LONDON: UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman tabled tightened international student visa norms in a written statement to the House of Commons last week. She insisted at the same time that the Government was committed to attracting the brightest and the best to the country.
The new norms mean that only those students who come to pursue a postgraduate level research course will be allowed to bring their dependent family members with them on their student visa. For all the rest, bringing along dependent family members will not be allowed on a student visa.
Too many dependents: The British Indian minister said the crackdown was necessary because around 136,000 visas were granted to dependents of sponsored students in the year ended December 2022 – a more than eight-fold increase from 16,000 in 2019.
She said: “The proposals we are announcing today will ensure that we can continue to meet our International Education Strategy commitments, while making a tangible contribution to reducing net migration to sustainable levels. The terms of the Graduate Route remain unchanged.
“We are committed to attracting the brightest and the best to the UK. Therefore, our intention is to work with universities over the course of the next year to design an alternative approach that ensures that the best and the brightest students can bring dependents to our world leading universities, while continuing to reduce net migration.”
Fresh set of measures: The new package of measures, expected to be enforced soon, includes:
