Latest news with #InnovatorFounder
NDTV
21-05-2025
- NDTV
Planning To Study In UK? Here's How To Apply For Right Visa
Students planning to move to the UK must check their visa eligibility before applying. A visa is generally required to enter the UK for studying, working, visiting, or joining family-depending on the applicant's nationality, reason for travel, duration of stay, and personal circumstances. Types of UK Visas and Their Uses: For Study: Standard Visitor visa: For courses up to 6 months. Short-term Study visa: For English language courses lasting 6 to 11 months. Student visa: For long-term academic programs at licensed institutions; allows limited work rights. Child Student visa: For students aged 4-17 attending independent schools. Those aged 16 and above may be allowed to work part-time. For Working: Several work visas are available depending on one's qualifications, job offer, sponsorship, and job type. Options include short- and long-term work permits and the Innovator Founder visa for entrepreneurs. For Joining Family: Individuals can apply for a family visa to join relatives with British citizenship or UK settlement status. Applicants may later qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). Those with relatives in the UK on a visa may also be eligible, provided they are a spouse, partner, or minor child. Family Reunion For Refugees: Partners or children separated due to conflict may apply to join a relative in the UK who has been granted asylum or humanitarian protection. For Visiting: A Standard Visitor visa allows entry for up to six months-for tourism, short business trips, or short courses. Those visiting to get married must apply for a Marriage Visitor visa. Visitors are not permitted to take up employment. For Transit: Travellers with layovers in the UK en route to another country may need a transit visa. EU, EEA, and Swiss Citizens: Eligible individuals with a close family member living in the UK before 31 December 2020 can apply for a free EU Settlement Scheme family permit. This permit allows a 6-month stay with rights to live, work, and study, after which individuals can apply to remain under the EU Settlement Scheme. Commonwealth Citizens: Those with a UK-born grandparent can apply for an Ancestry visa to work in the UK. Some may also have the right of abode. Individuals unsure of their status can check eligibility under the Windrush scheme. Returning Residents: A Returning Resident visa is required for those who previously held Indefinite Leave to Remain but have lived outside the UK beyond the permitted period-over 5 years (or 4 for Swiss citizens) for EU Settlement holders, and over 2 years for others. Before making any travel plans, applicants must ensure their visa application is approved.
The Herald Scotland
14-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Ian Murray: Labour's immigration plan is fair and balanced
Most people – including most immigrants – want a functioning system that is orderly, predictable and fair. Nobody could describe our current situation as that. The Tories broke the system, deliberately, in a callous move as a political experiment. READ MORE The reality is that net migration has quadrupled in just four years, reaching unprecedented levels. This happened while employer investment in training the UK workforce fell, reducing opportunities for people here to secure work, get on and contribute. This, alongside years of austerity, strained public services, and a lack of houses and decent jobs for our young people, has bred a lack of trust in the system. That lack of trust does not come from one single issue, and politicians who claim otherwise are simply wrong about the moment we are in. Immigration is not the source of all our problems, but it is not the solution to all of them either. We need a balanced approach to maximising the benefits and minimising the costs. This Labour UK Government ended austerity with more money for public services in Scotland than ever before, and the biggest upgrade in workers' rights for a generation. Now we are setting out targeted reforms which will help attract highly skilled individuals to drive innovation in Scotland's key sectors such as renewable energy, life sciences and technology. We are also increasing the skills threshold for work visas to degree level – making sure skilled work truly means skilled work and ending the reliance on lower-skilled overseas labour that grew under the last UK Government. We are also going to support refugees who have been officially granted protection status in the UK to apply for employment through existing worker routes where they have the skills to do so. And we are enhancing the opportunities for exceptional talent to come to the UK, integrate and contribute to the economy. We will increase the number of places for research interns, including those working in AI, make it simpler for top scientific and design talent to come to the UK, and reform the Innovator Founder visa to help international graduates build businesses in the UK – supercharging growth in our key industries. Sadly, all of this is in sharp contrast with an SNP Scottish Government which is, as usual, moving fast on