Cleverly vow over foreign student visas still in limbo

A MAJOR review of a visa which allowed more than 114,000 foreign students to remain in Britain last year has still not begun – three months after it was announced by James Cleverly.

The Home Secretary pledged to look again at the ‘graduate visa’ scheme when he unveiled a package of measures to cut legal migration on December 4.

But the Home Office has confirmed the review has yet to be launched. Last week figures showed the scheme allowed 114,409 foreign students to extend their stay by two years after completing a course, up 57 per cent year on year.

Mr Cleverly said the Government’s official advisers on immigra

‘Reason for the delay is unknown’

tion policy would be commissioned to review the scheme. However, he has yet to write to the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to give them the go-ahead. The reason for the delay is unknown.

The pledge was one of Mr Cleverly’s main announcements in a series of initiatives to reduce record levels of migration.

A research briefing by the House of Commons, published last month, said: ‘The Home Office was supposed to commission [MAC] to begin work on the graduate visa review in January 2024, although it had not yet done so at time of writing. The committee is expected to report in late 2024.’

The graduate visa was introduced in 2021 and also allows the dependants of former students to remain for up to two years. Data shows Indian nationals were the largest group granted leave to remain the scheme last year, with 50,053 successful applications.

It comes as Office for National Statistics figures show net migration – the difference between immigrants arriving in Britain long-term and those emigrating – hit 745,000 in 2022. A Home Office spokesman said: ‘The MAC will be commissioned in due course.’

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