Last November 27, 2008 the British Embassy announced that the Youth Exchange Scheme or YES will be replaced with the new Youth Mobility Scheme or YMS. The Youth Mobility Scheme has been joined by Australian, New Zealand, Japanese, and Canadian governments who are also former members of the working holiday scheme. Other former members of the working holiday scheme, the South African, and the Jamaican governments, have not yet joined the Youth Mobility Scheme so there is no available Youth Mobility Scheme visa for South African and Jamaican citizens.
Under the Youth Mobility Scheme, the member governments will sponsor their citizen aged 18 to 31 to live and work in the UK for up to 24 months. And unlike the Youth Exchange Scheme, the Youth Mobility Scheme has added benefits for Japanese applicants and among these added benefits for a Japanese applicant are:
- No restrictions on the length of time a first time Japanese applicant can spend working in the UK for the two year period.
- The visa application fee is lessened by 50% from £200 for a YES visa to £99 for a YMS visa.
- The annual applicant quota has been increased to 1083 for Youth Mobility Scheme from 400 for Youth Exchange Scheme.
Like in the Youth Exchange Scheme, the Youth Mobility Scheme visa is valid for 2 years. But, if a person possesses a Youth Mobility Scheme visa, it will allow him to do almost any kind of work, and spend most of their time working as long as they like within the two year period provided by the Youth Mobility Scheme. There are also new requirements asked to applicants who are applying for a visa under the Youth Mobility Scheme among them is that they need to show they have the equivalent of £1600 to cover living expenses during the first few weeks of their stay in the UK. Young people with YMS visa can also line up for a full time job in the UK before applying for a visa.
To apply for a YMS visa, the applicant must be able to show that they:
- Have £1,600 in maintenance funds in order to support their stay in the UK. Evidence to support this must be dated no earlier than one month before the application is made.
- Hold a valid National passport from one of the participating countries.
- Are between the ages of 18 & 31.
You are not eligible to apply for this visa if:
- You want to come to the UK with dependants.
- You have spent time in the UK previously on a working holidaymaker visa or under the Youth Mobility Scheme.
For a more detailed info regarding the Youth Mobility Scheme or YMS, you may log on the UK Border Agency website at www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk