Working on a Graduate Route Visa:

Studying on a Graduate Route Visa:

If you have secured a job offer which lasts for 2 years or longer and your employer is a able to sponsor you with a Skilled Worker visa, in most cases a Skilled Worker visa is a better option than the Graduate Route visa as it leads to settlement (permanent residency in the UK). However, Skilled Worker visas are tied to an employer and job which means you need to switch visa if you wish to switch job. The Graduate Route visa is an unsponsored route and so you are free to change jobs whilst holding this visa.

Dependants:

You must have last been sponsored by a Student sponsor which is a higher education provider with a track record of compliance on the date of application.

The University of Warwick is a higher education provider with a track record of compliance.

You must have successfully completed the course of study which was undertaken during your last grant of permission to study on the Student route – in other words, the course for which your most recent CAS was assigned.

This means that you must have achieved the award for which your last Student Visa, sponsored by the University of Warwick, was granted, unless one of the following applies:

• You have been permitted to change your course of study and did not need to make new visa application
• You were originally assigned a CAS for a 4-year integrated Masters’ course or PhD and are completing that course early to exit with a lower qualification (this qualification must still be a full degree: Bachelors, Masters or PhD)

If you have changed course and obtained a new Student visa you will still be eligible if you successfully complete the course on your new CAS.

Your Student Visa sponsor must have notified the Home Office, by the date of your application under the Graduate Route, that you have successfully completed the course of study that your Student Visa was issued for.

The University of Warwick will send a report to the UKVI to confirm that you have successfully completed your course of study once your award has been conferred by the University Senate. You will receive a copy of this report by email. You must not make a Graduate Route visa application until you have received this report, or your application will be refused.

You will meet the qualification requirement if you have successfully completed a course of study for which you have been or will be awarded a UK Bachelor’s degree, a UK postgraduate degree (Master's or Doctorate degree), or successfully completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) or Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE).

If the name of your course of study was changed by the Student sponsor, but the course content remained the same, or if an integral and assessed work placement or permitted study abroad programme was added, this will not prevent you from being able to meet the qualification requirement.

The qualification must have been gained during the last grant of permission to study as a Student, or in the period of permission immediately before your last grant of permission, if the last grant of permission was to undertake a role as a Student Union Sabbatical Officer.

You will not be eligible to apply if you are awarded a lower qualification, unless the lower qualification is a full degree (e.g. a Bachelors Degree). E.g. you will not be eligible if you exit with a PG Cert, PG Diploma or PG Award upon course completion.

Please note, if you decide to challenge the decision of a lower award or academic fail via the University Appeals process, you cannot apply to extend your Student Visa to cover this period. This means that if the outcome of the Appeal is after the date your Student Visa has expired, you will not be able to apply to the Graduate route even if you meet the qualification requirement.

You must hold a Student Visa sponsored by the University of Warwick for a minimum length of time:

• At least 12 months
  or
• The length of your course

whichever is shorter.

You can count:

• The extra time your visa is valid before and after your course
• The time during your course you have spent in the UK

You cannot count:

• Any time during your course (between your CAS course start date and CAS course end date) that you spent outside of the UK

If you were granted more than 1 Student Visa for your course (for example because you took a period of Temporary Withdrawal, or had an Academic Extension), you can count the relevant time on all of those visas.

The relationship between the applicant and their partner must be genuine and subsisting.

The applicant and their partner must intend to live together throughout the applicant’s stay in the UK.

The applicant must not intend to stay in the UK beyond any permission granted to their partner.

The applicant must be a child of a parent who has, or is at the same time being granted permission as:

(a) a Graduate;

or

(b) the partner of a Graduate.

Each of the applicant’s parents must either be applying at the same time as the applicant, or have permission to be in the UK (other than as a visitor) unless:

(a) the parent with permission as a Student or Graduate or as the partner of a Student or Graduate is the sole surviving parent;

or

(b) the parent with permission as a Student or Graduate or as the partner of a Student or Graduate has sole responsibility for the child’s upbringing;

or

(c) the decision maker is satisfied that there are serious and compelling reasons to grant the child permission to stay with the parent who is applying for permission as a Graduate or as partner of a Graduate.

If the applicant is a child who is born in the UK to a Student or Graduate, or their partner the applicant must provide a full UK birth certificate showing the names of both parents. A child born in the UK must already have permission as the dependent child of the student, unless they were born within the main applicant's last grant of student visa.

If the applicant is aged under 18 on the date of application there must be suitable arrangements for the child’s care and accommodation in the UK which must comply with relevant UK legislation and regulations.

The child must be under the age of 18 at the date of application, unless they were last granted permission as a dependent child of a parent (P) who has or is applying for permission to stay as a Graduate or a dependent partner of a Graduate (regardless of the route under which the parent (P) had permission at the time the child’s last permission was granted).

If the child is aged 16 or over on the date of application, they must not be leading an independent life.