Visa advice service code of practice
Code of Practice The University’s visa advice service is delivered...
Source: www.glos.ac.uk. All Rights Reserved. 2025 University of Gloucestershire
Last updated: 14 March 2025
The Graduate route is an unsponsored post-study work route available to eligible UK graduates. It does not require sponsorship or any endorsement by an employer or by the University.
This route allows eligible graduates to stay and work, or look for work, in the UK. Undergraduate and postgraduate Master’s graduates (or those with a relevant qualification) can stay for two years, PhD or doctoral qualification graduates can stay for three years.
There are a number of requirements to consider before making your application. You’re only able to be issued a Graduate visa once, so make sure that you consider your options in full before submitting an application.
You can apply for a Graduate visa if all of the following are true.
To qualify for the Graduate route you must hold a valid Student visa at the point of submitting your application – you cannot switch to the Graduate route from any other type of immigration permission.
Your Student visa must be sponsored by a higher education provider listed on the Register of Student Sponsors as a ‘Student sponsor – Track Record’. The University of Gloucestershire fulfils this criteria.
You are only able to apply for the Graduate route if you have already successfully completed a ‘relevant qualification’. This must be either:
You must have successfully completed your course during your current period of Student permission. It must be the same course for which your most recent CAS was issued, unless you were permitted to switch to a different course without applying for new Student visa.
You will not be eligible to apply for the Graduate route if you exited your course with a lesser award or finished the course with a non-degree qualification, e.g. you exited the course with a postgraduate diploma rather than a Master’s degree.
To qualify for the Graduate route, you must meet the study in the UK requirement – this requirement is different depending on the total length of your course of study. Most University of Gloucestershire courses are longer than 12 months, this includes most Master’s courses that are listed as one year programmes. For clarity, and for visa purposes, the course start and end dates are indicated on your CAS.
Please note, studying your course in the UK means that you were in the UK when the University needed you to be there, e.g. to attend classes, workshops, or meet with a tutor. If you have approved absences to leave the UK during official academic breaks or on weekends, these should not negatively impact on the study in the UK requirement.
Before you’re able to apply for the Graduate route, the University will first need to make a report to UKVI that you have successfully completed your course. Our report will not be submitted until your work has been graded and your award has been published. Once we have made our report to UKVI, you will receive an email from us to confirm that you are eligible to apply for the Graduate route – please do not make an application before you have received our confirmation, else your application is liable to be refused. Our email will be titled ‘University of Gloucestershire – Graduate Route’ and will be issued a few days after you have received confirmation of your published award.
From a timing perspective, your window of opportunity for applying for the Graduate route is from the day we confirm your successful course completion until the expiry date of your Student visa (marked in green in the diagram below). As long as you apply within this window, your Student permission is automatically extended until the outcome of your Graduate route application, even if its original expiry date has passed.
You must complete and submit your application via the online gov.uk form. A link to this will be provided in your confirmation email from the University.
The application can only be submitted from inside the UK. You should not leave the country until you receive the outcome of your application – travelling outside the Common Travel Area automatically withdraws your application.
As part of your application, you’ll need to prove your identity and provide your documents.
You must pay the application fee.
You must pay the relevant Immigration Health Surcharge.
Students will also need to know the Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) number they used for their most recent Student visa application in order to apply for the Graduate route. This will be provided in your confirmation email from the University.
Dependent family members will be permitted on the Graduate route, provided those family members are in the UK and they already hold valid permission as dependants of the main applicant on the Student route. New dependants will not be permitted, except where a dependent child was born in the UK during a period of Student or Graduate permission. If your dependants are outside the UK and you want them to apply for Graduate route permission alongside you, they must join you in the UK and hold immigration permission as your Student route dependant first.
The deadline for dependants to join you on the Student route in the UK is your Student visa expiry date. Therefore, it is important your dependants join you in the UK before your Student visa expires.
If your dependants join you when you have less than six months remaining on your Student permission, they will not pay the Immigration Health Surcharge. They would be liable to pay costs for any NHS treatment they receive until they successfully become a Graduate route dependant.
Your dependant partner will need to provide evidence to show that your relationship is genuine and subsisting. For example, at least six different documents from different sources demonstrating that you have lived together at the same address since your last visa was issued.
Graduate route dependants will have the same work conditions as you. The only restriction is on working as a professional sportsperson or sports coach.
Once you’ve applied online, proved your identity and provided your documents, you’ll usually get a decision on your visa within eight weeks.
With a Graduate visa you can:
You cannot:
If your application is successful, you’ll get a full list of what you can and cannot do with a Graduate visa.
Subject to meeting the eligibility requirements above, University of Gloucestershire graduates are able to start working in the UK while their Graduate route application is pending – this can be a full-time permanent vacancy, in accordance with Appendix Student (paragraph ST 26.6).
No, a job offer or sponsorship is not required to be eligible for the Graduate route. The visa allows graduates to work in any role, including self-employment, with no minimum salary or skill level requirements.
No, you are able to remain in the UK until your Graduate visa expires, even if you do not find a job or have breaks in employment.
Study is restricted under the Graduate route – you are not permitted to study any course that would ordinarily be sponsored under the Student route. You can only study with a Graduate visa if your chosen course is not eligible for a Student visa.
Examples of permitted study would therefore include:
Time spent in the UK on a Graduate this visa does not count towards Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). It offers temporary permission to stay in the UK, and as such does not offer a direct path to UK settlement. There is no option to reapply for further Graduate leave and you cannot extend your Graduate visa, however you may be able to switch to a different visa, e.g. a Skilled Worker visa.
The Graduate route does not impose specific restrictions on the length of time you can spend outside the UK during its validity.
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