About High Potential Individual Visa

A High Potential Individual visa gives you permission to stay in the UK for at least 2 years.The program offers visas to people who completed a degree from a qualifying university outside the UK within the last five years. It’s available to people of any nationality who are at least 18 years of age.Applicants aren’t required to have a job offer in order to qualify for visas.

Which Universities are Included?

Applicants must have attended a university from the Home Office’s Global University List which is released annually. The list has not been released this year, but in 2022 the list was released on the official website.

The schools that appear on world rankings may vary from year to year, but tend include a lot of familiar names, such as Harvard, Stanford, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US; Canada’s University of Toronto; Peking University and Tsinghua University in China; and the University of Tokyo in Japan.

Eligibility Requirements

An English language requirement, which involves showing that you either come from a majority-English-speaking country or that you’ve passed a test or received a degree demonstrating your English language ability .A financial requirement, which asks that applicants have at least £1,270 available in cash

How is the HPI visa different from graduate visas?

The key difference between the HPI visa and the UK graduate visa is that the first is available specifically to graduates of schools outside the UK. The UK graduate visa allows people who’ve completed a degree within the UK to stay for at least two years after graduating.

Important Things to Be Noted

With an HPI Visa you can work in most jobs, can be self-employed, are allowed to participate in volunteering activities, and can travel abroad and return to the UK. However, there are certain restrictions as well. You cannot apply for a pension and cannot work as a professional sportsperson. You are also not allowed to extend the visa and this visa does not grant you the permission to settle permanently in the UK.