New Graduate Immigration Route

Home Office fact sheet stated that "The new route will be launched in the summer of 2021, meaning that any eligible student who graduates in the summer of 2021 or after will be able to apply for the route."
and "Any student who successfully completes their degree-level course at a qualifying institution in the summer of 2021 or after will be eligible. "(below link)

https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/201 ... ion-route/

If someone start a master course in January 2020 and submit his/her last piece of work (dissertation) before summer 2021 but receive his mark and officially graduate in summer 2021 can he/she apply for this new route?

I do not think that the Rules for this route have been approved yet and hence have not been published yet.

Do be aware that the blog post does state that "the route is non-extendable and does not count towards settlement" (i.e. the T4 visa preceding it and this new visa will only count towards the 10 year Long residence route for acquiring ILR).

amkay wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 08, 2019 1:08 am

If someone start a master course in January 2020 and submit his/her last piece of work (dissertation) before summer 2021 but receive his mark and officially graduate in summer 2021 can he/she apply for this new route?

As already advised, the rules have not been passed or published yet. The relevant Statement of Changes may come in April 2021, going by the Home Office's usual schedule for announcing changes.

It seems likely that eligibility will depend on whether someone is still in the UK with Tier 4 leave at the point the new route is introduced. Reading the whole factsheet, the verb "to graduate" in your first quote seems to be used generically and means "to successfully complete the course while still having extant Tier 4 leave", not specifically to mean "to attend the graduation ceremony". At some institutions the graduation ceremony can be many months after the end of the course, meaning that someone with a Tier 4 visa will need to return to the UK as a visitor to attend it. Such a person cannot reasonably expect to be covered by the Graduate route, based on what has been announced in advance via the factsheet.