Adam Oxborrow, Immigration Consultant @ UK

Welcome back to another episode of The Graduate Guide. Today's a very special day, we are interviewing an immigration consultant, and not just any immigration consultant, Adam. Adam, welcome.

Hello.

Yeah, and the episode will start off with myself just interviewing Adam on his career journey and everything that he's had to overcome to get to the point that he's at now, and then I'll bring on Absar who, yeah, he's going to deliver the value on behalf of international students. But yeah, let's get into it. Adam, if you could just start off by sort of contextualizing exactly what you do as an immigration consultant.

Yeah, good question. So basically, I'm a solopreneur. I'm OISC registered, so I'm registered with the government to give immigration advice to individuals and companies. So for individuals, it's things like family visas and visit visas and things like that. And for companies, it's for helping them employ people legally and things like that.

And you've had an interesting path into that, to say the least. And when did it become clear that this was a problem that you wanted to solve and dedicate your life to?

Well, yeah, so I've had a rather unorthodox career. Just to give you a bit of a whistle-stop tour. So, didn't really like school, kind of blew my GCSEs, wasn't really sure what to do with myself. So actually, one of my first jobs was a painter and decorator. So I learnt a trade. I was in that for a few years, and one of the reasons I blew my GCSEs and I went into that particular type of role was because I had quite low self-esteem. At the time, and it took time for me to sort of realize that I had worth, I guess, in my life, or realize my potential. And so when that sort of came about, I quit my painting and decorating job and I sort of moved into faith-based work actually for a number of years. So I traveled around the world, I was working with young people, working with a lot of internationals. It took me around the world and It wasn't even paid, you know. I lived by faith. And so, there's certainly a principle there where I apply today where, you know, taking risks and trusting that things will work out is kind of in my DNA in terms of building a business. Had a lot of years of not having much though as well. But, so that came through, that saw me through. I actually studied I did a degree which isn't that relevant to what I'm doing now. I studied theology. It was relevant to what I was doing then.

Yeah.

And then following that, after moving to Holland, moving to Australia, and visiting lots of places in between, we came back to the UK before COVID and I got stuck in with a charity that I'd been involved in before, working with asylum seekers and refugees. So I've got a bit of a history going back with the charity, and that's sort of my first inroads to immigration advice. But the interesting thing was, is that when I was a young insecure guy, you know, volunteering at the charity, the guy who headed up the immigration advice team was very well-spoken, and he studied at Cambridge. And so that kind of gave me the impression, you know, obviously given my insecurity and giving that impression I had, of what it takes to be an immigration advisor, it kind of felt like a bit of an obstacle for me for a period of time. But fast forwarding back, so I got back involved with the charity, COVID hit, I lost my job, my wife was pregnant, you know, we couldn't get benefits or anything like that, so I took up a job actually selling furniture. I affectionately call it my COVID gig. So, I sold furniture for a bit over a year. It was pretty brutal, to be honest, because it's 100% commission. But there's a lot of principles that I learned there in terms of, like, yeah, which was really added to, like, my outlook today and how I do things in terms of sales, building rapport.

Sure.

And when you're working for commission, you're sort of, you're you become sort of dislodged from the idea of like the time-money ratio or time-money equation, which I think was another interesting thing that sort of contributed to my mindset today. But anyway, the sales job was so brutal that it led to me having a breakdown. And amazingly, I did recover from the breakdown, but it took about a year. And during that time, I reconnected with an old friend at the charity that I worked at who was doing immigration advice there. He got COVID, and so he had me come in the office basically to just help with the clients while he was at home on video. So he was sort of doing the work and I was doing the scanning and the printing and those things. And I just had a bit of a light bulb moment one day where I thought, hang on a minute, maybe, maybe I could do this as well. And so I approached him and he very kindly supported me and helped train me, and the rest is history from there really.

