Bad news for foreign students: Bar on bringing family to UK: New immigration rules announced

Only those international postgraduate students who are on research programmes will be allowed to bring their family or dependents to UK, the new immigration rules stated.

New Delhi:There is a piece of bad news for students aspiring to travel to United Kingdom for pursing any course. The country has come up with new immigration rules for foreign students that prevent them from bringing their family members or any dependents with them to UK.

This has been revealed in a statement released by the UK Home Office on Tuesday. The only exemption that has been given is to the postgraduate students on research courses. Also, the UK government is considering to do away with the existing right of international students to switch over to work routes before completing their academic course.

Announcing the new rules in the House of Commons, UK Home Secretary Suella Braveman said that this was aimed at curbing the migration rate in the country. The Home secretary's statement stated that the new regulations include "removing the right for international students to bring dependents unless they are on postgraduate courses currently designated as research programmes. It was time "to tighten up this route to ensure we can cut immigration numbers," the statement added.

According to UK government's official data, the migration figure stood at 7,00,000 in 2022-23. In 2022, 1,35,788 visas were of the dependents of the foreign students, which was nine times more than that in 2019. A total of 54,486 visas were granted in 2021 and in 2020, 19,139 were granted, which was seven times lesser.

The rise in visas has been registered since the immigration rules were changed in 2019 wherein foreign students were allowed to say in UK for two years after passing out and search for jobs. The UK government maintained that the new rules will help students to focus on their academics as well as prevent the system's misuse. However, students aspiring for postgraduate courses in UK said that having parents always help one to battle through their rough times.