from today's Home Office announcement

Major changes to student visa system

Tougher criteria for people wanting to come to the UK to study and limits on their right to work are among major reforms to the student visas system announced today.

....

The 'post study work route', which allowed students two years to seek employment after their course ended has been closed.

Only those graduates who have an offer of a skilled job from a sponsoring employer, in Tier 2 of the points-based-system, will be able to stay to work.

Pretty much exactly the opposite of what I had understood the proposal in Parliament last week to mean.

And since getting a Tier 2 work visa is already difficult and being hedged 'round with further obstacles, that pretty much spells the end of my plans to try to move to the UK.*

I had been waffling back and forth. Another year of postgrad work is not an inexpensive endeavour, especially on top of the cost of moving 3,000 miles. Even if I got loans, it was going to be a big hit to my savings. If I could have stayed and worked for a couple of years, I would have been willing to do it, because I love the UK and want very much to live there. Maybe something would have turned up to let me stay. But for the cost and the disruption, if I have to turn around and leave as soon as my studies are done, it's just not worth it to me.

I had a chance to move there and work right away, back in 2007, and I passed on it. That was a poor choice on my part; to their credit, pretty much all of my friends told me so, but I was too focused on other things to listen. I'm sorry I made that decision, now, but we live with the choices we make. As CHris (and Heraclitus) is fond of saying, you can't step in the same river twice--life moves on, and we have to move with it.



*At least until a different government comes in and opens up the laws, and I'm hardly holding my breath. Maybe one of these days the SNP will push through full devolution and Scotland will get control of its own borders, but I'm not holding my breath for that either.

The comment period ended today on the UK governments' latest demented plan for cutting the country's immigration rate by 90%. This set of plans targets students, and includes stricter controls on programs of study, higher standards of English fluency, elimination of any work-study other than on-campus employment, denial of any extension of stay (including, presumably, changing from a master's program to a doctoral one), and elimination of the post-work study visa that allowed those obtaining university degrees to work in the UK for two years after.

Informed observers suggest that responses to comments and a final policy decision should be forthcoming in the next few weeks.