UK work visa help needed

I'd like to ask forgiveness if this has already been answered, but I've browsed a few pages and I've not seen anything.  I'm a 22 year old U.S. citizen and I will graduate from a U.S. university in December 2004 with a B.S. in B.A. (economics major) and I'd like to move to the UK and work asap.  I've been looking into this for months and understand that I'll need to obtain a UK work visa, and that a UK employer needs apply for me, and I cannot do this myself.  I am under the impression that I need to qualify under the highly skilled migrant program (especially for business jobs) in order to obtain the work visa though, and several sites have a generic 'test' that determines eligibility on a point scale.  It seems like I'll need a master's degree in order to get a work visa with my current qualifications and situation.  Can anyone here give me some advice?  Anything would be helpful.  I'm aware that realistically I'll have to stay in the U.S. for a few years, but I don't really want to proverbially 'set roots' and get stuck here, so anything (master's program choice i.e. history, education, urban planning, mba prog, job suggestions for my current degree, etc., studying abroad in the UK for post grad education) that would expedite immigration would really help.  I'm not really emotionally attached to any occupation, so degree recommendations for understaffed occupations would be helpful.  Thanks very much in advance and I'm terribly sorry if this has already been answered.

Welcome!  It's not really clear what you're wanting advice on here.  I don't think anyone can realisitcally tell you what you should get a degree in or what occupation you should have.  UK work visas can be very difficult to come by.  As far as the HSMP is concerned, I don't really know a whole lot about it, except that there are strict requirements to get in on it.

If you're considering a Master's in an effort to boost your rating for the HSMP, perhaps you might consider going to school over here?  This would give you an opportunity to live in the UK while obtaining your education. 

The only areas I can think of right off where people are needed is in the medical field.  They want doctors and nurses and if you are either/or, they want you.  Teachers are also in shortage.  Don't know how a degree in economics would fit in with either, but perhaps there are other options out there for you.

Best of luck!

I'm in no way trying to guess what your qualifications are or to discourage you from applying to the HSMP, but I applied to the HSMP and this is what my situation was like:

I have my Masters and the equivalent of 2 years of work experience. I thought my salary would qualify as the equivalent of £27,000 but they used December's exchange rate (because my last pay stub was from December-which was crap, and if only they had used septembers. . . ) and they used AFTER tax numbers (not the number your employer gives you when they say they're hiring you for $xx,000/year).  I tried doing my calculation with that, and it didn't work! These people do NOT mess around. 

I also threw in some Achievements (scholarships, national honor societies). That wasn't what they're looking for and I was awarded no points. They basically want someone who has published works or has discovered a new drug or chemical etc.  And maybe that's you!

But you pay a good chunk of money for it, and wait a LONG time to hear back from them. So, I'd be SURE you're qualified before applying. . . and be sure this is what you want before you commit to a Masters program just to get in.  Have you considered BUNAC since you'll be a recent graduate? I have heard great things about it. . .and they sort a lot of the hard part out for you. . .

 

Look here for info on shortage occupations:

http://www.hsmp-services.co.uk/shortage_occupations.html

BUNAC sounds like it might be a good idea for you. 

You do not need a work permit if you successfully get a visa through HSMP.  You are correct that an employer offers you employment and gets the work permit for you.

If you have HSMP, you don't need a work permit.

Sorry if this has not been clear, I've just got so many questions I don't know where to begin.  I'll start here.  I don't qualify for the HSMP right now as things stand.  According to the Immigration Expert UK website 'test' I would qualify for this if I had two years work experience and a master's in economics, but as someone has mentioned, it didn't work for them, and I have no amazing qualifications.  From what I've gathered, and as some of you have mentioned, some occupations are easier to gain work visa's for than others (artists, teachers, medical, etc.), and that's what I was previously referencing in my 'occupation help' inquiry.  I could care less about getting a business or economics job, and it seems these are the most difficult to gain clearance with.  Could one teach in the UK education system with a MA in History, for instance?  Other than the HSMP how would one qualify to live and work in the UK?  This is simplifying my question to the extreme, but I suppose thats it.  Some of you have mentioned BUNAC, and I'll look into that as soon as I've posted this.  Thanks again, and if you need clarification on something, please say so.  I've been job searching and performing so many calculations that I can't think straight any more.

