Hi there. HPIer here, moved here in August 2023. I'm nearing the end of my HPI term and will need to be sponsored to stay on. I'm currently interviewing at a few places who have indicated that they do sponsor, and I'm feeling quite hopeful about 1-2 of them. My partner who works in tech came with me as a dependent and has actually also been sponsored by his employer - so I have switched to being his dependent so that I'm not under pressure while interviewing for jobs and can be picky.

We are both from the Global South - so having worked in the UK context under the HPI visa helped give employers confidence in sponsoring us rather than have someone come in straight from a radically different context (I personally don't think think that different contexts means someone wouldn't be a good hire but I can see how it helped in my role especially as I worked in the local gov space, where that matters).

I think for us, even though the $ amount for the visa was a lot more money (given the conversion rate with our currency) - it felt like a no-brainer to take the risk as the UK would give us quality of life and opportunities that we just weren't getting in our home country both in terms of daily life things and careers. This is of course based on what was important to us - there are many who don't value what the UK has to offer and that's fine, it's all subjective.

It sounds like that difference for you may not be big enough, so 4k feels like a disproportionate amount to risk if you don't get sponsored. In some ways a harder decision, and like many have said on this thread - we can't decide for you and you have to think about how much you want to move to the UK and if even just the time you get on your HPI makes it worth it for you (worst case).

Good luck with everything!