4 ms·

Student visas in the UK aren't indefinite: they do give you a foothold of sorts, but you can only stay for two years after graduation unless you move to some ot

Student visas in the UK aren't indefinite: they do give you a foothold of sorts, but you can only stay for two years after graduation unless you move to some other visa (like a skilled worker visa sponsored by an employer, similar to H1B). It's mostly a money thing: universities are forced to charge below cost (on average) to residents for degrees, so they try to attract international students which they can charge much more for. While some might want to immigrate, plenty more go back home afterwards (The UK has a lot of international prestige for education, so it's extremely common for rich families to send their kids to the UK, including boarding schools below the university level)

logifail 2y ago
Given that the UK doesn't have any kind of compulsory identity card or requirement to register your residential address, once you've entered the country once it may be fairly straightforward to overstay.
- graemep 2y ago
  Yes and no. The real weakness is lack of recording when you leave the UK. The last time I went abroad there seemed to be no identity check: passports were only checked on entry. On the other hand it is impossible to get a job or rent decent accommodation without the right visas. It does not matter to illegal immigrants who work illegally for below minimum wage and sleep several to a room rented from a slum landlord, but I cannot see the sort of people who can afford overseas fees doing that. There are also consequences. I know someone who overstayed by a fairly short time (more due to being disorganised than anything else) who ended up unable to get a visa again for years. I do know someone who wrote a book (The Professional, by Ashok Ferry) that I think is fairly realistic about the desperate measures people can take to stay in the country, but it was unusual back then for people from affluent backgrounds to do that, and would be even more so now.
- rcxdude 2y ago
  It's relatively easy to overstay, fairly difficult to live in the UK without a visa, since both landlords of rental properties and employers are supposed to check for them, and most of them do, so you wind up stuck in a pretty unstable position. For most graduates I'd imagine that's not particularly desirable. A quick search brought up an article which suggests that maybe ~7,000 people a year are overstaying their student visas (a high estimate, as that includes people who have left but the government didn't get a record of it), out of ~half a million granted a year, which is not exactly a huge influx compared the maybe ~50k a year who overstay a tourist visa instead, the ~15k a year who cross the channel on small boats, or the ~1 million a year moving into the UK legally. https://news.sky.com/story/i-had-no-idea-how-life-would-be-inside-the-lives-of-those-who-overstay-their-visas-and-go-underground-12931042 https://news.sky.com/story/i-had-no-idea-how-life-would-be-i...
- mytailorisrich 2y ago
  It's easy to overstay in the sense that authorities won't directly come after you. But with very strict legal checks when starting employment and renting property this pushes you outside of reputable employers and landlords... So not so easy if you don't intend to scrape a living by sub-letting an Uber Eats/Deliveroo delivery driver account...
  - gadders 2y ago
    Yeah, but you have at least 5 years to marry someone or claim asylum.
    - pjc50 2y ago
      .. and where do you live and what do you earn during that period?
      - gadders 2y ago
        By 5 years, I mean 3 years on your degree, and 2 years of a visa afterwards, so for three years you would be a student in student accommodation, and for the following 2 years you have a visa and so presumably can work and live somewhere legally.
        mytailorisrich 2y ago
        I believe that the years of uni, i.e. living in the UK on a student visa, do not count towards the 5 years required to get indefinite leave to remain (permanent residence).
        gadders 2y ago
        Yes, but that wasn't my point. My point was that it gives you 5 years to marry a Brit.

logifail 2y ago

Given that the UK doesn't have any kind of compulsory identity card or requirement to register your residential address, once you've entered the country once it may be fairly straightforward to overstay.

graemep 2y ago
Yes and no. The real weakness is lack of recording when you leave the UK. The last time I went abroad there seemed to be no identity check: passports were only checked on entry. On the other hand it is impossible to get a job or rent decent accommodation without the right visas. It does not matter to illegal immigrants who work illegally for below minimum wage and sleep several to a room rented from a slum landlord, but I cannot see the sort of people who can afford overseas fees doing that. There are also consequences. I know someone who overstayed by a fairly short time (more due to being disorganised than anything else) who ended up unable to get a visa again for years. I do know someone who wrote a book (The Professional, by Ashok Ferry) that I think is fairly realistic about the desperate measures people can take to stay in the country, but it was unusual back then for people from affluent backgrounds to do that, and would be even more so now.
rcxdude 2y ago
It's relatively easy to overstay, fairly difficult to live in the UK without a visa, since both landlords of rental properties and employers are supposed to check for them, and most of them do, so you wind up stuck in a pretty unstable position. For most graduates I'd imagine that's not particularly desirable. A quick search brought up an article which suggests that maybe ~7,000 people a year are overstaying their student visas (a high estimate, as that includes people who have left but the government didn't get a record of it), out of ~half a million granted a year, which is not exactly a huge influx compared the maybe ~50k a year who overstay a tourist visa instead, the ~15k a year who cross the channel on small boats, or the ~1 million a year moving into the UK legally. https://news.sky.com/story/i-had-no-idea-how-life-would-be-inside-the-lives-of-those-who-overstay-their-visas-and-go-underground-12931042 https://news.sky.com/story/i-had-no-idea-how-life-would-be-i...
mytailorisrich 2y ago
It's easy to overstay in the sense that authorities won't directly come after you. But with very strict legal checks when starting employment and renting property this pushes you outside of reputable employers and landlords... So not so easy if you don't intend to scrape a living by sub-letting an Uber Eats/Deliveroo delivery driver account...
- gadders 2y ago
  Yeah, but you have at least 5 years to marry someone or claim asylum.
  - pjc50 2y ago
    .. and where do you live and what do you earn during that period?
    - gadders 2y ago
      By 5 years, I mean 3 years on your degree, and 2 years of a visa afterwards, so for three years you would be a student in student accommodation, and for the following 2 years you have a visa and so presumably can work and live somewhere legally.
      - mytailorisrich 2y ago
        I believe that the years of uni, i.e. living in the UK on a student visa, do not count towards the 5 years required to get indefinite leave to remain (permanent residence).
        gadders 2y ago
        Yes, but that wasn't my point. My point was that it gives you 5 years to marry a Brit.