Graduate Route Visa

As with other non-LSE sponsored working routes, we will be unable to provide detailed advice on the route and the application, including your ability to apply if your Student visa has expired. Our advice below is based on publicly available information and LSE specific processes.

Guidance states that to qualify for the Graduate route you must have current valid immigration permission as a Student and as such you should plan to apply before the expiry date of your visa and from within the UK. If this is not possible, you will need to seek external immigration advice.

Immigration Advice Authority

ILPA

Once your visa is issued or your Student visa has expired, we will no longer be able to support you with any immigration queries you may have as per our published service standards.

You may also find UKCISA's information helpful, but please take into consideration this is general advice written for the whole sector and is not specific to LSE's own processes. 

The Graduate Route visa allows students who have successfully been awarded their degree the opportunity to remain in the UK to work without requiring sponsorship from an employer.

It is a one-time opportunity, so you should plan carefully if you are going to use it if you plan to undertake further studies on the Graduate Route.

You cannot use the Graduate Route to study a degree where a CAS can be issued including Executive Masters and part-time degrees at LSE. 
You will only be eligible to have your dependants with you if they are already in the UK on a dependant visa.  You cannot obtain the Graduate visa and then bring your dependants to the UK.

There will be no maintenance (financial) requirements and the English language requirement will be met by you being awarded your degree.

FAQ: I received a scholarship from LSE. Do I need to state that I was officially financially sponsored and obtain permission from LSE to apply?

You only need permission to apply if you were fully funded (tuition fees and living costs) by an international scholarship agency or a government. If you were sponsored by LSE, you do not need a letter from us because we do not meet the categories above.

US Federal loans do not count as government sponsorship because they are an educational loan system and not a scholarship. 

• Undergraduate and Masters students will be given a visa for two years from the date the visa is granted. For applications made on or after 1st January 2027, this will change to eighteen months in length.
• PhD students will be given a visa for three years from the date the visa is granted.
• MPhil/PhD students or MRes/PhD students who exit at Masters level will be eligible because they are on an intergrated degree on your CAS and are exiting with a Masters degree. They will only get two years on their visa.

You cannot extend the Graduate Route visa, nor can you split the amount of time that you have on your visa.

• You must have a valid Student visa at the point of application and you can only apply for the visa inside the UK.
  
  Advertised processing times are eight weeks from the date of application, but it is possible to pay for priority processing.
  
  You will need to remain in the Common Travel Area (UK and Republic of Ireland) throughout the application process until you receive a decision.  If you leave the Common Travel Area, you are considered to be withdrawing your application.
  
  

  FAQ: I plan to apply for the Graduate Route just before the expiry date of my student visa.  Can I stay in the UK whilst I am waiting for the outcome of my visa application?

  As long as you apply for the visa before the expiry date of your current visa, your Student visa is automatically extended until the outcome of your Graduate Route application, even if the original expiry date has passed.

  This is known as 3C leave and you continue to benefit from the conditions of your student visa e.g. work, whilst your application is in progress.

  If your Student visa was granted after the 6 April 2022, you will be able to take a permanent position once your appplication is submitted. You may therefore find it more beneficial to apply once you are eligible rather than remain on the 'no permanent position' condition of the Student visa.

• You need to have been in the UK for the required period on a Student visa to be eligible and to have successfully completed your programme.
  
  If you are on a programme of 12 months or more you must have completed at least 12 months of your programme on a Student visa. If you are on a programme of less than 12 months, you must have completed the whole programme on a Student visa.
  
  The degree must have been completed wholly in the UK with some exceptions such as study abroad that is an integral and assessed part of the programme e.g. GMiM. This means that General Course students are not eligible for the visa.
  
  Given that you need a valid Student visa in place to apply for the Graduate Route, those students on other routes e.g. dependants, may need to consider switching to the Student Route if the they wish to benefit from the a Graduate Route visa.
• You need to have successfully completed your degree programme.
  
  Successful completion of your programme doesn't mean you have submitted all your assessments/the end date of your programme has passed.  It means that the School exam boards have met and you have been informed on the official results release date that you have passed your degree. This cannot be expedited and there is no way to apply sooner.
  
  If you have completed your degree early e.g. you have transferred to a shorter degree or have been awarded your PhD earlier than your thesis submission date, we must also inform the UKVI of this. A report for early completion can have an effect on your visa and you should read the relevant section of the following web page:
  
  When you have your visa
  
• You must wait until LSE has verified your for the route with the UKVI after official results release cnfirm you have been awarded your degree.
  
  The degree you have been awarded must be the one that was stated on your CAS, unless you have transferred to a programme that you can complete without having to extend your visa and this was officially reported to the UKVI.  
  
  Undergraduates and 9/10/21 month MSc students will be verified after the official results publishing date in July.
  
  Undergraduate students with IRDAP requirements will be verified after the official results publishing date in September.
  
  12/24 month MSc/MRes students will be verified after the official results publishing date in November.
  
  Postgraduate students with RDAP requirements will only be verified after the results release date in March.
  
  Publication of results
  
  PhD students will be verified by their individual award date on a rolling basis.
  
