Q&A part 2: The UK HPI visa, more of your questions

Hello again guys, I recently wrote a Q&A piece on the UK HPI visa and there were some issues I have been unable to cover on that piece and this is why I am now doing a follow up on the piece to answer even more questions on the issue. 

Q: If I come to the UK on this visa, but I cannot find work, then what? Can I claim unemployment benefits?

A: That's a worst case scenario, hopefully it won't come to that. That would be unfortunate as you are not entitled to claim unemployment benefits in this country on this visa. Any kind of benefits are reserved for citizens and those with permanent leave to remain in this country (ie. those with permanent residency status). If you're unemployed in the UK on this visa, then you will have to take whatever work you can get to earn some money to pay the bills, put food in the table. There's always work out there, but the work may not be well paid or pleasant. So, most fast food chains are recruiting and you can easily get work at McDonald's today to earn some money, but that kind of low-paid work isn't going to help you stay in the country in the long run, as McDonald's will never ever sponsor the work permit of a lowly paid employee. 

Q: If I happen to fall sick whilst in the UK on this visa, could I use the national health service (NHS)? 

A: Yes because you would have already paid a healthcare surcharge with your application that entitles you to access the NHS whilst in the UK. But whether or not you want to use the NHS you would still have to pay this healthcare surcharge. 

Q: Is it realistic to try to find an employer who will sponsor my work permit in just 2 short years? Come on. 

A: That's a good question, it really depends on how much in demand your skills are - it boils down to your individual circumstances. Imagine if Hannah is a doctor with a degree from NUS, then yeah she would have absolutely no issue finding an employer in the UK who will gladly sponsor her work permit - a doctor would not even need this visa in the first place as doctors are in such demand here in the UK. But if you wanted to pursue a more niche route like a career in computer games, then obviously that's going to be more difficult. Not impossible but more difficult. It is a matter of supply and demand, if you pick a career and have a profession that is in hot demand here in the UK, then you don't need to worry about your visa situation. It has nothing to do with your earnings either - we are so desperately short of nurses and teachers at the moment. Teachers and nurses do not earn that much but it is a very easy way to secure your citizenship in the UK. So you could work for a teacher for five years, secure your residency here then plan your next step to move to a different industry - that route will be for those who certainty that they can definitely settle in the UK and become British.

Q: The British economy is struggling at the moment trying to recover from the pandemic, there is high inflation and a war in Europe. Is this the right time to try to look for a new job in the UK? Normally, I would be rather tempted to try but the timing of it all seems so wrong right now in 2022. The world is in such a terrible state now.

A: Well the question is what are you going to do in the meantime? Are you going to wait for the war in Ukraine to end? You can't put your life on hold until everything is just right - people who were waiting for things to get back to normal after the pandemic were so disappointed when Russia invaded Ukraine. But it's not like the British economy has collapsed and there's mass unemployment; sure times are hard, but during such periods, it is usually poor people who struggle and suffer the most. Let's take a simple example: the price of cooking oil in the UK has gone up 30% - so if a bottle of cooking oil used to cost £1, you now pay £1.30 for it. A rich person might not even notice that price increase or simply grumble a little then buy it anyway. For a poor person who is literally struggling to make ends meet to get to the end of the month, seeing a 30% increase in your food expenditure means having to make cuts elsewhere and yeah, they suffer a lot more. The headlines in the news tend to focus on the hardship of the poor in the country, I don't mean to ignore their plight but you wouldn't use this visa to come to the UK to live like a very poor person struggling to make ends meet. This visa is open to graduates from some of the world's best universities - you're supposed to have such high potential that you'll come here and excel at your job, earning so much money that you will be laughing all the way to the bank. Hence people who are in this category really shouldn't worry about the state of the economy because they're supposed to be so brilliant they'll succeed regardless. And if you're not that brilliant - well, please allow me to be blunt - this visa simply isn't for you. 

Q: Will an employer in the UK be happy to hire a Singaporean graduate from NUS/NTU? 

