Do UK recruiters care what visa you're on? Trying to figure out HPI vs partner visa for my partner
Aus/UK dual citizen planning to move to the UK for work. Want to bring my girlfriend — Chinese national, graduating from a top Australian uni (ranked ~13 globally) later this year.
We were actually planning to go through the defacto partner visa process here in Australia, but I've been weighing up moving to the UK instead given my citizenship, seems like a better career move for both of us long term. So now trying to figure out the UK equivalent.
In Australia there's a well-known bias where graduate employers strongly prefer grad visa holders over bridging visas — but even on a grad visa it's tough as an international. With the bridging visa recruiters just won't engage at all.
Is there an equivalent bias in the UK?
She has two realistic options:
Partner/Marriage visa: comes with me, full work rights, but tied to our relationship
HPI visa: her uni almost certainly qualifies on ranking, so she could come independently on her own merit-based visa. Then partner after / in the background.
From a practical job-hunting perspective (specifically creative fields — design, media), does it matter which she's on? Do UK recruiters notice or care? And if it does matter, is it better for her to land on HPI first and switch to partner later — or just come on partner visa and not overthink it?
Any insight from people who've hired or job hunted for graduate roles in the UK on either of these visas would be really helpful.