Students from overseas are enrolling in postgraduate courses to remain in the UK longer with hopes of securing marriage visas, with a record numbers of visas being awarded.
Visas granted to foreign students to study in the UK almost doubled from 2022 to 2023, with the most popular postgraduate course being a Masters degree.
Of the 604,034 Masters degree student visa applications between 2022 and 2024, 596,836 of those granted, according to the Immigration System statistics – 98%.
According to Immigration System Statistics data, total grants including family, work and other study visas were all up by 53% from 2023, however so were total refusals at 45%.
Maria P, a Malaysian national, said: “Oh, I absolutely did a Masters to stay here longer.
“I have grown up here, been here since I was 12 at boarding school, this is my home.
“I needed more time to think about how I could afford to stay.”
Maria obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences at Kings College London, before earning an MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine at Oxford.
Under the UK’s current immigration laws, students can apply for a graduate visa once completing their studies, which grants permission to stay in the UK for at least two years.
The 22-year-old recently married her partner in a small ceremony after dating for six months in an attempt to secure citizenship through a marriage visa.
She added: “It’s frustrating, I have a Masters degree in International Medicine and I want to work here and help our health services, but I can’t.
“I’ve been working for the last 18 months trying to save for a solicitor.”
To legally become a citizen through marriage you must have lived in the United Kingdom for more than three years, prove your knowledge of English, Gaelic or Scottish, and pass a ‘life in the UK test’, a multiple-choice exam that assesses a someones knowledge of British, traditions, history, and political system.
A marriage visa application costs £1,630, and many applicants choose to get a solicitor to help with the process which can be pricey, and with no guarantee it will work.
Maria said: “There’s no way I could afford this when I was 19, so being able to stay in the UK two years after graduating bought me time for sure.
“I met my partner at half a year ago, I’m lucky he wants to marry me or I’d be on a plane back to Malaysia in three months.”
In September of 2022 and 2023, the start of the academic year, 385,071 visas were awarded to overseas students to continue their studies here through a Masters degree in the UK, however, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has no data on how many of those awarded visas remained through familial visas.
A Managing Partner at one of the UK’s largest Law Firms, Jonathan M, said: “It is highly likely that a significant number of marriages between international students and British Nationals are to secure British residency for the student in question.
“When you consider that up to 20% of married couples met whilst studying, adding the concentration effect of higher education, it is not an unreasonable assumption that, unrestrained by any social or state review thresholds, that a material number of marriages between foreigner students and British Nationals are effectively marriages of convenience to secure a British visa or Citizenship.”
Anastasia R, a Russian national is also considering marriage once her studies conclude, having previously been opposed to it.
The 24-year-old is currently doing a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) at UCL, which takes seven years to complete.
She said: “I don’t want to get married, but it’s the only thing I can currently think of that will help me stay here.
“I have time, I have three more years but it’s not an option for me to go back to Russia.
“I have a partner of six years here and will have been here for nearly a decade, so yeah marriage isn’t completely off the table.”
The fourth-year medical student also admits she undertook studies here in the UK to prolong her residency for as long as she could afford.
Masters degrees for international students cost almost double what it cost a UK citizen, averaging around £17,000.
The shortest degree available is a Masters, which is traditionally one year in duration, whereas a Doctoral degree takes seven years, costing an international student an average of around £140,000.
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