How to find a work visa job for a Non-Eu national ?

Any advice guys ? my visa expires on oct.
I am almost on the edge of giving up . Got on the last stage interview for a job and then "Sorry we don't sponsor international students" . And employers dont like the idea of us asking them "do you sponsor a work visa ?" while applying for jobs. Its so stupid and frustrating sometimes .

Reply 1

History98

Getting a Tier 2 visa is very very difficult, I can't seem to find exact figures of how many Tier 4 visas out of the hundreds of thousands of international students that come to the UK every year switch to Tier 2's but only approx. 15% of them will still have some form of leave to remain 5 years after their initial entry (a lot of these will be undergrads who have moved to postgrad research degrees) and only 23% of the approx. 90000 permanent residence visa's issued every year (approx. 20,000) go to people who entered initially on Tier 4's [Source] (this 20,000 figure will probably go down as UK work visa restrictions have been significantly tightened in the last two major immigration reviews which were in 2011 and in 2016).Given the stats above you can see that international students are finding it extremely difficult to get a work visas in the UK, its not that they are necessarily not writing their CVs correctly or that they are crap at interviews as some people like to make out it's just that the competition is too stiff and only a small pool of work permits are out there. You either have to be a particularly strong candidate or a bit lucky to get something, but keep trying. You need to be significantly better than the next UK/EU candidate below you to get a job, unlike an EU national who just has to be the best candidate out of the pool.

There are costs to the company for hiring you, both financial and administrative. It is going to cost your employer for a COS number and on top of that immigration visa fees and other surcharges will need to paid, its approx. £1800 for a visa application for a 3-year visa (excluding the £600 immigrant health surcharge). After your first contract your employer is then going to need to apply for a new COS and also start paying a £1000 skills surcharge for every year you spend on a work visa in the UK after that point of that (e.g for a 3 year visa, an upfront skills surcharge fee of £3000 will need to be paid). All in all in the 6 years you spend in the UK before citizenship over £10000 will have been given to the UKVI (most of that cost will be met by you in most cases but the employer usually steps in and meets some costs) for various fees and surcharges.

So what would my honest advice be? Keep trying hard to get a graduate scheme but PLEASE start thinking of a back up plan! Start looking at opportunities for work back at your home country or look to immigrate to countries with much easier immigration restrictions. For instance, if your occupation is on this list then you will get enough points to qualify for australian permanent residency provided you can prove that you have superior english.

NB: I am an international student who has graduated from an undergrad degree here in the UK and is now a postgrad here. I have had several international student friends who have looked to get Tier 2 visas. I am not on a Tier 2 visa so my experience is not first hand experience.

How to find a work visa job for a Non-Eu national ?

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