A: I think that's the wrong question to ask. Firstly, you can't give a blanket response - every employer is different and will have their own criteria to guide their decision making process. Thus the degree of the applicant is just one of a number of factors that they will consider. The degree is just one part of a much larger picture, so it's hardly going to be the determining factor whether or not the employer will say yes or no to you based on your degree. As a gatekeeper, I'd look beyond the degree at other factors like how much work experience have you had so far, do you speak some foreign languages, have you managed to prove yourself to be an exceptionally fast learner, have you ever been in a position of trust, are you a team player or a lone wolf and of course, how you actually perform at the interview. Duh, we don't just hire the candidate with the best results you know or the ones from certain universities. Recruitment is a very complex process, because we often get so many great candidates and so we have to figure out which one to hire amongst them. 

Q: Do employers in the UK think highly of NUS/NTU? 

A: I can't give a straight forward answer on this, it would depend on whom you speak to. Some British people are quite ignorant about universities outside the UK and US, so they would probably know very little or nothing about universities from somewhere like Singapore. But if they have worked abroad or at least done business in the Far East, then chances are they will have a favourable opinion of NUS and NTU. But a lot of that can be down to their individual experiences, like if Mr Smith used to work with a Singaporean guy who studied at NUS and Mr Smith has only met that one person from NUS, thus his opinion of NUS could be hugely influenced by that very small sample size of one person - namely that former colleague from Singapore. We're humans, we're likely to be influenced by our limited personal experiences rather than saying, "okay I have met only one Singaporean guy, so let's not jump to any conclusions now, I shall look NUS up on Google, check the league tables and see what the internet says." It takes only a few moments to do a Google search. 

Q: Is it scary to be the only Asian employee in a company full of white people? 

A: I have already covered this in a previous post, may I refer you to that article. But in short, not all companies in the UK are completely white and British. Some have a more international mix of staff than others. Personally, I enjoy working in companies which are more 'international' like that as I like having colleagues from all over the world. I must point out though, that I once had a Chinese company as a client and it was so weird going out with them for hot pot because even though I speak Mandarin fluently, I am completely alien to their drinking culture and when they got very drunk, I was like, okay that's my cue to leave as things are gonna get messy here. I don't even think it is a question of me being a banana (yellow on the outside, white on the inside), it is more a fundamental question about finding people you can get along well with and can establish a professional working relationship with. Being a teetotal non-drinker, I always feel very uncomfortable dealing with people who mix alcohol and work. You must find a work environment you're comfortable with. 

Q: What if I try this route but it doesn't work out? 

A: This is a fair question but let me turn this around: why would you go to university knowing that things may not work out. You may flunk out of the course after a year and a half, or discover that your heart is really not in it and would have rather studied something else? Likewise, you could say, I don't want to get married - what if it doesn't work out? What if my spouse cheats on me? What if I realize a few years down the road that I'm not really happy, then what? The reason why we are able to make such decisions involving major commitments like degrees and marriages is because we learn to trust in our judgment and we have the confidence to say, "I've done a lot of thinking, a lot of research and I'm now in a very good position to make an informed decision. I trust myself to make the right decision." Most of us adults learn to trust in our judgement, not so much that we think we will make the right decision every time, but we know we can still cope with the situation even if things don't quite go exactly to plan - we're willing to be flexible, improvise and find a solution. No one is asking you to take a shot in the dark and leap into the unknown by coming to work in the UK under this new HPI visa scheme, quite the contrary, I'm asking you to do as much research as possible and talk to as many people as you can to make sure this is definitely the right path for you, that coming to the UK would align with your dreams and career ambitions; and if you're still not sure, then talk to me about it. I'll be very happy to discuss it with you. 

Q: In principle I understand what you're saying, but what if I don't trust my own judgment as I am young?

