International aspiring barrister - Visa issue

Hi peeps!

I have never posted on Student Room but this is eating me up.

The application season has started (or is starting, considering that many sets haven't advertised their pupillage on the Gateway) and I am worrying about the visa issues. The Bar Council is able to sponsor visas, but they require a minimum guaranteed earning of £36,680 for pupillage and over £50k for new tenants (checked with them), and I am worrying that I will end up doing applications that are going nowhere because I require visa sponsorship. I started to be really concerned about this when I was applying to this set, and I emailed them to ask if they were willing to consider applicants who require visa sponsorship 2 weeks before the closing date. I heard nothing back until a day before the closing date. Hence, I decided to put through my application anyway. 2 minutes later, I received a rejection email saying that they would not consider anyone on a visa. I am worrying that the same would happen in this application cycle. I have been suggested to email the Chambers or ring them to check. I am not too sure if that would work because I had contacted the Chambers during the last application season, and they never replied. Does anyone have similar concerns/ experience, and if you do, could you please kindly advise me what you would/ have done?

TiA

Reply 1

chalks

So, your choices are (a) rely on the anecdotal experiences of students who may, or may not, have applied to the sets you're interested in or (b) contact the sets themselves to get their actual answer.

Email the sets, then follow-up a few days later with a call. It's the only way you will know for sure. For those sets that don't respond to your email or calls, then you could apply anyway and recognise they may subsequently reject you based on your visa requirements or, indeed, other factors.

Reply 2

masijacoke

Original post by chalks

So, your choices are (a) rely on the anecdotal experiences of students who may, or may not, have applied to the sets you're interested in or (b) contact the sets themselves to get their actual answer.
Email the sets, then follow-up a few days later with a call. It's the only way you will know for sure. For those sets that don't respond to your email or calls, then you could apply anyway and recognise they may subsequently reject you based on your visa requirements or, indeed, other factors.

Thank you!

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