Indians Get Two-Third Of the Total Work Visas From UK

United Kingdom wants to see more global trade and more investments and will be looking for more partners to support that.

British deputy high commissioner in Chennai, Bharat Joshi said, “I think the relationship with India is no secret. India is one of the key destinations. About two-thirds of all work visas globally issued is to Indians, which is a huge number.”

On dampening investments from India after UK comes out of the EU, he said, “No, it is the opposite. We are seeing bigger investments. TVS Logistics (TVS Group) has employed more than 4,000 people and they are expanding. They are continuing to expand. We have a lot of energy travelling in both directions.”

Students from South India are increasingly applying to study in the United Kingdom, which has seen a 9 percent jump last year compared to previous years, as per the data from high commission.

The number of applications from south India which were flat two years ago, grew by 9 percent last year, Joshi said.

Bharat Joshi shared in a conference, “Last year, it went up by 9%. Students have started to understand much better what the UK system is.”

Elaborating further, he told that applications were processed from five states - Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.

There has a constant increase in visit visas being issued to Indians. He added, “What we have seen is that quality of students applying to United Kingdom universities has improved.”

Around 4.14 lakh visitor visas were issues for the FY 17. Of the total visitor visas issues, 11,700 visas comprised of student visas and 5,000 short term study visas.

On the impact of Britain exiting the European Union, Joshi said, “The UK government is clear that once we leave the European Union, United Kingdom will become a signal for fair rules based trade system.”