A: How do we make a rational decision? Let's be pragmatic here please - we need to use the concept of opportunity cost to make sense of this kind of decision. In case you're not familiar with it, let me give you a simple example. The weather forecast for this Saturday is going to be hot and sunny but it will rain heavily on Sunday. Two friends have asked you out for Saturday, Anna suggests, "hey let's go play tennis, we've not played for ages and it'll be so fun! Shall I make the booking?" And then Brandon says, "hey, why don't we go to the pool together on Saturday? It's going to be so hot on Saturday, come on, what better way to cool down than swimming?" Imagine that the pool and the tennis courts are in completely different parts of town and you can only pick one option,  you can't do both (don't forget it will be raining heavily on Sunday). Which do you choose in this situation given that you are effectively giving up the other option by saying yes to one of them - that's opportunity cost. Now to make this decision, you have to evaluate: do you really want to play tennis when it is so hot, might the weather prompt you to prefer the swimming option? Which sport do you enjoy more? If you're a really good tennis player and a mediocre swimmer, then the novelty of cooling down the moment you step into the pool might wear off within a few minutes and you would then find yourself sitting in the shallow end thinking, okay so now what? But if you really suck at tennis, then playing against a much better player like Anna would be a frustrating experience. Also, do you prefer Anna's company or Brandon's company for the day? There are so many factors that will sway you towards one option over another; that's how you will eventually pick one option over the other.  

Now let's imagine if Anna calls you up to tell you that she is not available this weekend, let's say she is down with Covid and cannot meet up with you, then the dynamics of the situation has changed: in this case you only have one offer, which is to go swimming with Brandon. Now you're comparing that option with Brandon to doing something on your own this Saturday, obviously you can't go play tennis without Anna as you need at least one partner to play tennis with. So now there is a completely different dynamic to this new situation - so you're far more likely to say yes to swimming with Brandon now in the absence of a competing offer. So bringing this back to the HPI visa, the key question then is whether or not you have a competing offer in Singapore, do you already have some job opportunities lined up in Singapore or are you simply starting from square one in Singapore in your hunt for a job? What is your opportunity cost if you take advantage of the HPI visa, are you giving up something in Singapore and what exactly are you giving up? As with the analogy with Anna and Brandon, how attractive an option is has to be measured against what else is available to you, what your alternatives are if you don't go for this option. So as per the Anna and Brandon analogy, this UK HPI visa option would be less attractive if you already have something lined up in Singapore. However, if you do not have any job offers in Singapore or worse - you have been hunting for a job for several months and have been very disappointed with the outcome, then this UK HPI visa route becomes a lot more attractive by the principles of opportunity cost in that case. 

Q: What other countries offer a similar scheme? 

A: You'll be amazed how easy it is to obtain a work permit that can lead to some kind of residency in a lot of nice countries that have low birth rates, low population density and shortages in their labour force. These include Estonia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Norway and Canada. But take Estonia for example, the population of Estonia is 1.3 million; in terms of population, it is a tiny place - the birth rate is very low and many young Estonians are leaving their country to seek greener pastures elsewhere in the European Union. The capital city Tallinn is a pleasant enough place, but it is really small compared to much bigger European cities like Rome, Paris and Berlin. That's why Estonia would gladly give you a visa to go work there, but the question is, what kind of job can you find in a place like that even if we do put aside the issue of the work permit? It's a nice place to visit as a tourist but trying to find work there is a different story. 

Q: Estonia sounds like a nice country, what's wrong with going to Estonia instead of the UK?

A: A lot of these visas are aimed at digital nomads - if you're not familiar with that concept, a digital nomad is a person who can earn a living working from home, online and doesn't actually need to go into a physical office (at least not regularly). The pandemic really made this concept a lot more popular when people were forced to work from home and they really preferred working from home. My friend Clarissa gave up on London in that period - she used to rent a little apartment quite near her office in London but when the lockdown hit, she gave that up and moved to a big house in the countryside where she is surrounded by pristine nature: hills, lakes, forests and if her boss really needed her for a meeting that has to be in person (rather than via Zoom), then she will hop on the train and be back in London in about two hours. Technically speaking, someone like Clarissa could move to Estonia if all she wanted was a big house in the beautiful countryside but Clarissa is a very rich woman who is already gainfully employed, she is not turning up in Estonia looking for work - she would simply be working in Estonia as a digital nomad. Estonia is a very attractive location for digital nomads: a relatively low cost of living, plenty of pristine nature, fast WiFi and a reasonably low rate of income tax. Estonia would welcome a digital nomad like Clarissa with open arms and give her the visa to allow her to live and work there as  digital nomad like her would be spending a lot of money in Estonia, contributing to the local economy each time she visits the health spa, goes shopping for clothes, takes a fitness class or dines at a local restaurant - hence this is definitely a win-win relationship, digital nomads are delighted to live in Estonia and Estonia is happy to welcome them.

