Nigerian graduates ruled out as UK opens application for high-potential individual visa

By Emmanuel Adeleke

The United Kingdom is set to the start issuance of a new visa that would enable holders of bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees to travel to the country and work in fields such as science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.

This was contained in a statement issues  by the country’s Minister of Safe and Legal Migration, Kevin Foster.

According to Foster, the visa route is targeted at attracting high-skilled foreign university graduates.

He said applicants will be requested to show the equivalent of at least £1,270 in their bank account for a continuous 28-day period, and not later than 31 days prior to making the HPI visa application.

“The new High Potential Individual route will make it as simple as possible for internationally mobile individuals who demonstrate high potential to come to the UK. It will enable those who have already demonstrated their potential through academic achievement to come to the UK without a prior job offer,

“If you’ve been resident in the UK for more than 12 months, you might not need to meet this requirement. Graduates with a bachelor’s or a master’s degree will be given a two-year visa. PhD or another doctoral level graduates will get visas valid for three years. This visa can only be granted once and will not be available to those who have already had Graduate visa,” the statement read.

The UK government added that in order to qualify for the high potential individual visa, applicants needed to have been awarded a degree from an overseas university. 

The university also has to be one of the top global universities as published in the global universities list by the Home Office.

It said the list will be compiled annually and “will comprise institutions included in the list of the top 50 universities in at least two of the following ranking systems: Times Higher Education World University rankings, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University rankings and the Academic Ranking of the World Universities.”

But graduates from Nigerian universities do not immediately qualify because of the global ranking criterion.

Source: Cable