Law school

[Mina Kwon]

HI, I'm a IB student in South Korea trying to apply for the UK law schools, 

Do any of the international students in UK know about what happened to the 2 yrs Working Visa?

I heard that the visa laws changed recently, which made the 2 yrs internship harder for international students,

If any of u know about this, please make a comment.

THANKS!:)

[Arrowhead]

Hello!

As someone who has suffered at the hands of the UK Visa regime in my desire to pursue a legal career, I will set out the current position for you:

1. Previously there was a 2-year Work Visa that allowed graduate international students to kick around the UK looking for a job.  This was officially removed in 2010/11.

2. As an international student now, you need to secure your sponsorship from a law firm while you're still in university in order to stand a chance to receive a work visa.

3. Do not take any gap years after you graduate from law school or in any way pause your education unless you are moving onto your sponsored work at a law firm/UK company.  Due to the way they have structured the new Visa rules, even if you manage to get a job at a law firm, but chose to take a gap year or pause your education in the UK for any reason, you will no longer be eligible to get onto the normal Tier 2 Work Visa (which is what you need to work towards ultimately receiving your Indefinite Leave to Remain).  Essentially you need to be in continuous education in the UK and should seamlessly move from education to a sponsored job in order to secure a work visa.  This means that if you graduate from law school without a job already in place, your best option is to do an LLM or the LPC in the UK to give yourself an extra year of applications.  But if you leave post-graduation, it will become infinitely more difficult to get a work visa down the line.

4. Furthermore, as an international student, you may only apply to law firms/companies that are willing to sponsor your visa.  If you do intend to practise law in the UK, this would mean you can only apply to the top tier of law firms that have the resources and systems in place to hire internationals.  This is not easy, but not impossible either.  It just means there is room to fail here, but if you go to a good uni, get good grades and have a strong CV, there is nothing to stop you from succeeding.

As an international student myself who completed a three-year law degree in the UK and is now sponsored on a Training Contract with a UK-based law firm, I can relate to your position.  If you have any more questions, feel free to drop me a line.