Hence if Clarissa becomes a digital nomad and moves to Estonia, she might have to take a couple of days off to find a new place to live, get a local bank account and settle into life in Estonia but one thing she would not have to do is to find a new job as she is a digital nomad who is already gainfully employed. If you are a young NUS graduate moves to Estonia without a job and they still grant you the visa to live in Estonia, then you're not going to have an easy time trying to find a good job there given that it is a very small country with a tiny economy - that means very limited employment opportunities for foreigners who do not speak the two local languages: Estonian and Russian. This doesn't affect Clarissa the digital nomad at all, as she is working for a British company and when she is working from home, she is using English as the primary language of communication with her employers and clients. Thus unless you have already established a career that allows you to work as a digital nomad, all of these visas aimed at digital nomads are useless for you. Clarissa is in a different stage of her career compared to all of these young graduates looking for a job - thus if you're looking for a job, it makes more sense to go to a country where you will have a lot more opportunities for employment: this is why the UK would be a far better choice than Estonia for young graduates looking for their first job to start their careers on the basis that the UK is a far bigger country with a much more robust economy than a small country like Estonia. This is why this visa is such a big deal - it is a great opportunity for younger graduates from NUS and NTU. 

Q: Do you need to submit your university results as part of the application for this UK HPI visa? 

A: No, you don't. As long as you have completed your course and graduated, then they really don't care what you studied, how well you fared in that course or any other details - this is based on the very blunt assumption that if you're smart enough to graduate from one of these top universities in the world, then you can't possibly be that stupid, as these universities on the list are never going to let a complete idiot complete a degree programme and graduate. I do think that this is a very blunt way to measure whether or not an individual as "high potential" but allow me to point out that this is not the only visa available to highly skilled, talented individuals who want to come to the UK. But to be fair, trying to evaluate the results as part of the qualification process would open a massive can of worms - how do you even start to compare results from different universities? I can see why the government has simplified the process by avoiding having anything to do with the individual's results at university. The process needs to be simple enough for the scheme to work.

Q: Should I consider looking for a job in London or am I better off in a smaller city/town?

A: London is the capital city and it is the largest city in the country- in fact if we were to exclude Russia and Turkey, then London is the largest city in Europe with 9 million people. Only Istanbul (15 million) and Moscow (12 million) have more people; thus obviously, you will find a lot more opportunities in a bigger city like London - the second biggest city in the UK is Birmingham and they barely have 1.15 million people. However, not all firms need to be in London - it is an expensive city to live and work in so some firms would gravitate towards places like Oxford and Cambridge where they can tap into the large number of high quality students and research facilities at the universities there. But you shouldn't start with the city - if you come to the UK on this visa, you should be prepared to move to any part of the country where you can get a good opportunity for you to develop your career. Now even if we abide by that principle, you might just end up back in London as it is the biggest city with many companies here, but let your first job decide where you end up. You're not looking for a nice place to live per se but you're looking for the best opportunities here to develop your career. 

Q: How do I know this route is right for me? 

A: If you're doubting so much that you're asking me that question, then no it is not for you. If you're not jumping for joy that this route is available for you, then clearly you're not convinced this visa is right for and I'm not going to try to change your mind. It's quite similar to shopping for clothes - I remember being in this shop when I looked at this shirt and the sales assistant helpfully pointed out to me that everything in the section was on sale - I hadn't even considered the price of the shirt when I first took notice of it, I was simply trying to decide if I liked it or not. But the fact that there was a 25% discount on the shirt didn't change the fact that I wasn't convinced in the first place. Mind you if I had really liked the shirt, I would have bought it at full price, I wouldn't be that fussed about the discount. So if you've read this post and you're still not that convinced this is right for you, then you're just like me in that shop after the sales assistant informed me of the discount and that's totally fine. This visa isn't right for everybody and you'll know whether or not this route is right for you.

That's it from me on this topic, what do you think? Do you know of people who are excited about this new visa scheme or is the timing for it all wrong? If you were in a position to take advantage of it, would you apply? Would it be popular and attract the right kind of talent to the UK? What else needs to be done in order to improve this visa programme? Would you play tennis with Anna or go swimming with Brandon?! Please leave a comment below and many thanks for reading.