BritBound confirmed a recent announcement regarding changes to the UK Tier 1 visa policy:
This week The British High Commission has announced that from the 1st of April it will change the Tier 1 Highly Skilled Migrant program to restrict new applications to individuals that hold a Masters degree qualification.
This means that people who currently only have a bachelors degree and qualify under the current points matrix will be no longer eligible for the Tier 1 General visa (previously the HSMP) after the 1st of April – unless they have a Masters degree qualification.
For those of you that do not have a Masters degree and were thinking of applying for the first time have now only approximately 5 weeks in order to make your application for it to be successful.
Unfortunately for those of you already in the UK on a working holiday maker visa have a very short time to arrange this process.. In practice if you are wishing to switch to the Tier 1 visa, then you will need to: prepare an application, book flights, book and attend a biometrics test in their country of legal residence and apply prior to the cut off date. Please note that you will need to already hold at least 8 weeks evidence of available funds of £2800 to meet the minimum maintenance requirements.
We expect that flights and more importantly biometrics appointments, will book up fast and that this will be the main restricting factor in successfully lodging an application before the 1st April cutoff.
We recommend you apply immediately if you were considering the Tier 1 Highly skilled Migrants visa and don’t have a Masters degree.
