Expansion of the UK’s HPI visa is good news for US businesses and graduates

The two-year visa (three for postgrads) allows those on it to bring family dependants to the UK to look for work, work for an employer, work for themselves or set up a business.

As there are over 30 universities across the US whose recent graduates can use this route, it is a quick and easy way for US companies to send those eligible to the UK to work, service British clients and market a business without the major restrictions on permissible activities of travelling to the UK as a visitor.

For those that qualify it is a cheaper alternative to using an Expansion Worker or Skilled Worker sponsor licence with their bureaucratic requirements and strict salary and skills level thresholds.

For some companies facing currently tightening US immigration restrictions it may be easier to send migrant workers who graduated at qualifying universities to the UK on a HPI visa for two or three years before bringing them to the US on an intracompany transfer with a L1 visa once they have developed expertise in the company’s products, services or technology.

An HPI visa does not lead to settlement in the UK, though it does allow switching to another immigration route that may count towards settlement. At any point before the HPI visa expires, people may switch into other permitted work visas leading to settlement, such as Skilled Worker, Scale up or Global Talent visas.

What are the new changes to the UK’s  High Potential Individual visa?

There is a new cap on the number of visas granted – 8,000 visas per year (though there were only 2,145 granted in the last 12 month’s stats published).

As part of increasing English language requirements across a host of immigration routes, from 8 January 2026, the level of English requirement is changing. If this is your first application for a High Potential Individual (HPI) visa, you will have to prove that you can read, write, speak and understand English to at least level B2.

To qualify for the HPI visa you need to have graduated in the past five years from a leading university that was on the UK Home Office’s “Global Universities List” on the date you were awarded your degree. The list consists of eligible non-UK institutions ranked in the top 100 universities by at least two of the ranking guides the Home Office uses. The new list published this month as well as those of the past five years have now all been expanded from around 40 universities to 80. So, if you have checked the list on previous years and your university was not on there, we would advise another look now.

What American universities are on the latest expanded list?

United States higher education institutions tend to dominate the Global Universities List and this year is no exception. – Almost half are American.

There are now 33 US universities: Boston University, Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, Purdue University – West Lafayette, University of California Irvine, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Southern California, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Vanderbilt University, Washington University in St Louis are all added to the 20 universities that were originally on last year’s list (though the 2024-2025 list has now been expanded to 34). Appearing again on the list are: California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), New York University (NYU), Northwestern University, Princeton University, Stanford University, The University of Texas at Austin, University of California Berkeley (UCB), University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), University of California San Diego (UCSD), University of Chicago, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, Yale University.

To put this in perspective, there are just 20 qualifying European universities this year and only six for the whole southern hemisphere of the globe – all in Australia.

You can find the full lists and more information on eligibility and how to apply here.

What is the difference between a Graduate visa and a High Potential Individual visa?

The HPI visa is for qualifications attained outside the UK, while the Graduate visa immigration route is meant for those who graduated in UK universities, and can only be applied for in the UK.

Applicants for the Graduate visa must have a Student visa as their current or most recent visa for the UK, and they must have successfully completed their course of study during their last grant of permission as a Student.

High Potential Individuals, on the other hand, have five years after graduation to make use of the route.

High Potential Individuals have less requirements to meet to bring dependants to the UK, while Graduates are only allowed to have dependants joining them if they were already dependants while on a Student visa.

The length of your permission on the Graduate route depends on the qualification. Students who have completed a PhD are granted three years of leave – as on the HPI visa, whereas students completing a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree (or other specified qualification) are granted two years. However, anyone applying for a Graduate visa on or after 1 January 2027 who did not complete a PhD will only get 18 months.

Other UK immigration changes to watch out for

The UK government is undertaking a programme of immigration changes over the next few years outlined in this summer’s Immigration White Paper.

Changes to be aware of include: 

• The skill level requirement to sponsor Skilled Workers from abroad has increased. Over 100 jobs no longer qualify.
• Those already on the Skilled Worker route may still extend visas, change employer and take supplementary employment.
• Some jobs that no longer meet the new skills threshold for Skilled Worker visas qualify for a new ‘Temporary Shortage List’ – but it’s limited in scope and will be reviewed.
• Minimum salaries for work and family visas are being reviewed.
• The five-year route to settlement is being reviewed and will be points-based.

You can read all about these changes, which jobs you can still sponsor as a Skilled Worker, the jobs on the Temporary Shortage List and other developments here. 

Please feel free to share these updates and to contact Vanessa or Ross if you have any questions or concerns.

Vanessa Ganguin is Managing Parter of Vanessa Ganguin Immigration Law, a UK immigration boutique advising on personal and business immigration matters working with many sectors of the US and UK economies.

If any BritishAmerican Business members would like advice on these or any other UK immigration matters, please contact Vanessa for a free chat on +44(0) 207 033 9527 or email vanessa@vanessaganguin.com.