Special Annoucement - Important changes to Tier 4 General from April 2012
UKBA has announced some very important changes to Tier 4 General and immigration work categories, which will affect students and graduates from April 2012. Please read the following information very carefully:
- on 5 April 2012, Tier 1 Post Study Work will close to new applicants. No further applications for this route will be accepted after this date;
- graduates will be able to take advantage of changes to Tier 2, which will exempt them from the resident labour market test and restrictions on applicant numbers;
- UKBA will be launching a new Graduate Entrepreneur route from graduates who wish to remain in the UK to develop a business idea;
- the monthly maintenance requirement for applicants for Tier 4 General will be raised from £600 to £800 per month. This means that the amount for ‘established presence’ will be a maximum of £1600 and the full maintenance requirement will be £7200 – please attend a visa workshop for further details http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/progress/visa/workshops.htm
- there will be a general limit of 5 years maximum on a Tier 4 visa for studies at degree level and above. There will be exceptions to this for PhD students and professional courses, including Architecture, Medicine, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine & Science, Law etc.
- in light of the above changes, a new Tier 4 General form will be published in April, when the cost of a postal application will rise to £394. Please ensure you use the correct version of the Tier 4 application form.
Further information on the above changes are available at http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/newsarticles/2012/february/27-new-student-rules
If you have any questions about the above changes, please contact the Visa Team at https://my.ncl.ac.uk/students/contact
