The Graduate route enables international students to stay in the UK without a sponsor to work or look for work after their studies for 2 years, or 3 years for PhD students. The work can be in any sector and at any level without any minimum salary requirements.

To be eligible to apply for a Graduate visa, you will need to meet all the following requirements:

  • hold a current Tier 4/Student visa that is still valid;
  • have studied a Bachelors, Masters, or PhD in UCA;
  • have studied for a minimum period of time in the UK on a Tier 4/Student visa;
  • have successfully completed your degree;
  • provide a letter of consent if financially sponsored by a Government or international scholarship agency (if required);
  • apply in the UK within the validity of your current Tier 4/Student visa.

Foundation courses or Graduate diploma, and other non-degree awarding qualifications, are not eligible to apply for a Graduate visa.

You are considered to have successfully completed your degree for the purpose of applying for the Graduate visa once you have received your final results and you have been officially informed by UCA. You don’t need to have attended a graduation ceremony for these purposes.

You need to have completed the degree for which your Tier 4/Student visa was granted, unless it is a change permitted under Student visa policy. You will need to have completed the entirety of your course in the UK as a student, apart from permitted study abroad programmes or remote study due to COVID-19, for which specific concessions have been agreed.

After you have completed your course, you will need to wait until you have received an email from the Visa Advice team confirming that we have notified UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) of your successful course completion before you apply for the Graduate visa.

Master’s students who do not complete all the required assessment (i.e. final submission, resit or exam) by the original end date on their CAS should contact visaadvice@ucreative.ac.uk to check whether they are still eligible for the Graduate visa.

You can find further information regarding the Graduate Visa on the UKVI website.