That's amazing, and you talk about fulfilling your own potential and realising what your self-worth— I think a lot of your actual job is helping give that back to international students, and I feel like, you know, you can talk about degrees and qualifications and this and that, but there's nothing more that qualifies you more to have these conversations with people and help them than that experience that you've been through in that journey. So yeah, I mean, what does your actual practical day look like then in terms of helping people fulfill that potential and get into the country that they want to?

Yeah, so it's a mixture of things really. So my role sort of encompasses immigration advice and immigration services. So that's technically the two legal terms that you're legally permitted to do as an immigration advisor. So the advice side is very much consulting. So whether that's having meetings with people to sort of strategize their plan forward, or maybe it's being connected with an individual's employer and consulting with them in terms of how they can go about basically taking all the right steps to legally hire that particular candidate. So that's sort of the consulting side, and then the services side might be Individuals or companies would like me to basically hold their hand and walk them through the process from start to finish. So, you know, literally doing the forms either with them or for them, assessing their documents and things like that, and then helping submit the application to the Home Office. And then if there's any issues down the line, sort of acting as a representative, so the Home Office basically got in contact with me if there's an issue down the line. So that's sort of the end-to-end support I offer.

Yeah, and aside from your actual qualification to do it, the reason a lot of people come to you for this advice is because you have a pretty large following on LinkedIn nowadays. Like, you have this personal brand where you're almost known as the go-to guy in the UK for online—

That's humbling.

Yeah, well, I mean, I think everyone can attest we've done a We've actually put on an event together as well. You came and spoke at International Heroes, and that was where we really first connected. And I mean, I know that with The Graduate Guide, like, the mission statement is to really help people with this awareness side of things and educate people on what they could do with their career and find a passionate one. However, I found out through this, you know, meeting Fahoon and Absar, that You know, we have this problem to worry about finding something you're passionate about as a, you know, someone born in the UK living here. But then you add on to that, that extra layer that you can't even go about thinking about that yet because you can't even get the job you like, or even know if you can stay in the country.

Yeah.

Even if you've been educated here, which just blew my mind. So I felt, I felt like this episode is very necessary. I will never claim to have felt the same pain points, so hence why I'm not going to be asking maybe on behalf of them, that's what Absal's doing. But this is really important, I think, this bit of the episode, is to just understand why to you this is such a problem. As someone who's born in the UK, you know, why are you taking this so personally? Why is it something you care about so much? To do?

Well, I think that, you know, I've had a passion for working with internationals, passion for working cross-culturally that's gone back, you know, really to quite a young age actually. I can trace it back to my parents hosting international students in our home who would go to the local language school. And I think that there's a real richness and there's a real value that has come into my life, you know, in terms of my mindset, in terms of how I approach things, in terms of the things I've adopted, maybe things from other cultures that I, that I think are really great. So my wife is American English, I'm just a boring old Brit, but I'm quite reserved, right? I'm quite reserved. And, you know, you might relate with this as well, Peter Wood. I don't, I don't like outwardly get excited very often. That's quite a British trait. And I remember because my wife is American-British, so she's got the best of both, but she grew up mostly in the States. And, you know, she gets excited about things and she likes celebrating. And like, you know, at first when we were first getting to know each other, I was just like this awkward, you know, guy like, "Oh, what are you doing? Why are you getting so excited? Why are you making such a big fuss?" But actually, over time, you know, we've been married for 11 years now.

Congratulations.

Thank you. And, you know, a lot of that's rubbed off on me, and my— I am better, my life is better as a result of that. And if I were to sort of take that sort of microcosm there in terms of my own personal life and marriage, I think Having the opportunity to work with internationals from different cultures, you have different values, you have different strengths, more of a pioneer spirit across the board, if you are, to be honest with you, which we, I think we can all learn from in the UK. And I think it's just generally sort of broadened my perspective, it's opened my eyes, it's, I think it's made me a bit more compassionate, a bit more kind, that's the kind of thing really.

