Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2021 to Question 155013 on Graduates: Visas, for what reason people on a Tier 2 visa route cannot use time spent in the UK under a previous Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) visa to contribute towards their continuous residence requirement.

Tier 1 (Graduate Entrepreneur) was a temporary route designed to enable graduates to bridge the gap between studies and the Tier 1 (Entrepreneur)/ Innovator routes.

Time spent on temporary immigration routes do not lead to settlement, so would only contribute to meeting a continuous requirement under the provision for long term residents. This approach is consistent with other temporary routes.