This is the story of a Nigerian’s journey towards permanent residence
In September 2012, I came to the UK to start a Masters in Computer Science at the University of Sussex in Brighton. I had left a decent job as a programmer in Lagos and I believed a Masters degree would land me an even better job. At the time, my plan was simple – complete my Masters program, and return to Nigeria.
The UK has recently announced a new visa category named High Potential Individual (HPI) route as part of their ‘Plan for Growth’ measures. Plan for Growth sets out the UK’s plans to support growth through investment in skills, innovation, and infrastructure.
As mentioned in our last post, we’ll be looking at possible paths to permanent residence in a number of countries in the next few posts. We’re starting with none other than the UK’s Skilled Worker visa. Read on to find out what the Skilled Worker visa is and how to get it.
As you can probably tell from the name, this visa gives you permission to work in the UK. It replaced the popular Tier 2 General visa in late 2020. Work-related visas are a popular path to getting permanent residence in the UK. According to this document, there we’re 122,512 work-related visas granted in the year ending March 2021.
In an earlier blog post, we mentioned that a large percentage of foreign nationals move to the UK and other countries in the West as students before transitioning to working professional status. For some people, this happens without any previous intention to make such a transition. If you’ve come in as a student without any existing employment commitments in your home country, it is only reasonable to start looking for a job after your time as a student. Some end up getting their desired job and begin the journey of their professional careers.
One of the major reasons most people make the move from developing countries to the West for a postgraduate degree is to settle in the new country after the programme. Getting a job and working in the country for some years is the most common route to settlement. But even that is not always very straightforward.
Thanks to social media, it is now as easy as ever to make everything about your life look glamourous. A smartphone with a good camera, a stunning background and some filters are all you need to do wonders. But beyond those stunning Instagram photos that can make everyday look like an island holiday, there’s a lot more hustle than meets the eye.
The concept of loans exists in every economy. But for the average Nigerian, depending on loans for day-to-day transactions is not the norm. Loans are often considered as a last resort. If you want to make a purchase, you pay for it up front – once and for all. If you can’t afford to pay for it up front, you wait until you can, or consider other options. In countries like the UK, that is not the case.
“You don’t know what you have until you’ve lost it”. It’s a common saying that has stood the test of time for good reason.
I’ve opted to start with this one because it’s so common – yet so many Nigerians move abroad and are unaware of it. For a lot of people that have been caught out by it, they look back on the experience and laugh about it. But at the time of the experience, it was anything but funny.