The International Student Blog

As we reported here over the last year, the UK Government has been clamping down on the student visa process for those looking to come into the UK. The new processes that have been brought in were designed to close up holes that the government thought existed and were being exploited by individuals to get into the country.

The greatest concern with these new regulations has been the effect this will have on English Language Schools in the UK, as many of the new laws would prohibit many english learners from entering the country – thus effectively killing off business for thousands of schools. Some of the reforms were challenged by EnglishUK when they won a high court battle to have some of the changes halted. However, it seems the government is pressing ahead with their efforts to reform the visa system in the UK.

The latest move by the government has been to cut the number of student visas they are issuing, which has been attacked by Labour’s Lord Hunt of Kings Heath. He said the policy “undermined” public statements by Trade Minister Lord Green that ministers regard “educational institutions as export earners”. He asked whether the government understood “that this will have a devastating impact on the finances of many of our universities and will do enormous damage to UK interests”.

The Conservatives have hit back at these comments, however, and spokesman Earl Attlee replied: “We are clear that we are not targeting genuine students at universities.” In a previous statement on the changes, Immigration Minister Damian Green has said: “Too many individuals applying to study at below degree level have been coming here to live and work instead. We need to stop this abuse.”

It will be very interesting to see how this all plays out, the government in the UK clearly wants to clamp down on abuse of the system, but how much of this will affect genuine students, or even deter students from looking at the UK as an option?

One of the most frequent questions we receive here at InternationalStudent.com, is regarding how students can support themselves and pay for their studies as they go. Unfortunately working in the USA as a student, with the way the visa system is setup, is not that easy and not really a viable option to pay for school. The F1 visa (which is the most common visa category for students coming into the USA to study) does not allow you to work whilst you are studying to pay for your education – you will need to show proof that you can pay your way through school before you visa will even be issued.

It is very important that you make sure you are aware of your visa requirements when it comes to work, failure to adhere properly to these guidelines could see your visa status being revoked and you could be asked to leave the country. So there is a lot riding on that fact that you know what to do and how things work.

REMEMBER – if you have any questions about your working status, or need further clarification, get it from your school or from an immigration lawyer who will be best placed to help you get the right information. You can find more information about this on our “Visa and Immigration Center”

The F1 visa does allow you to work under the following categories:

1. On Campus Employment
2. OPT and CPT
3. Economic Hardship
4. International Institutions

On of the most common forms of employment is through on campus jobs, where F1 students are allowed to work up to 20 hours a week on your schools campus, directly for your school. You do have to be in school to take advantage of this, and during holidays you can work full time (as long as you plan to come back to school in the next semester). It can offer international students a great way to earn some extra money, but in our experience on campus jobs are often very hard to find, especially if your school has a large contingent of international students all looking to do the same thing.

OPT and CPT are great ways to get training in the working environment while you are still in school, and be paid for it. For OPT (which is the more common version) students can work both during school and up to 29 months after school for an employer where the job is related to your degree. OPT is not that easy to organize, you need to wait 9 months from the start of your degree before you can begin working, and you have to file a work authorization with the USCIS for them to approve the job. When still in school, OPT only allows you to work 20 hours per week, while after completion of your program you can work full time.

If you do suffer economic hardship, you can also file with the USCIS to work off campus for up to 20 hours a week to make ends meet. This should only really be used as a last resort and in the cases where something has happened which has resulted in the loss of income you were traditionally receiving.

The final way students can work, is through the often overlooked International Institutions category. Where students can apply for employment at one of the listed international institutions that are listed with the US State Department. This list includes organizations such as the red cross, world health organization and the world trade organization. One of the major benefits of this type of employment is that it does not need to be related to your degree – so you can apply for any post, regardless of its relevance.

There is much more detailed information about these types of employment for students who are studying in the USA on our “Working in the USA” section of our Study in the USA Center.

Let us also know about your experiences as an international student and what you did to make ends meet? Were you able to work on campus? Did OPT work out for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The entry period for the 2010 Electronic Diversity Visa Lottery program, otherwise known as the Green Card Lottery, is now open. The window to submit your application begins noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT -4), Tuesday, October 5, 2010, and ends noon, Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (GMT -4), Wednesday, November 3, 2010.

The lottery is described by the US Government as:

The Congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program makes available 50,000 diversity visas (DV) annually, drawn from random selection among all entries to persons who meet strict eligibility requirements from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

Essentially the lottery is a window for people from around the world to apply for a green card to work in the USA. There are some requirements such as:

1. every diversity visa entrant must have at least a high school education or its equivalent or have, within the past five years, two years of work experience in an occupation requiring at least two years’ training or experience.
2. natives of the following countries were not eligible to participate in DV-2010: Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born, excluding Hong Kong S.A.R., and Taiwan), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam.

If you meet the initial criteria, you are eligible to apply for the lottery – but beware! There are many scams surrounding the lottery program, and some even charge you to apply for the lottery. The lottery is free to apply and the main websites you will need to visit are:

Main Application Page (free of charge to apply) – http://www.dvlottery.state.gov/

More Detailed Information about the Lottery – http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1322.html

Keep to these websites, and good luck!

