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UK Cutting Foreign Student Visas
By KTM Metro Reporter in Kathmandu
Home Secretary Alan Johnson has said that the UK is cutting the number of visas granted to foreign students as part of a crackdown on abuses of the visa and introducing tougher rules to the visa applicants aimed not at genuine students but those traveling to the UK primarily for work according to the BBC news.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown himself has ordered the review of visa rules following the alleged Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab studied in London and had linked up with al-Qaeda in Yemen after leaving the UK.
Under the new rules:
• Successful applicants from outside the EU will have to speak English to a level only just below GCSE standard, rather than beginner level as at present.
• Students taking courses below degree level will be allowed to work for only 10 hours a week, instead of 20 as at present.
• Those on courses which last under six months will not be allowed to bring dependants into the country, while the dependants of students on courses below degree level will not be allowed to work.
• Additionally, visas for courses below degree level will also be granted only if the institutions they attend are on a new register, the Highly Trusted Sponsors List.
The UK Border Agency has temporarily suspended student visa applications from northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
