The UK High Potential Individual visa permits skilled graduates with an approved university degree within the last five years to reside and work, even without a job offer.
Skilled graduates who have earned a degree from an approved university within the last five years are permitted to reside and work under the UK’s High Potential Individual visa, even if they have not yet secured a job offer.
As of now, the UK has a list of over 40 top universities whose graduates are eligible for the High Potential Individual visa.
UK aims to expand the High Potential Individual visa route for graduates from the top 100 international universities, with a cap of 8,000 applications per year.
With an HPI visa, you can work in most jobs, look for work, be self-employed, live in the UK with your partner and children, if they’re eligible, do voluntary work, travel abroad and return to the UK.
To be eligible for a High Potential Individual (HPI) visa, you must have been awarded a qualification by an eligible university. The list of eligible universities is based on rankings of universities from around the world.
You need to check the list of eligible universities for the month and year you were awarded your qualification. Your qualification must be at the same level as a UK bachelor’s degree, a UK postgraduate degree, a UK PhD or a doctorate. You must have been awarded your qualification in the last 5 years.
High-Potential Individual Visa
A High Potential Individual (HPI) visa permits you to stay in the UK for 2 years. If you have a PhD or other doctoral qualification, it will last for 3 years. To apply, you must have been awarded a qualification by an eligible university in the last 5 years.
It does not require sponsorship and is open to those who, in the previous 5 years, have completed a qualification equivalent to a UK undergraduate degree or postgraduate degree at an institution listed on the government’s global universities list for the year they qualified.
You cannot extend your HPI visa. However, you may be able to switch to a different visa, for example, a Skilled Worker visa.
To apply for an HPI visa, you must prove that you have enough personal savings to support yourself in the UK, unless you’ve been in the UK with a valid visa for at least 12 months.
You do not need to have a job offer to apply. You can apply for an HPI visa from inside the UK or outside the UK. You cannot apply for an HPI visa if you have already been given a Graduate visa or you have already come to the UK as a Doctorate Extension Scheme student.
You must apply online for the HPI visa. How you apply depends on whether you’re outside the UK or are inside the UK and switching from a different visa.
Once you’ve applied online, you’ll usually get a decision on your visa within 3 weeks, if you’re outside the UK and 8 weeks, if you’re inside the UK.
UK High Potential Individual Visa University List
(Qualification between 1 November 2024 and 31 October 2025)
California Institute of Technology (Caltech) USA
Columbia University USA
Cornell University USA
Duke University USA
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL Switzerland), Switzerland
ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,) Switzerland
Fudan University China
Harvard University USA
Heidelberg University Germany
Johns Hopkins University, USA
Karolinska Institute Sweden
Kyoto University Japan
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
McGill University Canada
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore
National University of Singapore, Singapore
New York University, USA
Northwestern University USA
Paris Sciences et Lettres – PSL Research University, France
Peking University China
Princeton University USA
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
Stanford University USA
Technical University of Munich Germany
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Tsinghua University China
University of British Columbia, Canada
University of California, Berkeley USA
University of California, Los Angeles, USA
University of California, San Diego USA
University of Chicago USA
University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
University of Melbourne, Australia
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor USA
University of Munich (LMU Munich), Germany
University of Pennsylvania USA
University of Texas at Austin USA
University of Tokyo Japan
University of Toronto Canada
University of Washington USA
Yale University USA
Zhejiang University China