Tougher UK Visa Norms for International Students, Excluding Family Members from Most Courses International students, including Indians, starting courses at British universities this month will no longer be able to bring family members on all but postgraduate research courses and courses with government-funded scholarships under tougher UK visa norms effective from Monday. The changes, first announced by former home secretary Suella Braverman in May last year, are aimed at clamping down on people using the student visa as a backdoor route to work in the UK and will see an estimated 140,000 fewer people come to the UK.

The UK Home Office said the changes are part of a tough plan to rapidly bring migration numbers down, control borders, and prevent people from manipulating the immigration system. Home Secretary James Cleverly stated that these changes will see migration falling rapidly by the tens of thousands and contribute to an overall strategy to prevent 300,000 people from coming to the UK. The changes are geared towards cutting what Home Secretary James Cleverly dubbed as "unreasonable practice of overseas students bringing dependents," which official figures show have risen by more than 930 per cent since 2019.

The Home Office stated that the changes strike the right balance to continue to preserve the attractiveness of the UK's world-leading higher education sector while removing the ability for institutions to undermine the UK's reputation by "selling immigration, not education." In addition to the measures on student dependents, last month, Cleverly announced a further set of measures including tightening health and care visas, salary thresholds across the Skilled Worker route, and a review of the Graduate route or post-study work visa by the independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC).

The changes have sparked concerns among diaspora student groups, especially with the proposed review of the post-study work visa route, which is the topmost factor behind students from India choosing UK universities. Indian nationals represent the largest group of students granted leave to remain on the student visa route, making up 43 per cent of grants. This package of measures means that around 300,000 people who came to the UK last year would not be able to in the future - the largest reduction ever. The Home Office stated that this is a tough but fair approach to bring net migration down to sustainable levels as soon as possible, while ensuring those affected have ample time to prepare for upcoming changes - with the package being introduced gradually throughout early 2024.