The new list of elite universities that qualify their graduates for the United Kingdom’s High Potential Individual visa has been published.

This is a great immigration route for those who qualify. Eligible people who graduated from a list of around 40 top universities in the past five years can come and work in the UK without having to be sponsored by an employer, so it is great news for employers seeking qualifying talent from abroad too as they can avoid the duties of sponsorship. This means that applicants applying on this route will not be restricted to taking up employment with a UK business that holds a sponsor licence and any employment they undertake will not be subject to belonging to a standard occupation classification (SOC) code or minimum salary restrictions.

If granted a High Potential Individual (HPI) visa you will be able to bring family to the UK and look for work, work for an employer, work for themselves or set up a business.

Once again, the list is dominated by US universities which make up almost half of the 42 higher education institutions that qualify graduates for the UK’s HPI visa and there are none from the global south.

Which universities qualify the latest graduates for an HPI visa?

The list of eligible international universities is published every year by UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) and the list of qualifying global universities for HPI applicants awarded their qualification between 1 November 2023 and 31 October 2024 has just been published.

Again, United States higher education institutions dominate the list: the University of Texas at Austin is back in the list, joining last year’s list of California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), New York University, Northwestern University, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of California Berkeley, University of California Los Angeles, University of California San Diego, University of Chicago, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington and Yale University, making it 20 US universities this year.

The country with the second highest amount of qualifying universities is China: Fudan University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tsinghua University and Zhejiang University – all from mainland China. The Chinese University of Hong Kong and University of Hong Kong are also on the list.

There are three Canadian institutions that qualify graduates again this year: McGill University, University of British Columbia and University of Toronto.

Japan’s Kyoto University and University of Tokyo feature again, as do Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and National University of Singapore.

There are just seven qualifying European universities this year with Germany’s Heidelberg University and University of Munich (LMU Munich) joining Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL Switzerland) and ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) in Switzerland; Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University in France and Technical University of Munich in Germany.

And the University of Melbourne is the only Australian university on the list this year, indeed the only qualifying institution in the Southern hemisphere.

Would your university qualify you for an HPI visa the year you graduated?

Potential applicants can check the lists below for the year they graduated to see if your higher education institution would qualify you to apply for a High Potential Individual visa.

NB: you must have been awarded your qualification in the last five years – ie: the date of actual award – this will normally appear on the diploma/certificate itself must be within five years of your application.

Check the list of High Potential Individual visa eligible universities for the month and year you were awarded your qualification:

The above lists consist of eligible non-UK institutions that are included in the list of the top 50 universities for that year in at least two of the following ranking systems:

1.     Times Higher Education World University Rankings

2.     Quacquarelli Symonds World University Rankings

3.     The Academic Ranking of World Universities

In order to apply for this route, your qualification must have been verified by Ecctis which provides official global qualification recognition services to the UK Government. Guidance on how to do this and how much this will cost can be found at Visas and Nationality Services (ecctis.com).

What is the English language requirement for the HPI visa?

Applicants must be able to show English language ability on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), in all four components (reading, writing, speaking and listening), of at least level B1.

There may however be other ways in which an applicant can demonstrate your English language ability such as being awarded a degree that was taught in English, being a national of a majority English-speaking country or obtaining a GCSE or A Level in English while in school in the UK (that began when aged under 18).

Applicants will also be able to meet this requirement if they have already met the English requirement at this level in a previous UK visa application. This may be relevant to applicants who are switching to this visa from within the UK.

What is the financial requirement for a High Potential Individual visa?

An applicant who is applying for entry clearance on this route will need to show that you can support themselves in the UK without relying on public funds. You must be able to show cash funds of at least £1,270 at the submission date of the application and these funds must have been held for a 28-day period prior to the date of the application. Additional funds are required for dependants.

Applicants may be exempt from this requirement if you have been in the UK with permission for 12 months or longer on the date of the application.

Visa fees for the HPI route have recently gone up. You can find more details here.

Can people in the UK switch to a High Potential Individual Visa ?

Applicants and dependants already in the UK can switch to this immigration route without leaving the UK, unless you are in the UK on certain visas – see below.

How long will High Potential Individuals be granted leave for?

The amount of time that will be granted to applicants will depend on the level of the academic qualification. A qualification equivalent to a UK Bachelor’s or Master’s level degree will allow a period of two years. The equivalent to a UK PhD or other doctoral level qualification will afford a period of three years.

Can High Potential Individuals stay on in the UK after their visa?

It should be noted that this route does not lead to settlement in the UK, though it does allow switching to another immigration route that may lead to settlement in the UK. At any point before it expires, people on the High Potential Individual visa may switch into permitted work categories leading to settlement, such as Skilled Worker, Scale up or Global Talent visas.

Which family members can join you on an HPI visa?

A husband, wife, civil partner, or unmarried partner may accompany a High Potential Individual, as can children under 18 on the date of application. Partners must be in a genuine and subsisting relationship of two years or over. Like most immigration categories, dependants can also apply to switch into another UK immigration category if they qualify for it.

How to apply for the UK’s High Potential Individual visa

You must prepare the documents you need and apply online within five years of being awarded a qualification from a university that was eligible the year you were awarded the certificate.

It is possible to apply from within the UK too and switch to this visa from another, so long as you are not

  • on a visit visa
  • on a short-term student visa
  • on a Student visa without completing the course you were sponsored to study or studying for a PhD for at least 24 months
  • on a Graduate visa
  • on a Parent of a Child Student visa
  • on a seasonal worker visa
  • on a domestic worker in a private household visa
  • on immigration bail
  • given permission to stay outside the immigration rules, for example on compassionate grounds

You must leave the UK and apply for an HPI visa from abroad if you’re in one of the above list of categories.

What is the difference between a Graduate visa and a High Potential Individual visa?

The High Potential Individual visa is for qualifications attained outside the UK, while the Graduate visa immigration route is meant for those who graduated in the UK, and can only be applied for in the UK.

Applicants for the Graduate visa must have a Student visa as their current or most recent visa for the UK, and they must have successfully completed their course of study during their last grant of permission as a Student.

High Potential Individuals, on the other hand, have five years after graduation to make use of the route.

Also High Potential Individuals have less requirements to meet to bring dependants to the UK, while Graduates are only allowed to have dependants joining them if they were already dependants while on a Student visa.

Vanessa Ganguin Immigration Law is highly rated in all main legal guides for responsive immigration advice to individuals and businesses. For more detailed advice on this and other new immigration routes, or for a strategic consultation on what would work best for you, please contact us on 0207 033 9527 or [email protected].

More details on how to apply for the HPI visa.

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