With the amendment in the visa rules in UK, foreign students on a short-term student visa are now permitted to live in the nation for about twice the duration than what was earlier. These changes would impact the UK visa for the student visitors. The current norms permit these foreign born students to live in UK for not more than six months to finish the short-term courses which they undertake.

With the amends in the policy, the students coming to UK to pursue courses in English are now permitted to live in the country for about eleven months. However, this change would permit only specific students who study English in the country. Thus, a new category has been formed known as the Extended Student Visitor Visa.

However, the points in the qualifying criteria would continue to be the same. This also includes the fee which would not change for this new category. It has to be noted here that the students living in UK under this visa are not allowed to work in the nation. They also are not permitted to bring along their dependents or even apply for an extension.

The above changes would be implemented from 10th January 2011. With this, the UK government is also anticipated to announce more reforms under the student visa category. The government is intending to cut down on the number of students coming to the nation. This is being planned to done by bringing about tougher rules under the eligibility criteria. By slashing this group, the visa applications are being expected to come down by another 120,000 per year.

Looking at the above, it clearly seems that despite the UK High Court putting a hold on the immigration cap, the government seems to stick to its promise of slashing down immigration numbers by tens of thousands.