence is required if you apply in the UK and have been studying here for at least 12 months. If this is not the case, you must have £1270 for at least 28 days in a bank account.  
• If you have been financially sponsored, then the sponsor must provide a letter consenting to your visa application.
• You must have a Bachelors, Masters or PhD degree, or have completed the first year of a PhD. Postgraduate diplomas (unless a PGCE or PGDE teaching qualification) will not be accepted.

The UKVI has expanded the number of jobs eligible for Skilled Worker visas, to include lower level RQF 3 jobs (it used to include RQF 6 as the lowest level job).  

There is no longer a restriction on the number of workers per employer. 

Once you have submitted a Skilled Worker application, you can take a permanent full time job while waiting for the visa to be processed, unless your visa was issued before 1 October 2019.

Depending on the Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) from your employer, you may apply for a visa for a period of three or five years.  If you apply for a three year visa, you will have the option later to apply for a further three years, provided that you stay in employment.  

After five years of continuous residence, you can apply to settle in the UK provided that your salary meets the requirements outlined in Appendix Skilled Worker (SW 24.3) (you'll usually need to be paid at least £25,600 per year unless the 'going rate' for your job is higher than this) and that your employer wants you to remain. Please find more details on the requirements of switching from Skilled Worker to settled status in the government guidance.

Please note that the University's Immigration Advice Service is not able to advise extensively on work visas, so questions should be directed to the HR (Human Resources) department of your potential employer. If you are applying for a job at the University of York, then please direct your visa related work queries to hr-compliance@york.ac.uk.

The information in Recruiting International Graduates 2021 may be useful. It's aimed at employers, but it highlights some of the concessions made for new graduates switching into this category and looks at misconceptions employers may have. Make sure your prospective employer understands the rules, as applicable to you as a current visa holder switching in the UK. 

Allows you to remain in the UK (usually for 12 or 24 months) for work experience related to your academic course.

The Temporary Worker - Government Authorised Exchange visa route is aimed at graduates who require work experience, internships or professional training for their field of work, or for postdoctoral research projects but is limited to organisations offering these schemes and/or research projects. 

You can switch to Temporary Worker - Government Authorised Exchange in the UK if:

• You have current Student Visa leave
• You have completed a UK degree with this Student Visa  leave
• You will be sponsored under Government Authorised Exchange for professional training, research or an internship directly related to your degree
• Your employer does not intend to offer you full time permanent employment

The visa is for a maximum of 12 months or 24 months depending on the scheme you’re applying for.

Requirements are:

• Funds of £1270 in a bank account for at least 28 days, unless you have been in the UK for at least 2 months
• If switching from Student Visa, successful completion of a Bachelor's or Masters degree
• A certificate of sponsorship from the employer/sponsoring body/institution

You can apply for this visa while studying provided you have already successfully completed a degree.

If the scheme you are applying for is postdoctoral research, the university employing you should hold a Temporary Worker - Government Authorised Exchange (T5) licence and therefore sponsor you to apply for the visa. 

If you are planning to do an internship or other work experience scheme, your employer would normally be expected to sponsor you. If the employer is willing to offer you an internship, but does not hold the relevant Tier 5 licence, there are companies or organisations (for example, Access UK) who will sponsor you on behalf of your employer for a fee and assist you in obtaining your visa. Further details are available in the information about Temporary Worker - Government Authorised Exchange.

Allows nationals of some countries to work in the UK for up to two years.

The Youth Mobility Scheme visa is completely separate from the Government Authorised Exchange visa. The Youth Mobility visa allows nationals of the countries listed below to work in the UK for up to two years:

• Australia
• Canada
• Hong Kong
• Japan
• Monaco
• New Zealand
• Republic of Korea
• San Marino
• Taiwan
• British Overseas Citizens, British Overseas Territories and British Nationals (Overseas)

Places are limited annually and once the quota for the year has been reached you have to wait and try again later. There are four key eligibility criteria:

• you are not allowed to apply from within the UK, so must go home to make the application
• you must be aged between 18 and 30
• you cannot have a dependent child under the age of 18
• you need to have £2530 in your bank account for at least 28 days.

You can work and study on this scheme (subject to the specified restrictions).

The High Potential Individual visa is similar to the Graduate visa, and gives graduates the right to remain in the UK for two years (or three if they have a PhD). The HPI visa differs from the Graduate visa in three main ways: 

• You can apply for the HPI visa from outside the UK
• You can add dependants to your visa, even if they were not here on your Student visa
• You must have studied previously at a specific university and graduated in a specific year 

This visa can be a good alternative for students who wanted to apply for the Graduate visa but did not meet the eligibility requirements (for example, they had to travel home before their Student visa expired, or they took longer than anticipated to complete their course).

However, it is only available to students who hold a degree from a specific list of non-UK universities, and those universities can differ depending on the year of graduation. Before applying, you will need to check whether your previous university and year of graduation make you eligible to apply.

Check whether you are eligible for the HPI visa