Just checked out the BUNAC website.  Thanks a lot for the suggestion, and I'm looking into it.  This leads me to a question I forgot to directly ask... IF the job I got in Britain was career related, and IF they were highly impressed by my performance and wanted to hire me on after the 6 month period expired, would they be able to hire me if I didn't qualify for the HSMP?

Only if your employer wants to pay for a new visa and can prove that no one in the UK and/or the EU countries can do it too. You will just have to wait and see.

You can try to get your visa extended. There are heaps of companies that specialize in that sort of thing. Take a look at http://www.1stcontact.co.uk/live/. There are so many backpackers in the UK that are all about the whole extending their working holiday so there are companies for just that. TNT Magazine is a great place to start researching visa extensions.

BUNAC is pretty much the only way for you to get here legally but once you get here you can work your magic and get noticed! Keep in mind that once you do it, the visa thing, it'll be harder to get a working visa here later. So chose your timing well.

delara, what you're saying is that getting a BUNAC blue card decreases my chances of getting a working visa?  Such that if I did BUNAC, then following the six month employment, lets say after september 2005 got a graduate education back in the states, or even in Britain, then tried to gain employment as an educator in Britain after getting an MA degree, or even was offered a job with my current qualifications after the six month blue card stay, I might have trouble getting a work visa because of the blue card?

That sounds like what she's saying, Yuc, but I don't necessarily agree with that.  I haven't seen or heard anything that would corroborate that. 

I think the BUNAC thing might be really helpful to you, actually, especially if you can get a job in a field where you might be able to get a job that would sponsor a work visa for you, or at the very least, give you a little oomph on your CV that might make you more attractive for a work visa. 

Having a BUNAC card won't affect your chances of gettting a work visa at all.  Right now, in your situation, BUNAC is the only reasonable way you'll get to the UK (as you don't qualify for HSMP, aren't British by descent, haven't been offered a job in the UK, and aren't engaged/married to a UK citizen).

I personally don't think the odds of getting a work visa for a job you do while here on BUNAC are very high.  BUNAC jobs aren't professional ones, at least not in my experience.  You might be waiting tables, tending bar, or maybe doing some sort of admin.  Since BUNAC only allows you to be here for 6 months, employers who routinely recruit work permit holders won't really want to hire you and if they do, chances are you'll be doing a pretty low-level job for them which won't qualify you for a work permit anyway.

I'd say your best bet is to come on over on BUNAC, get your feet wet, see how you like living here.  If you really like it, apply to a UK uni for grad school and get a student visa, which will allow you to work 20 hours a week while you're studying.  Then you can apply for HSMP or, if you're recruited into a company, apply for a work permit.

Something to keep in mind once you finish university - you could try and apply for jobs through different companys' Graduate Recruitment programmes.  Both KPMG & PricewaterhouseCoopers will sponsor people for work permits (at least according to their websites) through their graduate programmes - other companies may as well (particularly the big accounting/consultancy firms) .  I believe the deadline to apply is usually around March of each year, with work commencing in September if you are successful.

Phone numbers... if you we're writing a US phone number for someone in Britain, how would you format it properly, would 00+1*+XXXXXXXXXX be correct, or would it be 00+1*+(XXX)-XXX-XXXX, or something entirely different?

I think they'll get it as long as you have the 00+1.  So it'd be 00+1+123+456+7890 or 0011234567890.

I don't mean it as a rule, however I have known people to be refused working visas after already holding one (different country, but through BUNAC nonetheless). The working holiday scheme usually only allows someone to do it once. It could raise a flag if you do the student visa thing later. Probalby not likely to be an issue with the HSMP if you qualify later on.

Of course, this was years ago and things may have changed. Just something to keep in mind and ask couselors when you research it further.

Much luck to you!

For the UK, at least, the BUNAC scheme (which at the moment U.S. students can do twice) is completely different from the Working Holiday Scheme (which eligible people can only do once).  It won't affect any future visa applications, unless you overstay or do something else illegal.