Absolutely, and I can relate in the sense that UCL is, I think, statistically the most— it's got the most international students, so really culturally diverse. And like, I went to a school that was very like, everyone was kind of the same, you lived in this bubble, and a lot of people stayed friends with the same people, went to the same unis, and I was like the only person from any of my friends that went to London. And I just think my awareness and, you know, you say people rubbing off on you, like, it's not even like maybe consciously, but subconsciously, the positive impacts of working with other cultures. Like, right now, even my producer, my creative behind the camera, she's from Puerto Rico, and I feel like she brings a new dynamic or even like cultural thought to the episodes. And yeah, I think it just makes for more interesting conversation as well. So I mean, even on that level, it just confuses me why— okay, you can let them, you can let international students come to university, but then why do you not want to keep that culture in the workplace? Like, surely you want to— you see the benefits it has on people at school, why does it not exist in the workplace? I mean, you'll get on to this kind of problem with Afzal, but From my side, I just want to understand, like, what is it that companies really are afraid of in hiring international students? Like, what's their main blockade to doing it?

I think there's a couple, a couple of main ones. So the first one is cost, and whether that's sort of been backed up with data or not, there's sort of this, like, ambiguous concept of cost. That makes employers sort of quite quish— quick, quick to brush off the idea of sponsorship. So that's one particular one. And then I think the second is having the responsibility of being accountable to the government. You know, what if something goes wrong? What if I get in trouble? You know, the government have been, you know, ramping up the fines for illegal working in the UK and things like that in, in sort of the recent hostile environment that we're seeing with the government. So those, those I see sort of the main key ones, and those are, those are the two points that I seek, really seek most to, to address and just clarify, really.

Well, I think what I really like about your approach to it all is that you're not looking to blame anyone for why this is such a big problem. You're looking for solutions, you're looking to understand why it's happening. And yeah, it makes me think, like, not to place blame on anybody, but who do you think should be educating companies that it's really not as costly as you think it is? It's really not as hard a process to sponsor someone as they think it is.

Whose job is it? Well, I mean, I've certainly made it my job.

Yeah.

And I think that's probably a big reason why I've gained such a big following, really, because I think there is such a need for this particular information to be out there. You know, I think the government advertising information or openly promoting it is problematic for them politically, obviously depending on who's in government and what their particular stance is on immigration. I know that universities are doing a fantastic job They tend to, yeah, give a lot of advice. Obviously, the way that the regulatory framework is set up in the UK for universities is that basically if universities, particular students, if they have a certain amount of refused visas, that could jeopardize them being able to have students in the first place. So they have a vested interest, um, in terms of compliance to make sure everything's like all the boxes are ticked. So I think universities are doing a fantastic job, and there's certainly, you know, recruitment companies out there as well. I know obviously International Heroes, who we're both familiar with, but there's not— I mean, UKCISA as well, they're also doing some great work to help support international students and to get the message out there, but there's not necessarily a sort of a unified, centralized message. Yeah.

Well, let's look at the value we can actually deliver in this episode to any international students listening. And with that, it means that I will be leaving the chair and handing the role over to Afsal. Afsal, welcome.

All right, Adam. So I'm representing The Graduate Guide today. And also the international students in the UK as well. So my name is Absar. I've got like few questions for you since, as you know, there has been some policy changes in the UK in the last couple of days from the government as well. So I would just want to enlighten the people who are actually listening to our podcast and who are following this platform on regular basis that how is this new rule, which is the new entrant rule applicable to all the international students who have been graduated from the UK in the recent times. So, um, can you just enlighten more about this rule and how it's going to impact the people who are graduating from the UK?

Yeah, absolutely. So the new rules coming in are really brutal. Um, I saw a fellow immigration practitioner post on LinkedIn that apparently the average demographic that meets that salary requirement is a middle-aged white male in the southeast of England. So it's, uh, it's quite shocking really. Now the new rules are coming into play in the spring, and one real flicker of hope for international students is the new entrant rules, as you say. Now We're going to hold tight to see if there's any changes or if there's any modification to the new entrant rules, but basically what the new entrant rule is, there's a 4-year time limit to be a new entrant, and that 4-year time limit begins either at the end of your student visa or at the beginning of your postgraduate— not postgraduate, post-study work visa, as it's informally called, the graduate visa. Basically, whilst you're on the new entrant visa or the new entrant terms of the skilled worker visa, you can either be paid 70% of the going rate for your role, as long as it's higher than £20,960 per year and £10.75 per hour. So that does give a great degree of flexibility for students, but like I said, I'm A bit skeptical. I mean, based on the recent government announcements, there's been a lot of surprises, there's been a lot of shocks, and so I think I'm personally sort of holding fast to see if they're going to be updating that minimum hourly rate as well. But we'll hopefully have some more news about that in the new year.

Right. And there has been some recent discussions about the salary threshold that has been increased to £38,700 for the skilled visa, which again, if someone from— who is a new entrant and they want to switch over to that visa, so is it going to be applicable to them if they want to convert their visa to a skilled visa being a new entrant? Or is it for the people who are coming new in the UK?

Yes, so anyone— At any stage on the— either whether it's finishing their course of study or whether at any stage on their graduate visa for those two particular years. If people are coming straight over from overseas, then if they're under 26, then they can automatically be classed as a new entrant as well.

Right. Perfect. And what do you think? Is there going to be any changes in the upcoming maybe months till September, uh, next spring, uh, in terms of the policy changes regarding this rule. Since, uh, you know, uh, most of the international students who are in the UK, um, they're— they are, I think, pretty much confused and they don't know about this rule specifically and, um, about the new entrance. So I think, uh, from, uh, your platform, uh, the way you have been communicating recently on LinkedIn and through, I think, our platform. It's going to be a good voice for people to understand that, you know, you don't have to scare at the moment. There can be some changes, you know, applicable in the next upcoming months. So yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think the next question I have is in terms of the new Skilled Worker Visa. like the salary threshold, what is the hourly and the weekly rate which is applicable as per the new rule that has been given by the government of UK?

So, yeah, so, so really the most key element is the minimum annual salary. So that's the £38,700, I believe. Now there will be various ways in which an individual can meet that. So, for example, the current rules, just to give you an idea, they're £26,200. Let's look at hospitality, for example. If you were to break down the £26,200 according to a 37.5-hour working week, then that's a bit of a high rate, for example, for someone working in the kitchen or a chef. And so what they can do in that particular instance is they tend to work extra hours. So let's say it's a shift, maybe they do 42 hours or 48, say at £11 an hour or something like that. So that way they were able to meet the annual salary requirement. Now, with the new particular rule there, I think I broke it down recently on LinkedIn, the hourly rate that you'd need to be paid per, you know, going from sort of 48 hours a week down to 45, 42, 38, etc., etc. So, I mean, quick maths really. All you need to do, 38,700 divided by 52, and then divide it by the hours of work that you're going to do a week, and then you figure out your hourly salary there. Nice and simple.

Perfect.

I think that's a good breakdown for all the people who are listening to us. Another question. So, Adam, there has been another policy that has been given by the government. Usually, like in Australia and every other country, they usually have a skilled occupation list from where they can hire people from across the globe and within the UK, supposedly, if they have been a shortage in the labor market in healthcare or any other specific field. So, what do you think, is the government trying to remove that list in the upcoming months, or it has been recently applicable as well for the people who are new, coming new to the UK?

Well, apparently the government have already instructed the Migration Advisory Committee to review the shortage occupation list with a view to replacing it with some some sort of revised version of that. So there's also talk as well about the 20% reduction. So there's a slightly reduced rate for visa applications themselves. The government, they say apparently they do expedite applications that are in shortage roles. However, from personal experience, I haven't necessarily seen that. But I think they're reviewing whether the 20% reduction is going to count. So we're going to be seeing a revised list. I'm not 100% sure exactly what, what roles will be on there. I certainly hope they keep some of the key ones. For example, care. I read some data the other day which basically said if all the unemployed people in the UK got a job and it was in care, it still wouldn't be enough to meet the need. Isn't that crazy? So hopefully, in conclusion to your question, um, hopefully the, the shortage list will continue, um, and there'll be pragmatic decisions made in terms of, yeah, the benefit of society and also consideration of those who are uprooting their lives and investing a lot into this country.

Right, perfect, perfect. And Adam, what do you reckon, like, if we have this shortage list, you know, and the government decides to, you know, that we can actually go forward with the same list for the next upcoming year and we will still hire people from across the globe, uh, and specifically in the areas where there is a shortage in the UK So again, is the salary bracket again going to be an issue if they want to hire someone who falls under that $38,700 category? Or it has to be increased from the perspective of the employer who is going to hire the person. So how do you reckon this question?

Well, as they review whether they're going to keep the 20% reduction and the sort of special salary rates for shortage occupation, I think we're really going to have to sit tight and see what the accompanying measures are that are being put forward by the government in sort of in conjunction with these new rules that are coming in in the spring.

Right, perfect.

And just wanted to add in, so I have remembered what I said earlier, so sorry to give you a bit of a nightmare for editing. So, so basically it's important to know that whenever new rules come in, there are often something that's called transitional arrangements. Now, transitional arrangements are effectively measures to help mitigate the inconvenience or the, the upset caused to people who are on existing visas. Now, I heard just today that the Prime Minister has basically given some assurances for those on family visas. Now, the financial requirement for the family visa has gone from 18— is going from £18,600 up to £38,700. But the Prime Minister has given some assurances today that people here on visas already are going to be protected from having to meet that hike. Now, I would certainly be hopeful, although I'm not holding my breath, that perhaps the government would have similar transitional measures in place for international students or graduates who are already here, who've already invested a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of stress into this country.

Perfect.

Thank you so much for your insights regarding this question, and I think this was actually a concern for, you know, all the international students here. One more thing, Adam. There has been another change in terms of the remote work where people can be employed in the UK.

Yeah.

And they can come maybe on a visit visa. They can stay here up to like 6 months. And if they get a job, it can be converted to a sponsorship. So how do you— can you explain the situation to our viewers so that they can have an idea regarding how this remote working can be useful for someone who is coming new to the UK, who wants to maybe explore the industry here, and they want to actually adjust into the corporate world. So can you just explain it to them as well?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's nice to have some positive immigration news after a difficult week. So there's been a package of measures introduced regarding the visit visa, and one of them most notably is the remote working. And I think this is a great move for the UK, uh, which in my opinion is lagging behind a lot of other countries in terms of remote working policies. So basically the new rules mean that if someone's here on a visit visa, they— and if they are working remotely for an overseas company, so a company not based in the UK, they can carry on that work whilst they're in the UK, provided— so this is the key caveat— provided it's not the main point of their visit. Okay, so applicants will need to be mindful if they're looking to come and remote work, maybe look for jobs, maybe do some touristy things, that they'll need to provide other reasons as well instead of just coming and hanging out in an Airbnb and enjoying London and doing remote work for a few months. Another thing about the visit visa, and this has always been in the rules, but on a visit visa you are permitted to interview, you're permitted to apply for jobs and interview for jobs while you're on a visit visa. You just can't accept the job. Now this is one really key part of the rules. You cannot switch from a visit visa to any other visa. I cannot emphasize that enough. I have a lot of people got into a lot of trouble trying to do that. So you're allowed to remote work, you're allowed to apply for jobs, you're allowed to interview for jobs, and you're allowed to accept an offer. But please don't try to start working for the company. You'll have to leave the UK get your certificate of sponsorship, apply for your visa, and come back in the right way.

Thank you so much, Adam, for enlightening us about the remote work visa situation in the UK. So my next question is regarding the skilled worker visa in terms of the cost which is associated to it. So I think most of the people, they know— don't know about the cost structure, as you have as I previously told Peter in the same episode that, you know, there are some, of course, downsides and there are some other areas that the company have to focus on before they can actually go forward and sponsor the person. So, the specific cost which is associated with sponsoring anyone who has done maybe a degree from the UK or who is coming to the UK on a sponsorship visa. So can you just give me like a breakdown of certain costs that are associated to it?

Yeah, absolutely. So it's really 3 steps. So just keep it super simple. So the first step is getting the sponsor license. Now for a small company, it's £536, and for a large company it's £1,476. Now, a large company normally is subject to audit as per the Companies Act 2006, so that's like— we're talking pretty big, like I think it's like revenue of £10 mil, assets of £5 mil, over 50 employees, right? So that's, that's what's classed as a large sponsor in that regard. So that's the first step. The second is the Certificate of Sponsorship itself. So there's two costs involved. So the first one is for the certificate, that's £239, and then you pay something called the Immigration Skills Charge. Now, this is paid every 12 months that the individual is sponsored. So for example, whether it's 3 years or 5 years. So for a small company, it's £364 per year. And for a large company, it's 1,000 per year. Now, for those who are listening who have gotten my special cheat sheet, shout out there, whatever that means. Anyway.

I'll go forward to that question as well. I have that in my mind.

Yeah, nice, nice. So anyway, it's on the cheat sheet, but there's something that I call the golden window. So the golden window is from the date that your course ends to the end of your student visa. If you can secure a sponsored job in that golden window, then your employer does not have to pay the Immigration Skills Charge. So they're going to be saving between $1,200 to $5,000 on sponsoring you, depending on how long they sponsor you and the size of the company. So, I mean, I know Faroon and others at International Heroes, you know, they talk about You know, start looking for jobs early as possible, you know, even before you land in the UK, when you've started your course, you know, have that as your sort of your part-time job that you're doing whilst you're studying with a view. And I actually had someone come back to me, this was really cool, the other day they came back to me on LinkedIn, they said, hey, thanks for your advice, my employers just saved £5,000 on sponsoring me and they're going to sponsor me because of it. And that made me feel really, really cool, like, wow, that's made a huge difference to someone's life. So I hope that's really helpful information for everybody, and I cannot emphasize that enough. That's, that's really important to hone in on, especially if, you know, depending if you're at the beginning sort of stages of your student journey, or if you're considering, considering coming to study in the UK and you're looking at your steps to follow afterwards.

Definitely, and I will agree with it because the moment when you graduate from the UK, you have approximately 4 to 5 months till the end of your student visa. And in that time, if the employer is willing to sponsor you, so I think saving up to from £1,200 to £5,000, it's a big amount.

It's huge.

Big chunk for them to save.

And it's a real selling point as well for the candidate. Exactly.

How you can negotiate. The sponsorship thing as well. So I think most of the people who are listening to us, they can actually use this for their next interview or whenever they want to negotiate with their employer. Yeah. Again, your golden cheat sheet. So you have mentioned some areas where how can a person who is like an international student can negotiate their visa with the employer they are actually working with, supposedly for like a year or so, or if they have recently joined a company. So any tips for both the people who are joining that company as a newie and who are actually working with that company for like maybe 6 months or a year? How can both these people negotiate from From a perspective of an immigration consultant, like, how can you reckon the situation for them?