  You are not eligible at the point your receive your provisional results as you have not yet successfully completed in-line with the requirements of the route.
• You should only apply after you have received the email from LSE stating that you have been verified to the UKVI for the Graduate Route
  
  After results are published, LSE must confirm your successful completion to the UKVI on an official UKVI database.  Only once this has been done and we email you to confirm the CAS number you require should you consider submitting an application. Applying without having been formally verified for the route is like applying for the Student Route before you have been issued with a CAS number.
  
  Do not apply for the visa until you have received the email confirming your verification. Applying without having been officially verified is the same as applying for a Student visa without a CAS number.
  
  We aim to verify students within five working days of official results release. If you have not received the email from LSE within five working days, please contact us for further information. Please do not contact us prior to this as we are unable to expedite any requests.
  
  If you apply before you receive your final results have been verified to the UKVI, you may be required to withdraw your application if you have applied too soon. This could lead to you losing the application fee.
  
  Students who have their results withheld due to a tuition fee debt with the School, have a misconduct case or have an appeal submitted meaning they will not be awarded will not be verified until you are able to receive your results.
  
  We must verify all students who are eligible even if they do not intend to apply.
  
  If the UKVI contacts us about your application, we are required to respond with an accurate representation of your situation given it is the responsibility of the institution to verify eligible candidates. We will inform you if we have been contacted regarding your application.

• General Course/GO LSE incoming students - this is because you will not be awarded a UK degree and will be studying in the UK for less than 12 months.
• Diploma in Accounting and Finance/Diploma in Economics students will not be eligible for the route because they are not exiting with a Masters degree.
• Double-degree students where year one is at LSE and year two is overseas are not eligible because you will not have a UK Student visa for year two of your programme.
  
  

  FAQ: I intended to go to USC as part of the Global MSc Media and Communications,  but now wish to transfer/have transferred to a 12 month Masters at LSE. Will I be eligible for the Graduate Route?

  MSc Global Media and Communications (LSE and USC) students who transfer to a 12 month Masters at LSE will not be eligible because their visa will expire before results are officially released. 

  It is not possible to extend your visa to receive your results, because you are only able to transfer because you can complete 12 month Masters programme  on your current visa. An application to extend for a longer programme is not permitted by the UKVI and we cannot sponsor you on this basis.
  
  The visa issued for these students was correct for the programme they applied for initially because you have an earlier end date at LSE and your visa was correctly issued for a programme of less than 12 months.  This cannot be challenged if you change your plans. We strongly recommend that you consider transferring to a 12 month Masters degree at admissions stage and before you get your visa, if you no longer wish to attend USC.

• I need to have an approved absence/plan to travel during vacations, will this affect my Graduate Route application?

  The UKVI have confirmed that short-term travel e.g. during official School vacations, approved absences, approved fieldwork and study abroad exchanges for UG students,  are unlikely to affect your eligibility for the Graduate Route, as long as LSE does not need to withdraw sponsorship of your visa.  They recognise that people travel during the vacations.

  If our team is aware of a long-term absence when you are overseas, we would withdraw sponsorship of your visa and you would not be eligible for the Graduate Route both because you no longer have a valid visa and potentially because you have not met the minimum period in the UK requirement. A long term absence would be if you leave the UK at Spring Break and complete all assessments overseas, planning to return only when you are eligible for the Graduate Route. This is because you are undertaking remote learning and are not in the UK, which is not permitted by the UKVI.  

  You can find out more about approved absences on our web pages:
  
   Requesting an Approved Absence.

• I am a student with PGIRDAP Enabled assessments in the January Exam Period. When will I be eligible for the Graduate Route?

  If you deferred or were required to re-take assessments for PGIRDAP enabled courses (all currently Economics courses) that are held in January, you should note that there is no exam board for Economics assessments in March any longer.  This means that if you only have January exams, you will not be eligible for the Graduate Route as you will not receive your final results until the following July.

• I am a postgraduate/undergraduate student. If I defer assessments or have resit exams in January, will my eligibility for the Graduate Route be affected?

  You are not required to take any action if the following applies to you:

  • You haven't deferred any assessments to RDAP to January of the year you need to attempt the assessment
  • Your results have been confirmed in November and you need to resit
  • Your student visa is due to expire in January

  If all of the above points apply to you, your student visa should already cover the RDAP period for your re-takes. However, you are now eligible for a visa sponsorship extension based on your new expected end date. 

  If you would like to extend your visa on this basis, please request a new CAS from here.

  Please note that the length of your student visa may have an impact on your eligibility to apply for the Graduate Route and you can only be eligible for the Graduate Route visa if your student visa is valid when the final results are officially published. The School can only verify your award to UKVI after your final ratified results are released.

  If you have resit or deferred assessments during  January RDAP  or the summer period you may be able to apply for a new student visa from overseas or extend in teh UK depending on your personal circumstances. If you opt to take your resit/deferred assessments overseas and are not in the UK for the assessment period on a Student visa, you will not be eligible to request a CAS because you are completing remotely and therefore will not be able to apply for the Graduate Route. More information can be found in the 'Re-taking Assessments' section of our 'When you have your visa' web page.
  
  Please request a new CAS here and ensure you read all of the information and declarations you are agreeing to.

  If you require individual advice and guidance after reading this information on resits and deferrals, please contact the Student Advice and Engagement  Team as outlined here.