The Graduate immigration route is due to launch on 1 July 2021. It will enable students who have successfully completed an undergraduate or master’s degree to remain in the UK for up to two years to work after study (three years if they have completed a PhD).
See the Home Office Fact sheet and UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) website for more information.
The new route will be opened for applications from 1 July 2021.
Students who began a course of 12 months or less in 2020 or 2021 via distance learning, and who have not previously entered the UK to study that course will be able to make a Graduate application if they make a successful Student visa application and arrive in the UK either before their visa ends or by 27 September 2021, whichever is sooner.
If you already came to the UK under your current Student route permission but then you switched to distance learning from home, you just need to return to the UK on or before the end date of your Student permission in order to be eligible to apply for the Graduate Route.
Students sponsored for a course lasting longer than 12 months will not be prevented from being eligible for the Graduate route as a result of any distance learning that took place either in the UK or overseas between the period of 24 January 2020 and 27 September 2021. They must however be in the UK on valid Tier 4/Student permission to remain eligible.