Yeah, I mean, I think being clued up, being educated on the costs, being educated on the process is going to really put the candidate in a strong position, you know, in a confident position. I think often the issue is— I talked a lot about ambiguity. And sort of the ambiguity comes out of a lack of knowledge, right? So I think if the candidate can increase their knowledge in terms of, you know, what's really going to make a difference for them when they approach that conversation or when they approach that job or when they approach that interview, then that's a huge advantage in my opinion. I mean, for somebody, you know, who's been with a company for 6 months, maybe 12 months, I think a couple of things. I mean, I'll just be completely honest, like, I don't have really experience in this, you know, I've not had to do it personally, so I'm not really— so you take what I'm saying with a pinch of salt because, as you've heard from my conversation with Peter Wood, my career has been rather unorthodox and now I work for myself. So anyway, moving on, I think that basically individuals should not be shy to bring up the subject. I've had a lot of cases where individuals have been a bit nervous, you know, and they've just sort of put it off, put it off, put it off, and when they've plucked up the courage to do it, they find out quite quickly that it's not an option and they've invested, you know, 12 to 18 months in this company and now they're scrambling. You know, I couldn't tell you how many individuals get in touch with me saying, "Help, my visa is running out in 3 months." You know, "My sponsor is not going to, you know, my company is not going to sponsor me after I thought they would." And they're sort of asking me, "What do I do? What do I do?" And so I think it's good to be upfront. And I know that's sort of uncomfortable, you know, I can understand why that would be uncomfortable for a lot of people to do that, but I think you, I think individuals really need to believe in their own self-worth and the value that they bring to a company. And so they need to be confident in that when they're asking for sponsorship. Because, you know, like we've talked about before, internationals invest a lot to come to this country. You know, they give a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. And so individuals' worth is, you know, the value is so high, the stakes are so high that I think people can't really afford to be messed around or Or strung along. You know, sadly, I've had conversations with people where, you know, they're strung along. You know, the employer says, "Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll talk about that at your quarterly review. We'll talk about that at the end of the financial year." Time goes on, time goes on, and then before you know it, they're like, "Oh, sorry. Oh, your visa runs out next month." Brutal. Brutal. So I think transparency is key, you know, being confident in yourself and what you have to offer and just being transparent with your employer. And if they, you know, if they can't offer that to you, then maybe have the balls, have the guts to take another leap, do something to improve your situation. Again, pinch of salt because, as I've explained before.

Exactly. I think there should be the clarity from both the perspective of the employer and the employee from day one.

Yeah.

Since you have joined the company, that if they're willing to sponsor you after your maybe quarterly review or the yearly review, or it depends on some of the company's budget as well in terms of how many people they can sponsor per year. And I think it's approved for each company depending upon their size and the amount of money they want to invest in that specific category. So I think it's good to have clarity from day one in terms of if your employer is going to sponsor you by the end of your visa, or you have to maybe have a look at, you know, any other opportunity you have in the market. So I think you need to start exploring it from day one, as you mentioned, and as I think International Heroes, how they emphasize on this area that before you are being even graduated or before you have completed your course in the UK, you should definitely go on and start making your application so that you have a better perspective by the end of the day.

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I'm in talks with a senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University. Yeah. And the discussion is basically looking at seminars for international students before they even arrive in the UK. Like, that's how soon that we're sort of— it's becoming apparent that it's necessary to be thinking about these sorts of things, thinking about options, thinking about, you know, what's your particular path, what's your niche, you know, do you want to go down the employment side, do you want to set up your own business, that kind of thing. So I think it's becoming increasingly clear across the board. In terms of the industry, that it's really key to get that information out there and as early as possible for students and others to be thinking about this as soon as possible and as early as possible.

Definitely. And with that, I think we will conclude this episode. Thank you so much, Adam, for coming all the way from Somerset. I know you have to train back, so thank you for your time and I think this will be a good, uh, episode for all the people who are international students and who want to, uh, hear about Adam's journey, uh, uh, since he's quite, uh, active on LinkedIn these days. And if you're following him, then definitely I think follow his all posts that he, um, posts every day on LinkedIn because there is something you can actually learn in terms of, uh, how you can negotiate your visa how you can learn about the new policies that are applicable to you on your visa, and if there's any change from the government of UK, Adam definitely posts that on daily basis. So with that, thank you so much for your time.

Yeah, thank you for having me.

Yeah, it's been a pleasure. Hopefully we'll have another episode with you soon.

And yeah, yeah, nice. Thank you very much.

Cheers.