Graduates from the top 20 US universities can use the UK’s High Potential Individual visa, new list reveals

The UK Home Office has revealed the latest list of elite global universities whose graduates qualify for one of the UK immigration system’s highest accolades – the High Potential Individual (HPI) visa. Once again, there is good news for graduates of top American universities and the businesses that want to employ them in the UK. North American universities dominate the list of qualifying elite higher institutions. Of the 42 universities that allow 2024-2025 graduates to apply for an HPI visa, 20 are in the USA, a further three in Canada, while there are just seven in the whole of Europe.

The HPI visa allows eligible recent graduates from top global universities to live and work in the UK with dependent family members for two years (three years for PhD or equivalent) without needing an employer to sponsor them. A High Potential Individual and accompanying family are free to work in most jobs, look for work or work for themselves.

The HPI visa launched in 2022. A list of qualifying universities is published every November, comprising the non-UK universities ranked in the top 50 that year by at least two of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, QS World University Rankings or The Academic Ranking of World Universities. People who graduated in the past five years from a university on the list for the year they were awarded their degree can apply.

There are 20 American institutions in the latest list for those awarded their degree between 1 November 2024 and 31 October 2025: Caltech, Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, New York, Northwestern, Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, University of Chicago, Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Pennsylvania, University of Washington, Yale, plus back on the list again this year: University of Texas at Austin. 

There are three Canadian institutions that qualify graduates again this year: McGill, University of British Columbia and University of Toronto. There are seven from China and Hong Kong – the same amount as the whole of Europe. Japan’s Kyoto University and University of Tokyo feature again, as do Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and National University of Singapore. The University of Melbourne is the only Australian university on the list this year – indeed it is the only qualifying institution in the Southern hemisphere.

You can find the full list, check other years and find more details on applying for the HPI visa here.

There is an English language requirement, but attending a US university is proof enough. Applicants must be able to show cash funds of at least £1,270 for at least 28 days before applying. Additional funds are required for dependent family members.

An HPI visa does not lead to settlement in the UK, though it does allow switching to another immigration route that may lead to settlement in the UK. At any point before the HPI visa expires, people may switch into other permitted work visas leading to settlement, such as Skilled Worker, Scale up or Global Talent visas.