Busting the myths: Hiring international students
Written by Vishal Gautam from V Immigration Ltd
A small Birmingham firm assumed hiring an international student would mean a licence, a long wait and a large bill. It meant none of those things, at least at first.
Priya* had three weeks of her course left when the email came. A small engineering consultancy near Snow Hill had liked her final-year project and wanted to know whether she could start in September.
She could. The managing director had never hired anyone from overseas, and he assumed the visa side would kill the offer before it got anywhere. He pictured a sponsor licence, months of paperwork and a bill running into thousands.
None of that was needed in September, and the reason is worth knowing if you run a business in this city.
She could start without anyone sponsoring her
Priya was an international student. When her course finished she could apply for a Graduate visa, which lets her work in most jobs, for any employer, with no sponsor involved.
For the consultancy that meant no licence, no certificate and no Home Office fees. They did the same right to work check they do for every new starter. The online check showed her permission and the date it ended, and she started on the Monday.
I came to the UK on a student visa myself and later moved onto a work visa, so I have seen this from the other side of the desk. Most employers I meet have no idea this route exists. The ones who do tend to forget the second half of it.
The date on the right to work check
The Graduate visa can’t be extended. It lasts two years for people who apply on or before 31 December 2026, and 18 months for those who apply from 1 January 2027. PhD graduates get three years.
About a year in, the managing director realised Priya had become one of the people the business relied on, and he started asking what keeping her would involve.
The usual answer is the Skilled Worker route, which means the employer becomes a sponsor. Priya could switch from inside the UK, so there were no flights and no gap in her employment. The salary rules were kinder than he expected too.
Most sponsored jobs must pay £41,700 a year or the going rate for the job, whichever is higher. Someone who is on a Graduate visa, or has been in the last two years, can usually be sponsored as a “new entrant” at 70 per cent of the going rate, as long as the salary is at least £33,400. That lower rate lasts up to four years in total, counting the time already spent on the Graduate visa.
There were costs. A sponsor licence usually takes around eight weeks to come through, and a small business pays an Immigration Skills Charge of £480 for every year it sponsors someone. None of that put him off. What worried him was how close he had come to leaving it until the last few weeks of her visa.
The cheaper moment they missed
With hindsight there was a better time to do all this, and it was before Priya graduated.
If an employer sponsors someone who is still on a Student visa, the rules normally let them switch straight to the Skilled Worker route once the course is finished, and the employer pays no Immigration Skills Charge at all. That exemption is specific to people switching from a Student visa. Someone who has already moved onto a Graduate visa doesn’t qualify, which is the position Priya was in by the time anyone thought about it.
For a small business sponsoring someone for four years, that is close to £2,000 left on the table, plus the stress of a deadline that didn’t need to exist.
If you are hiring in Birmingham
The city’s universities run careers fairs, placement schemes and job boards, and they want to hear from local employers. If you take on an international graduate:
- write down the visa type and end date at the right to work check, and set a reminder six months before it ends
- check the role and its occupation code before you get attached to the candidate, because sponsored jobs have to be at the right skill level
- apply for the sponsor licence early if you think you will want to keep them, since eight weeks is a long time against an expiry date
- talk to strong final-year students before they apply for the Graduate visa, while the cheaper switch is still open
Priya is still at the consultancy. The visa paperwork, when it finally happened, took less of everyone’s time than her interview had.
*Priya and the consultancy are a composite drawn from common situations, not a real client. This article is general information based on GOV.UK guidance in October 2026, not legal or immigration advice. The rules change, so check the current position on GOV.UK and get advice on your own circumstances.
Vishal Gautam is a director of V Immigration Ltd, a Birmingham-based immigration advice firm regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority.