Tier 2 General to Student visa for Masters

[Lama115]

Hi,

I am an Indian national working in the UK on a tier 2 general visa.

I studied my four year bachelors degree in the UK after which I secured a Tier 2 general visa from my current employer. This December end I will be eligible for my ILR and as of now I meet the requirements (salary and 5 years work experience etc).

I am trying to switch industry and hence it is important for me to do a masters masters degree starting in September 2018. I have applied for the course which is at a reputed university and very likely I will receive the offer soon.

From reading at link [ uk-tier-2-employer-sponsored-visas/ ]and GOV UK website I think it's definitely possible to apply from Tier 2 general to student visa without leaving the UK but below are my concerns:

1. If I accept my masters offer I will miss out on applying ILR in december 2018 as I no longer will be working with my employer who sponsored my Tier 2 visa. But I will complete ten years in September 2019. Is it safe to say that after graduation I don't need to wait for any employer to sponsor me a tier 2 general, again, and just apply for ILR on my own because I will be completing ten years in the UK by the time I complete my masters?

2. What is the risk in not taking ILR in December 2018? Especially considering Brexit? Overall there are talks about relaxing student visa rules but still a bit worried because I moved here in September 2009 knowing even if I don't get tier 2 general I can still make use of post study visa which they abolished AFTER i moved here. Hence right now I fear by the time I become eligible to apply for ILR on completing ten years in September 2019 they might scrap that category as well!

3. Will there be any complications in the above process considering it is not common to switch from Tier 2 to student? My current salary is 35000 and will be 37000 in December 2018. I'm worried visa officials might think I am switching to a student visa because I don't have ILR eligible salary of 35,500 right now? As in they don't know I will meet the limit when I become eligible?

I understand I sound too worried but I guess this is because during the first time I secured my tier 2 visa it took a lot of time so trying to make sure this time it's smooth.

Thank you all.

[4uvak]

1. Yes
2. Nobody knows, but in general immigration rules become more tighter over years and not more relaxed in all categories
3. Home Office operates with facts. There are so many applicatants that I doubt they will waste their time trying to guess why you changed your visa type. As long as you satisfy requirements of all visas you had there shoud be no problems.
4. The post is too long. Try to keep it shorter.
5. Godd luck.
P.S. I would stick to current visa just to save time and money. If this is not an issue or there are other viriables in the equation - the choice is yours.

[Lama115]

Thanks for the response. Agree post could be a lot shorter