UK Graduate visa 2026: the 18-month change, cost and who qualifies

The UK Graduate visa, often called the PSW or post-study work visa, is getting shorter. Apply on or before 31 December 2026 and you get two years to work in the UK after your degree; apply on or after 1 January 2027 and you get 18 months. For most Indian students reading this, that means 18 months, because anyone starting a UK master’s now will finish in 2027 or later.

There is one group who can still get two years: students who finished a one-year master’s in 2026, if their university reports the result in time and they apply before the end of the year. Below: who gets which length, how to apply, the cost in rupees, and what comes after it, with each rule linked to GOV.UK or the Immigration Rules.

How long is the UK Graduate visa?

It depends on the date you apply, not when your course started or when the Home Office decides. In the Immigration Rules, the period is “granted from date of decision” and set by the application date:

The change was made by Statement of Changes HC 1333, laid on 14 October 2025, which says the 18 months “will apply to applications submitted on or after 1 January 2027”. It carries out a commitment in the government’s May 2025 Immigration White Paper to reduce the time graduates can stay “to a period of 18 months”.

Who still gets two years, and who gets 18 months?

If you are finishing a master’s this autumn, the dates matter. You can apply as soon as your university has told the Home Office you have successfully completed the course; you do not need to wait for graduation or a certificate. Ask your university when it will report your result, and if it is before 31 December 2026, apply then. An application made on 31 December 2026 and decided in 2027 still gets two years, because the rule looks at the date the application is made. Submit the form and pay both the fee and the surcharge by 31 December (UK time), complete the identity step when told to, and do not travel home for the holidays until you have a decision.

Who qualifies for the Graduate visa?

You can apply if all of these apply to you, as set out on GOV.UK and in Appendix Graduate:

• You are in the UK, and your current or most recent permission is a Student visa (or the older Tier 4 visa).
• You studied a UK bachelor’s degree, a postgraduate degree or one of a short list of other eligible courses, such as a law conversion course or PGCE.
• You studied in the UK for the whole course if it lasted 12 months or less, or for at least 12 months if it was longer.
• Your university, which must have a track record of compliance, has reported to the Home Office that you completed the course successfully.
• You have not had a Graduate visa before, or a Doctorate Extension.
• If a government or international scholarship covered both your fees and living costs in the last 12 months, you need its written consent.

There is no English test, no job offer and no minimum salary. You do not need to show any money either.

When should you apply, and how long does it take?

You must apply from inside the UK and before your Student visa expires. For a course of 12 months or longer, a Student visa usually runs four months past the course end date, which is your window; for a course of six to under twelve months it is two months. You also cannot apply until your university has reported your result, so if that has not happened by the day your Student visa ends, for example because you are waiting for a resit, you cannot apply. And you cannot apply from India: if you go home after your course without applying, you lose the chance. Decisions usually take up to 8 weeks, and you can stay in the UK while you wait. Do not leave the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man before you get a decision: GOV.UK says your application “will be withdrawn” if you do.

Faster decisions are available: priority costs £500 for a decision within five working days, and super priority, which needs a UKVCAS appointment, costs £1,000 for a decision by the end of the next working day.

How do you apply for the Graduate visa?

• Ask your university when it will report your successful completion to the Home Office. You cannot apply before it does.
• Apply online on GOV.UK while you are in the UK and before your Student visa expires.
• Have your passport and the CAS reference number from your Student visa application ready, plus written consent if a scholarship paid your fees and living costs in the last 12 months.
• Pay the £937 fee and the health surcharge.
• Prove your identity with the UK Immigration: ID Check app, or at a UKVCAS appointment if asked.
• Stay in the UK or Ireland until you get a decision, usually within 8 weeks. Your status is issued as an eVisa.

How much does the Graduate visa cost?

The health surcharge is £1,035 for each year, and for a grant of more than a year but no more than 18 months the surcharge rules charge a full year plus half a year, which is £1,552.50. The cost page of GOV.UK’s Graduate visa guide currently shows £1,152.50 for 18 months, which does not match that calculation; the exact amount is worked out when you apply. The £937 fee rose from £880 on 8 April 2026. For a two-year visa (applications made by 31 December 2026) the surcharge is £2,070, so the total is £3,007, about ₹3.82 lakh.

What can you do on a Graduate visa?

• Work in almost any job, full or part time, at any salary, including self-employment and volunteering. The only work bar is working as a professional sportsperson, which includes coaching.
• Change jobs freely, because no employer sponsors you.
• Study, but GOV.UK says only if your course “is not eligible for a Student visa”, so a second full master’s needs a new Student visa.
• Travel in and out of the UK while the visa is valid.

You cannot claim public funds, and you cannot extend the visa. The Graduate route “is not a route to settlement”: you cannot settle from it, and its time does not count towards the five-year Skilled Worker route to settlement.

Can your partner or children stay with you?

Only if they are already here as your dependants. Your partner or child can apply with you if they hold, or last held, permission as your dependant on your Student visa. A child born in the UK while you were on a Student or Graduate visa can also apply. New partners cannot join you on this route: GOV.UK says your partner “needs to have been a dependant on your Student visa”. Most taught master’s students who started on or after 1 January 2024 cannot bring dependants on a Student visa, so for most Indian students the Graduate visa is a solo visa.

What proof of status do you get?

An eVisa, a digital record linked to your UKVI account, rather than a card. If you still have the biometric residence permit from your Student visa, GOV.UK says you can use it to prove your Student visa when you apply, for 24 months after the expiry date on the card or until 31 December 2026, whichever comes first. Set up your UKVI account now if you have not already.

What happens when the Graduate visa ends?

You need another visa to stay. For most Indian graduates that means a Skilled Worker visa, sponsored by an employer. The figures in October 2026:

• Salary: at least £41,700 a year (about ₹53 lakh) or the going rate for the job, whichever is higher.
• New-entrant rate: as a current or recent Graduate visa holder you can be paid 70% of the going rate, with a floor of £33,400 (about ₹42.4 lakh). But your “total stay in the UK cannot be more than 4 years” on that basis, including the time you spent on the Graduate visa. After an 18-month Graduate visa, that leaves about two and a half years at the lower rate.
• Skill level: since 22 July 2025, most jobs must be at graduate level (RQF level 6) to qualify.
• English: Skilled Worker applicants now need level B2.

Going rates are from the Home Office’s table of eligible occupations, and the new-entrant figures from Appendix Skilled Occupations. Other routes exist but suit fewer people. You can switch to Global Talent with an endorsement, or to Innovator Founder with an endorsed business idea. You cannot move to the High Potential Individual visa: GOV.UK says you “cannot apply” if you have already been given a Graduate visa.

How many Indian students get the Graduate visa?

More than any other nationality. In the year to June 2026 the Home Office granted 157,356 Graduate visas, and Indian nationals received the most, 64,495 including dependants. Counting main applicants only, our sum from the Home Office dataset is 60,179 of 142,957, or 42%. Refusals are rare: about 1,600 main applicants were refused in the same year, roughly 1% of decisions.

The most detailed official earnings data, published in 2024, covers graduates who started in 2021 and 2022. The Migration Advisory Committee’s review of the Graduate route found median earnings of £1,750 a month in the first year among those in work, and £2,020 in the last three months of that year, and that 38% earned at least £2,500 a month by their twelfth month. Of graduates who started the route between July and December 2021, half had switched to a work visa or back to study, mostly to Skilled Worker. A Home Office analysis published alongside it put the median annual earnings of Indian Graduate visa holders who worked the full year in 2022-23 at £25,465.

Is 18 months enough?

It can be, if you plan for it. In our experience the students who land sponsored jobs start applying in the first term of the master’s, because graduate schemes recruit a year ahead and the new-entrant rate needs an employer with a sponsor licence. The 2024 earnings data suggests many graduates start below the Skilled Worker threshold, so the first year is often about getting UK experience in your field. Eighteen months leaves less room to recover from a slow start than two years did. Our guide to whether studying abroad is worth it looks at the return in more detail.

How does the UK compare with other countries?

The UK and Ireland both have short master’s degrees, usually 12 months. In the UK, the whole stay from arriving a few weeks before the course to the end of an 18-month Graduate visa is usually two and a half to three years; in Ireland, with two years on Stamp 1G, it is about three. Our best country guide sets work rights beside cost and visa outcomes, and the UK cost guide covers what the degree itself costs.

How can we help?

Bring your course dates and career plans to a free profile evaluation, and we will map out when you finish, when you can apply and what the visa leaves time for.