The new visa rules that emerged last month for the UK were unveiled Wednesday (10th February 2010) by the home secretary Alan Johnson. There were large concerns that the new proposed rule changes would impact English language schools, as it would increase the level of english required by applicants to a level that would rule out most students who come to the UK to study English.

The new rules to the “Points Based UK Visa System” was partially in response to a scam where older international female students were applying as a student to also bring in their husbands to the UK as dependents, and as such the changes are as follows:

1. Require overseas students to have higher standards of English (the equivalent of just below GCSE),
2. Halving the amount of time students can work each term-time week to 10 hours
3. Banning dependents of anyone studying for less than six months.

The new changes, however, will not only affect English Language Schools as University Vice-Chancellors are also now concerned about this affect on university funding. At the moment international students are a major source of funding for universities in the UK, and these new changes, along with the suspension of visa applications in India due to a recent large surge at the tail end of last year – could see a large drop in the numbers of international students in the UK.

To read the full original article and for more information about the visa changes, please see the Guardian story.

Are you an international student trying to apply to the UK? Or are you concerned by these new regulations – post your comments below and let us know what you think!

English as a second language is a thriving industry in the UK, with an estimate 600,000 students traveling to the UK each year to study. More than half of these also then go on to higher education courses – and for this reason the English Language industry brings in over £1.5bn to the British economy each year.

However, the booming industry has some major concerns regarding the new points based visa system. Brought into use back in April 2009, the new points based system was originally designed to close down bogus colleges and institutions – and for a large part the system succeeded. However there were still concerns that the system could be abused, and at the tail end of 2009, the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown ordered a review of the system in order to tighten it up.

This review led to new proposals being put forward to raise both the level study and the standard of English for any applicant coming into the UK on the points based system. Although this new proposal will almost certainly remove further abuses of the system, it will also certainly exclude all students who want to come into the UK for six months or more to develop their English skills from a basic level.

Philip Hopkins, principal of the English Language Centre in Brighton, says that if the government’s proposals come into force, about 40% of the school’s business would be wiped out. “We are an educational charity founded in 1962 and many of the students we get for long-term courses are students who go on to a foundation, undergraduate or master’s programme and will be in the UK education system for the next four or five years.”

Clearly the UK Government needs to review their current proposals, otherwise we could see some serious knock-on effects to the English Language sector in the UK. For more information about this article please see the original news source at the Guardian Newspaper.

You can also search for a range of ESL programs from all around the world through the ESL Directory.

New regulations are being introduced that will allow all students who are issued with visas on, or after the 26th April 2008 to automatically have work authorization. In the past all student visas that were issued to students studying in Australia did not have any form of work authorization, and students needed to separately apply for this – however now all student visas will include work authorization.

The actual working rights will not change for students, so students will still be able to work a maximum of 20 hours per week whilst in school, and unlimited hours during scheduled school breaks. However, the new process will greatly simplify the process for many international students.

The cost of the visa application has also changed, whereas previously the cost of the visa was $430 AUD and $60 AUD for the work authorization, this has now been change to one fee of $450 AUD

For more information about the changes, please see the Department of Immigration and Citizenship website

If you would also like to learn more about Studying in Australia, please see the Australia section of InternationalStudent.com for information about courses, preparing for Australia and much more.

Great news for international students who are studying in the USA on an F1 visa, as the Department of Homeland Security has finally ruled that students can now extend their OPT program for up to 29 months in total. This new ruling allows qualified F1 non-immigrant students to now stay in the USA more than the normal 12 month program.

To be eligible for the new OPT extension, you need to meet the following criteria:
– Currently be participating in a 12-month period of approved post-completion OPT;
– Have successfully completed a degree in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) included in the DHS STEM Designated Degree Program List from a college or university certified by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program;
– Be working for a U.S. employer in a job directly related to the student’s major area of study;
– Be working for, or accepted employment with, an employer enrolled in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ E-Verify program. E-Verify is a free, internet-based system operated in partnership with the Social Security Administration that helps employers to determine the employment eligibility of newly-hired employees; and
– Properly maintain F-1 status.

You can see the full press release from the Department of Homeland Security by visiting:
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1207334008610.shtm

The UK, like the USA, is starting to tighten up their immigration and visa policies for those entering the UK. For most students who want to study in the UK this will mean a few things:

1 – By April 2008, all students will need to submit biometric data with their application when they apply for their student visa. This data includes a scan of all our fingers plus a full face digital photograph. To get this done you will need to go to the nearest VAC or Visa Application Center who will gather this data, and should take no more than 5 minutes.

2 – Upon entering the UK, the British Government is currently undertaking a trial that will fingerprint and take a photograph of all those coming into the UK. The new trial is at the moment limited to those arriving from a few countries and is going on until 2008 – however it is expected that this will fully roll out after that for all those entering the UK.

If you are applying for a visa, or already have submitted a visa application it is most likely that you will not need to include biometric data – however for students from the USA who want to study in the UK the cut-off date for requiring biometric data is December 3rd 2007. So if you are a US Citizen wanting to study in the UK you are advised to get your application in before this date.

For all other students please check with your local British Embassy as they will be able to provide you with the most accurate and up-to-date information. You can also visit the UK Visa Website for further information and advice.

There is also a good new snippet from Reuters that explains the new finger-print and picture regulations in a little more detail: