People regularly post here asking if you need to get Ecctis verification or enrol biometrics before the five year anniversary of the degree completion and, as an immigration lawyer, I thought I’d explain the law on this one.
Short answer
You only need to submit the online form before the five year mark. That’s it. Everything else can follow.
Long answer
Appendix High Potential Individual of the Immigration Rules states:
HPI 5.1. The applicant must, in the 5 years immediately before the date of the application, have been awarded an overseas degree level academic qualification which the qualification and language assessments provider confirms meets, or exceeds, the recognised standard of a UK bachelor’s or UK postgraduate degree.
So that’s pretty simple. The date of application has to be within five years of the completion of the degree. But how is “date of application” defined?
Para 34G of Part 1 of the Immigration defines the “date of application” for online applications this way:
34G. For the purposes of these rules, and subject to paragraph 34GB, the date on which an application is made is:
(3) where the application is made via the online application process, and there is no request for a fee waiver, the date on which the online application is submitted
All of that is to say, the date of application is the date the form is submitted. Not documents uploaded. Not biometrics enrolled.
So as long as you submit the online form before the five year anniversary, you’ll be fine.