On Monday, the Home Office of the United Kingdom said that it has begun implementing its policy that forbids overseas students—including those from Nigeria—from entering the country with dependents obtained through study visas.
In a post on X (previously Twitter), the Home Office reiterated that the modifications will only affect students pursuing postgraduate research or receiving government-sponsored grants.
“We are fully committed to seeing a decisive cut in migration. From today, new overseas students will no longer be able to bring family members to the UK. Postgraduate research or government-funded scholarships students will be exempt,” the Home Office said.
HowNG claims that the UK approved a law in May 2023 that forbids international students, including those from Nigeria, from entering the nation as dependents unless a number of requirements are satisfied.
This aligns with the UK government’s objective of decreasing immigration, which is presently limited to one million individuals annually.
The UK will no longer permit international students to switch from the student to the employment path before their studies are completed in order to prevent visa system abuse.
Furthermore, “there will also be a crackdown on ‘unscrupulous’ education agents who use inappropriate applications to sell immigration, not education,” as reported by Sky News, in addition to a review of maintenance requirements for contingent students.
A statement on the UK’s Home Office official site adds that the “New government restrictions to student visa routes will substantially cut net migration by restricting the ability for international students to bring family members on all but post-graduate research routes and banning people from using a student visa as a backdoor route to work in the UK.
“The ONS estimated that net migration was over 500,000 from June 2021 to June 2022. Although partly attributed to the rise in temporary factors, such as the UK’s Ukraine and Hong Kong schemes, last year almost half a million student visas were issued while the number of dependants of overseas students has increased by 750 per cent since 2019, to 136,000 people.”
Additionally, the Home Office stated that the government’s commitment to the public to reduce overall migration and guarantee that immigration to the UK is highly skilled and beneficial is not compromised by this new rule.
As per their statement, the proposal’s objective is to enable “the government to fulfill its obligations under the International Education Strategy while significantly lowering net migration to levels that are sustainable.” Additionally, the government has stated unequivocally that the graduate route’s conditions are unaltered.