incendiary rhetoric but going slow on actually improving the lives of people in Scotland. I suggest it is the lack of housing, college places, the poor connectivity and infrastructure, and long NHS waiting times – all the things the SNP Scottish Government are responsible for. We want to see the Scottish Government step up and do more to support skills for working-class young people in Scotland. Instead, college places are at their lowest in over a decade and facing further cuts from the SNP this year. Meanwhile, more than 1,300 kids – the equivalent of a full high school – left school last year with no qualifications to their name at all. It is intolerable to me and to progressive politics that nearly one in six young people in Scotland are not in education, employment or training – while the SNP deny those young people opportunities and merely say immigration will alleviate all of Scotland's ills. Failing public services, a lack of investment, fewer opportunities for young people, increased net migration – all these issues combine to break down trust in the system. All across the country, people are scunnered. A government of service to working people addresses those concerns; a government of service to its party will not. I'm married to a French national, my children are bilingual and my extended family live and work all over the world, so I know that immigration enriches our communities socially, culturally and economically. But it is possible to be positive about the contribution immigration plays to our communities while, at the same time, wanting a system that is controlled, ordered and fair. Most people – including most immigrants – want a functioning system that is orderly, predictable and fair. Nobody could describe our current situation as that. The Tories broke the system, deliberately, in a callous move as a political experiment. The reality is that net migration has quadrupled in just four years, reaching unprecedented levels. This happened while employer investment in training the UK workforce fell, reducing opportunities for people here to secure work, get on and contribute. This, alongside years of austerity, strained public services, and a lack of houses and decent jobs for our young people, has bred a lack of trust in the system. That lack of trust does not come from one single issue, and politicians who claim otherwise are simply wrong about the moment we are in. Immigration is not the source of all our problems, but it is not the solution to all of them either. We need a balanced approach to maximising the benefits and minimising the costs. This Labour UK Government ended austerity with more money for public services in Scotland than ever before, and the biggest upgrade in workers' rights for a generation. Now we are setting out targeted reforms which will help attract highly skilled individuals to drive innovation in Scotland's key sectors such as renewable energy, life sciences and technology. We are also increasing the skills threshold for work visas to degree level – making sure skilled work truly means skilled work and ending the reliance on lower-skilled overseas labour that grew under the last UK Government. We are also going to support refugees who have been officially granted protection status in the UK to apply for employment through existing worker routes where they have the skills to do so. And we are enhancing the opportunities for exceptional talent to come to the UK, integrate and contribute to the economy. We will increase the number of places for research interns, including those working in AI, make it simpler for top scientific and design talent to come to the UK, and reform the Innovator Founder visa to help international graduates build businesses in the UK – supercharging growth in our key industries. Sadly, all of this is in sharp contrast with an SNP Scottish Government which is, as usual, moving fast on incendiary rhetoric but going slow on actually improving the lives of people in Scotland. I suggest it is the lack of housing, college places, the poor connectivity and infrastructure, and long NHS waiting times – all the things the SNP Scottish Government are responsible for. We want to see the Scottish Government step up and do more to support skills for working-class young people in Scotland. Instead, college places are at their lowest level in a decade and facing further cuts from the SNP this year. Meanwhile, more than 1,300 kids – the equivalent of a full high school – left school last year with no qualifications to their name at all. It is intolerable to me and to progressive politics that nearly one in six young people in Scotland are not in education, employment or training – while the SNP deny those young people those opportunities and merely say immigration will alleviate all of Scotland's ills. Failing public services, a lack of investment, fewer opportunities for young people, increased net migration – all these issues combine to break down trust in the system. All across the country, people are scunnered. A government of service to working people addresses those concerns; a government of service to its party will not. Ian Murray is the Secretary of State for Scotland.
