When I moved to the UK for university, I didn’t give much thought to if—or how—I would stay in the country after my degree. At 17, fourth year seemed light years away, and, since I was planning on doing a master’s degree anyway, leaving the UK did not cross my mind. 

In 2022, when I started university—just two years after the end of the post-Brexit EU Settlement Scheme—the minimum salary threshold for a Skilled Worker visa was £26,200 (or the standard ‘going rate’ for your field if this number is higher than the threshold), or 70% of this salary for recent graduates.

This meant that, after attending a UK institution, remaining in the country was an accepted reality for international graduates.

This was aided by the two-year Graduate visa, granting you the right to live in the UK with no work restrictions immediately following your degree, allowing you the time to reach this minimum salary.

In 2024, this was raised to £38,000, and as of January 2026, it now stands at £41,700, a number that is out of reach not only for recent graduates, but for most working professionals, in a country where the median salary is £39,000.

I decided, during my third year, that I would take a year out before doing my master’s degree.

Returning from my year abroad, the prospect of a final year at UEA was exhausting enough, I couldn’t imagine adding a whole other year on top of it.

Without bothering to fact check, I figured I would go the Graduate route, work for a year, get my master’s, get another Graduate visa for two years, and that by then, I would surely qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain, after spending five continuous years living in the UK.

I didn’t yet know that you can only qualify for the Graduate route once, nor that the time spent on Student and Graduate visas does not count towards ILR. 

My next plan was that I would return home to Paris for a year before my master’s, get my two-year visa after that, and figure out the rest later. Maybe, by then, I’d have grown sick of England anyway.

That plan fell through last month, when another Concrete editor informed me in passing that visa rules had changed: starting in January 2027, the Graduate route will last a year and a half instead of two.

Now, a new problem has emerged.

Either I throw caution to the wind (and cover letters to employers) to get a two year visa now, and risk wasting my time on part-time jobs and pub work while knowing that I’ll have to leave the country where I’ve spent all my adult life the moment my master’s ends, or I go home anyway, knowing that I’ll have to leave the UK permanently barely a year after my MA. 

Although these changes affect all graduates, they disproportionately affect those in the arts and humanities, where official ‘going rates’ rarely surpass £35,000, even less for entry-level positions.

Most of us will never get to see £41,000 a year, especially not in the eighteen months following graduation. The job market is in enough of a crisis already, and the changes in the last few years make it impossible to even dream of staying in the UK after university. 

As I apply to job after job, practically begging employers to let me answer emails for minimum wage, I can’t help but ask myself what my end goal is.

What’s the point of career progression, if any progression is halted the second the Home Office decides that my time is up?

Image credit: Micah Petyt