Foreign students want to stay in UK may face tough time

Staying in the United Kingdom by foreign students after completing their course or academic session may be tough in near future. Sources said students from non-European states who come to the UK to pursue studies, especially higher education, could face being sent back to their respective countries after passing out the final test in their academic course. Media reports said the UK government has been mulling a plan in this regard. The hard line plan is being actively considered by Home Secretary Theresa May. If approved by the UK government, the move may lead to non-European Union students leaving Europe for countries in other regions in the world or return to the country of their origin to start a professional career at the end of their academic career here. An emigration lawyer associated with the home office said, students from overseas states will have to fulfill certain new criteria in order to apply for a work visa if they wanted to continue to live in the UK after they graduated. A reliable source at the home ministry said Theresa May wants a future Conservative government to ‘move towards zero net student migration’ by sending home those who come to Britain on student visas. The source close to the Home Secretary said: ‘Making sure immigrants leave Britain at the end of their visa is as important a part of running a fair and efficient immigration system as controlling who comes here in the first place.’ May is pressing for the next Conservative manifesto to contain a policy that will make sure that anybody coming here on a student visa will have to leave the country in order to apply for a new visa of any kind, according to The Sunday Times and Daily Mail.