Cancelling existing leave overseas
The UKBA announced on 16 September 2010 that Tier 4 students who still have leave to remain within the UK in their passport can now make a new application for a UK visa from outside the UK.
The Tier 4 policy guidance currently states that if a student wants to study with a new Tier 4 sponsor before the existing visa has either expired or been curtailed, they must make their new application in the United Kingdom. If a student makes a new application from outside the United Kingdom it will be refused.
However, students with existing visas will now be able to make applications from outside the United Kingdom. http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/aboutus/newsroom/?view=News&id=22872220
Fees
New fees for immigration applications were announced on 9 September and introduced on 1 Ocober 2010. A table showing the new fees can be found at http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/fees-table-Oct-10.pdf
In line with the new fees, UKBA has also published new versions of the following application forms and guidance:
• NTL form and guide (If your resident permit gives you permission to settle permanently in the UK (indefinite leave to remain), and you want to transfer it to a new passport, you must apply for a 'no time limit' (NTL) stamp using form NTL.
• TOC form and guide (If your resident permit gives you temporary permission to live in the UK (limited leave to remain) and you want to transfer it to a new passport, you must apply for a 'transfer of conditions' (TOC) stamp using form TOC.)
• Tier 5 (Temporary worker) form
• PBS Dependant form
• Tier 4 (Help text leaflet form) (G)
Revised Sponsor Guidance
Revised Sponsor Guidance for applications under Tiers 2, 4 and 5 has been introduced from 1 October 2010. The revised Tier 2 Guidance covers the introduction of the interim limit for the issue of Certificates of Sponsorship. Copies of the revised documents can be downloaded from the UKBA website via the following link http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/employersandsponsors/pbsguidance/
Immigration Minister’s Speech and Comments
The Immigration Minister, Damian Green delivered a speech on 6 September 2010 at the Royal Commonwealth Society following the publication of new Home Office research called The Migrant Journey. The research is an analysis of the current routes into the UK and the different ways that migrants are able to reach settlement providing evidence about the routes migrants use to enter and remain in the UK, indications of how long they stay and when they leave. The research looks at the cases granted settlement in 2009 and looks backward through their immigration history to see why they came here in the first place, and what changes to their status they subsequently went through before deciding to settle here permanently http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs10/horr43c.pdf
The largest group of cases in the study granted visas in 2004 were to students, around 186,000, of whom more than a fifth were still in the UK after five years. Whilst accepting that the system has changed since 2004 and that it would be inappropriate to extrapolate directly, the Minister expressed concern about the effect on net migration if a similar proportion of students from other cohorts remained in the UK. In the 12 months to June 2010 the figure for long term students coming to the UK was almost 288,000 rising to over 320,000 once you include their dependants.
Whilst the Minister inevitably stated that he wanted to encourage legitimate students to universities, he also referred to having a system which “scrutinises” effectively, allows action to be taken against those who seek to remain in the UK long term and ensures that institutions play by the rules. The focus on universities and reference in the speech to having to decide whether it was “right” that the UK should be bringing more than ninety thousand people into Britain every year to do courses below degree level at private institutions has been interpreted as suggesting that action will be taken against further education colleges. This was also the view that emerged from a BBC interview conducted by the Minister on the same day in which he referred to looking hard at students doing courses that may not be of benefit to themselves or the UK http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11197156
There has been considerable debate about what all of this means. At the more extreme end there has been speculation, particularly in India, that Level 4 and Level 5 courses will no longer be available to international students and that this is evidenced by the delays currently being experienced in students applying for such courses. Looking back to what happened earlier in the year with regard to Level 3 courses, others have suggested that colleges offering Level 4 and 5 courses may in future require HTS status; and restrictions will be imposed on students switching to other categories and will no longer be allowed to bring in their dependants. All of this is, however, no more than speculation. All that we know at present is that there is a review of Tier 4 and that we can expect there to be some changes. The normal pattern is for policy changes to be announced mid October/November after the Party conference season.
Veristat Services
For support in complying with UKBA requirements see our website www.veristat.co.uk and contact us at enquiries@veristat.co.uk Veristat provides a wide range of services to education providers through compliance audits, advice packages, assessment of intent and recruitment. Please contact us for a no commitment discussion if you think you would benefit from any of these services.
