London: The United Kingdom is cracking down on misuse of student visa issued to overseas citizens on its soil. Now, a mass petition has been launched against the new law in this regard which came into force on July 17, dashing the hopes of a large number of overseas students, including those from India, who hoped to earn a work visa while pursuing their courses.

At present, the petition has received 11,351 signatures and the last date to sign is January 20, 2024. If the number of signatures touch 1,00,000, the matter would be placed before the UK Parliament for a discussion and the stringent conditions are likely to be withdrawn in favour of the students from other countries.

The main demand of the petition is exempting students currently enrolled in institutions in the UK from the new law. The petition also urges the UK government to make the law applicable only to students starting their courses from January next year. When the current students had reached the UK from other countries, the law at that time had allowed conversion of their student visa to work visa, the petition points out.

The petition also says that the new law violates natural justice. The legislation should not be implemented with retrospective effect, the petition adds.

Under the new law, those on student visa would have to return to their home countries after the completion of the course in the UK. The British Parliament passed the stringent law after a flood of incidents involving conversion of student visa to work visa was reported, leading to a steep rise in immigration.

Incidentally, the UK government led by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had promised to slash immigration to the country by enacting stringent legislation and the law related to the student visa was passed as part of the efforts to fulfill the promise.

The link to sign the petition is https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/641313