UK Student Visa Applicants Will Rely On Highly Trusted Sponsors

The UK Border Agency announced today that all UK colleges and universities who want to bring international students in can apply for a highly trusted sponsor licence starting today. The applications will be carefully reviewed and the list of approved educational institutions will go live in April. Under the UK student visa guidelines, sponsors are rated for their procedures and track record in bringing sponsored visitors to the United Kingdom. The new highly trusted sponsor licence will have nothing to do with the academic achievements of a particular educational institution, but rather with their track record in recruiting genuine international students who follow the restrictions of a UK student visa holder.

The new licence system will be highly beneficial for all colleges and universities who will be included in the final highly trusted sponsor list. It will also help the UK Border Agency to follow closer the activities of sponsors and UK student visa applicants who seek loopholes in the system in order to abuse it. Sponsors who have a high rate of non-attendant students will have their licences revoked or suspended.

How to Immigrate to the UK

UK is a country that welcomes thousands of immigrants every year. It provides newcomers with jobs, social assistance, housing benefits, and unemployment and child benefits – everything that will help them to integrate to the UK society. These are the main reasons why many people around the world want to immigrate to the UK. However, not being familiar with the UK immigration policy, they have a feeling they have very little chances of getting a UK visa. Here are the three most common ways to starting your new life in the UK.

Applying for a UK visa can be a difficult and frustrating experience. Government websites are not easy to navigate and it is very easy to become confused in the process. If you fail to fill out the correct application form or pay the correct fee, you might jeopardize your UK immigration. People who want to move to the UK permanently realize that this is a very big change in their lives and it will be beneficial for them, therefore, many feel that they do not want to jeopardize their chances of getting a UK visa and choose the safe route. At our website you can download the correct UK visa application pack and skip the boring government sites. We will tell you which application form to use, how to fill it out, where to submit it and what fees to pay. Using our application pack will give you the peace of mind that you have done your best to secure your UK immigration.

New UK Visa Fees

This week the Parliament has approved new immigration visa fees which will become effective April 6, 2010. The justification for the news fees is that they used to be set at levels below the administrative costs of the service. Foreign nationals who plan to apply for UK student visa, UK work visa and UK settlement visa should check out the new fees.

One drastic increase of fees is seen for UK settlement visa, for which the fee has gone up from 585GBP to 644GBP for the main applicant and from 585 GBP to 1680 GBP for any dependants.

If you plan to apply for a UK visa, make sure you download the correct application form and pay the correct fee.

UK Expat Passport Dilemmas

UK passports cover the globe! Whilst the British have stopped colonizing, UK expats still live all over the world. From Canada to Australia it's hard to imagine a country where UK citizens don't reside. Being a UK expat brings many benefits but also some hassle. Keeping ties with dear old Blighty is important; few Brits renounce their British nationality and its easy to understand why. A British passport is like gold dust allowing access and protection in countries far and wide.

And that is why so many expats have to renew their UK passports from abroad rather than popping to the Post Office in the UK and picking up the British passport application forms there. Its quite difficult to renew your passport from a foreign location even if the country you live in is English speaking,. First you have to find the British Embassy website then read through their UK passport guide and find all of the relevant UK government passport forms to download.

Unfortunately government websites the world over are notoriously renowned for their complexity. Most send you off searching in different directions across two or more websites and this just for information on the UK passport fees. The UK passport application forms have to be downloaded from several locations and those poor souls who want to apply because the British passport was lost or stolen will experience great difficulty in retrieving the correct form for this as it is located separate to the main application forms. On top of this applicants who want to apply for a UK passport from the USA or Canada need to fill out an additional UK passport form as do UK passport applicants with close ties to Hong Kong. Those UK passport applicants living in South and Central America also need to know that they must apply for their British passport through the North America and Caribbean passport office.

Thankfully there is an easier solution where all of the relevant UK passport forms can be found in one location with easy to read guidance notes. Everything needed to apply for a UK passport in key locations where Brits reside is available in an easy-to-download application pack giving UK passport applicants a stress-free and time saving way of renewing their British passport or claiming their first British passport.

Harder rules for UK student visa applicants

Starting on February 10 this year, foreign students who want to come to the UK to study will have to meet stricter entry criteria. They are designed to limit the ability of foreign student visa applicants to work in the UK and make it illegal for their dependants to work at all. The purpose of these rules is to make it harder for foreign nationals who apply for UK student visa only as a means to come to the UK to work.

Before these measures were introduces, all a UK student visa applicant needed to show was a letter from an approved educational institution that s/he is enrolled in a course of study and a proof of funds in the form of 5000 GPP in their bank account for 30 days. As the official letter is easily obtainable and so are the 5000 GBP that can easily borrowed and repaid while working in the UK, many people have abused the system through the years. Student visa used to be the easiest way to gain entry to the UK.

The new measures will make sure that all foreign nationals who want to apply for UK student visas have a good standard of English in order to enroll in an undergraduate study. They will also limit the time a student visa holder studying below first degree level or on a foundation degree course is able to work legally to 10 per week during the term. Also, student visa holders will not be able to bring their dependants to the UK if they are studying a course shorter than 6 months and dependants of UK student visa holders studying a lower than undergraduate level are not allowed to work at all.

Hopefully these measures will allow foreign students to benefit from the world known British educational system and not just use it as a means to working illegally in the UK. Once the course of study is completed, a foreign student can switch categories and apply for highly skilled worker visa, or find a sponsor and apply for skilled worker visa. If they have found a partner in the UK, they can also apply for a marriage visa, common law marriage visa or same sex partner visa.