華威大學有關Graduate Route Work Visa的介紹頁面

Section 1: Purpose and Contents of this page:

This page has been made to provide guidance on the Graduate Route under the Immigration Rules.
Please see our Step-by-Step Application Guide and read our information on when to apply carefully if you are considering making an application.
Please ensure you have carefully read the guidance provided for your situation BEFORE you contact Student Immigration.

Section 2: What is the Graduate Route? What can I do with this visa?

The Graduate Route is an unsponsored, post study work visa.

Successful applicants will receive a 2 year visa (for those who have completed a Bachelors or Masters degree), or a 3 year visa (for those who have completed a PhD).
You can only apply for the Graduate Route visa once. Therefore, if you are considering further studies in the UK, you may wish to postpone applying for the Graduate Route visa until you have completed all the desired academic studies.
This scheme doesn't lead to settlement (permanent residency in the UK).
Therefore, if your aim is to remain in the UK longer term, holding this visa will give you a period of 2 or 3 years (depending on your level of study) to look for and secure a job which attracts Skilled Worker sponsorship, at which point you can switch to the work visa. You may also be able to switch to a Start Up visa if you are interested in setting up your own business.

Working on a Graduate Route Visa:

Graduates on this route can work flexibly, switch jobs and develop their career as required.
This includes self-employment, voluntary work, part-time, full-time, permanent, fixed term or casual contracts, but not work as a professional sportsperson.
There are no minimum salary requirements or minimum number of hours you can work for this route.
If you current hold a Student Visa sponsored by Warwick, you have certain work rights attached to this. In most cases, you remain subject to your Student Visa Work Conditions until a Graduate Route Visa is granted.

The exception to this is where:
You applied for your current Student Visa on or after 6 April 2022 and;
You have made a valid application for a Graduate Route Visa before the expiry date of your Student Visa, having successfully completed your course and;
A decision has not been made on the Graduate Route application, or where a decision has been made, any Administrative review against a refusal of that application has not been finally determined

If all of the above apply, you may start employment in a full-time permanent vacancy, even though this would not otherwise be permitted with a Student Visa.

Studying on a Graduate Route Visa:

Graduates on the route can only study courses that cannot be sponsored under the Student Route.

Examples of the type of study which may be permitted under this route can be:



Part-time undergraduate course


Some English language courses


Some professional courses


Any study at a college or university that is not a Student route visa sponsor


Online study


Evening classes


Recreational courses
The restrictions on study do not apply to Dependants of Graduate Route Visa holders, with the exception of working as a professional sportsperson or studying as a doctor/dentist in training.
You must check with any course provider in advance whether you have the Right to Study on a course with them using a Graduate Visa. This is not possible for the majority of courses at Warwick.

Section 3: Who is the Graduate Route for?

This route is for a Warwick Student in the UK who wants to work, or look for work, following the successful completion of an eligible course of study at Warwick on at Bachelor’s degree-level or above. Your degree must be awarded by the University of Warwick.

You must meet the eligibility criteria for this route, including having held a Student Visa (including a Tier 4 Visa) for 12 months or more. If you studied the majority of your course under a different visa category, e.g., a dependant visa, please check with us about your eligibility.

You must meet the application requirements..

Alternatives to the Graduate Route:
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:

If your dependant(s) are already in the UK and hold a dependant visa linked to your Student Visa, and you and your dependant(s) meet the application requirements, then they can apply under the Graduate Route.

You will not be able to add any new dependant(s) to your Graduate Route application, if they were not dependant(s) on your current Student Visa, unless they are children born in the UK during your current Student Visa.

Please see the Dependant requirements section below.

Section 4: Where can I apply for the Graduate Route Visa?

You can only apply under the Graduate Route from within the UK.

You must submit the application via the government website here

Please see our step-by-step guide to completing the application form.

Section 5: When do I apply for the Graduate Route Visa?

You MUST NOT make a Graduate Route Visa Application until you have received an email notification from the University of Warwick specifically confirming you can apply, as well as having met the other application requirements.

If you make an application sooner:
It will be refused by the UKVI
AND
You will not receive a refund of your application fee
AND
You will need to declare the refusal on all future UK visa applications

An example of the email the University will send you to confirm that a report has been made to the UKVI can be found below. It will specifically reference the Graduate Route Visa:

You will not receive the above email until after your degree has been officially ratified by the University Senate:
This will be significantly LATER than the "course end date" on your CAS/student record
This may be significantly AFTER your academic department provisionally confirms your results to you
Graduates who are completing their degree normally (e.g. without a period of Academic Extension and after being considered by the normal Exam Board for their cohort), can normally expect reports to be sent to the UKVI as follows:

Undergraduate (Bachelors) Graduates  End of July  
Undergraduate (Bachelors) Graduates with August/September Resits  End of October  
Postgraduate Taught (Masters) Graduates*  Mid-December  
Postgraduate Research (PhD) Graduates*  Within 3 weeks of Senate Conferral  

*Students in Academic Extension (Masters and PhD students) must verify with their Academic Department whether their degree will be conferred by the University Senate before their Student Visa Expiry Date. If it may not and they still wish to remain eligible for the Graduate Route Visa, such students must make a Student Visa Extension application whilst they still have an academic reason to do so (work still to submit).

The above table is a guide only. In most cases, it will not be to your advantage to apply for a Graduate Route visa significantly prior to your current visa expiry date. However, if you believe your Student Visa will expire before a report to the UKVI is sent, then please see the information on this page about what to do next.
You must apply on or before your current Student visa expiry date (however, we do not recommend that you apply on the day your visa expires in case you experience technical issues).
Please also see our step-by-step guide to help you complete the application form successfully.

Section 6: What are the application requirements for the Graduate Route Visa?

You must meet the following 3 requirements to apply under this route:
However, there is no requirement to show you have a certain amount of money (known as the 'maintenance requirement').

Successful completion requirement:

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.

Qualification requirement:

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.

Study in the UK 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.
Example



Student X is studying a 1-year Masters course and applied for a Student Visa before they started their course.
The course start date of their course was 25 September 2023, and the course end date on their CAS was 24 September 2024 (the course is 12 months and 1 day long)
They spent 2 months outside of the UK during their CAS course dates, having received approval from their academic department to do so.
Student X's Warwick-sponsored Student Visa was granted for a total of 17 months (12 months for the course, plus 1 month before the course starts, plus 4 months after the course ends)Student X meets the Study in the UK requirement, because the length of their Student Visa (discounting the 2 months they spent outside of the UK during their course), is more than 12 months.

Section 7 與我無關，略過

Section 8: How do I apply, what does it cost, and what documents do I need?

You cannot apply for the Graduate Route until you have received specific email confirmation from the University that your successful completion has been reported to the UKVI.

Once you have received the above confirmation from the University, and you have met the application requirements, you will need to do the following to make your application:



You must complete and submit your application via the online GOV.UK form. A link to this will be provided in your confirmation email from the University. Take a look at our step-by-step guide to help you do this.


You must pay the relevant Immigration Health Surcharge Link opens in a new window


You must pay the application feeLink opens in a new window.


You must provide any required Biometric Data for all applicants.


You must provide a clear scan or photo of all applicant's passport or other travel document as proof of nationality and identity.


You must provide a clear scan or photo of your current valid and in date Student Visa BRP, as well as the BRPs of any dependant applicants, if applicable.


If any applicants subject to the Police Registration Condition, they must provide an up to date and valid Police Registration Certificate.


If, within the previous 12 months of the application date, any applicant was sponsored by their Government or an international scholarship agency covering both fees and living costs for study in the UK, they must provide written consent to the application from that Government or agency. This does not apply if your scholarship was awarded by the University of Warwick.


If your dependents are applying, they may be required to provide additional documents to meet the relationship requirements.

Please note:

You can not apply under the Graduate Route if you have previously been granted Permission to Stay in the UK under the Doctorate Extension Scheme or under the Graduate Route.
The Home Office also provides detailed information on its own webpages regarding making an application, and using the UK Immigration ID Check App.

Section 9: I have received my Graduate Route Visa, what do I need to do now?

Once you have submitted your application, paid your fees and provided your Biometric Data for each applicant, the UKVI will assess your application and provide you with an application decision within 8 weeks.
You must not leave the UK until you receive your new BRP card if you are a Visa National.
If you are not a Visa National, you must not leave the UK until you receive notification of the decision.
If successful, you should receive confirmation of your new visa. Most applicants will receive a "Digital Status", however, if you are a Visa National, you cannot travel and re-enter the UK without a BRP card. If you obtain a new passport whilst you have a Graduate Visa, you must update this using your UKVI account.
This is an 'unsponsored route', which means the University is no longer your sponsor and you do not need to provide the University with a copy of your new visa.
Whilst holding a Graduate route visa, if you wish to study a further course in the UK which can be sponsored under the Student visa (for example, a Master's degree), you may switch back to a Student visa. However, you can only apply for the Graduate Route visa once. Therefore, if you are considering further studies in the UK, you may wish to postpone applying for the Graduate Route visa until you have completed all the desired academic studies.

Section 10: If you have further queries and useful links:

If, after reading the guidance above, and you are still unsure of what you should do next, please contact Student Immigration to discuss your situation via the following methods:



Online Contact form



Book a Help Desk AppointmentPlease click on the following links for more information
UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA):




UKCISA - international student advice and guidance - Graduate route

University of Warwick:




Recruiting international students - Employer Guidance
Warwick | Student Immigration | I am a Student | Visa Portal | Right to Study / Visa that allow study at WarwickUK Government:




GOV.UK | Find an immigration adviser
Graduate visa: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)Other contacts:




Central England Law Centre
UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA)
Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA)
The Law Society

原文連結：https://warwick.ac.uk/study/international/immigration/othervisas/graduate_route_work_visa/