Graduate Route visa

The route is not sponsored by a university. Those completing an Undergraduate or Masters level course will be eligible for a 2-year visa and those graduating from a PhD level course will be eligible for a 3-year visa.

Criteria

• You must be in the UK when you apply for your Graduate visa
• You must be on a current Student visa
• You need to have successfully completed your current course (i.e. been notified of your official award)
• Goldsmiths has notified the Home Office that you have successfully completed your course

Process

• Once your student status is processed as ‘completed’ on the student record system at Goldsmiths, our team will write to you with information about applying for the Graduate visa
• Within that email, there will be a link for you to complete an online form
• Once you complete that form, a caseworker will then assess it and let you know if you should proceed with making the online Graduate visa application to the Home Office
• The visa application process can take around eight to ten weeks to be decided by UKVI, but you will still be able to continue living in the UK under the conditions of your Tier 4 / Student visa until an outcome is received
• You cannot travel outside of the UK whilst your UK visa application is pending
• If you have completed your course (been officially notified of your results) with Goldsmiths but you have not received a link to the form from us, you can complete the form here

The main point to remember is that you must apply for the Graduate Route visa from inside the UK before your current Student visa expires. Failure to do this may result in you not being able to apply for this visa once you are an ‘overstayer’ in the UK.

Additional Information

• You will not need to meet any financial requirements for this visa route, but there will be a visa application fee, and you will also need to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge at the appropriate rate when you apply
• Your English language ability will have been assessed by way of successful completion of your degree programme
• If you were fully financially sponsored for your studies, you will need written permission from your official sponsor stating that they give their permission for you to remain living in the UK for the Graduate Route visa

Please note: If you have not successfully completed your course before your current Student visa expires and you are not eligible for a Student visa extension, then you will not be eligible to apply for the Graduate visa route.

It is, therefore, essential that you successfully complete your degree within the timeframe of your current Student visa. You will need to check your Student visa extension eligibility if you cannot complete your degree within the timeframe of your current Student visa.

Goldsmiths is not able to provide extensive immigration advice on the Graduate visa route in line with the Home Office guidance to sponsors, but we are happy to provide support with general queries via email.

Dependants

If you already have dependants in the UK on a Student dependant visa or will have by the time you become eligible for the Graduate Route visa, then you will be able to apply for further leave for your dependants at the same time as applying for your Graduate Route visa.

Otherwise, unfortunately, you will not be able to apply to bring your dependants to the UK as part of your Graduate Route visa application

Further study in the UK

• Supplementary study in the UK will be permitted, but not at an institution with a Student Visa sponsor licence (i.e. Goldsmiths)
• You will not be able to apply for the Graduate Route visa to use it for studies at a university. Instead, you will need to apply for the Student visa route

You may find Graduate route caseworker guidance and Graduate route: information for international students useful documents to refer to.