UKCISA - international student advice and guidance

Conditions of Student immigration permission

Last modified: 09 August 2022

Your Student immigration permission will be subject to certain conditions. It is very important that you understand these conditions. A breach of conditions can have serious consequences for both your current Student permission and any future immigration applications you may make.

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Study

ATAS

Work conditions

'No recourse to public funds'

Police registration - no longer required

On 5 August 2022, the Home Office abolished the requirement to register with police, "with immediate effect". Information at gov.uk is yet to be fully updated. The Immigration Rules are also yet to be amended. UKCISA received a press release about it from the Home Office.

The condition to register with the police (known as 'police registration') was given to people of certain nationalities, aged 16 or over, who were coming to the UK for more than six months in certain immigration categories (this included the Student route). The Immigration Rules Appendix 2: police registration determine which nationalities were affected by this requirement. Therefore, not everyone will have been required to register under the scheme as it was. Those who were subject to the requirement would have to register with their local police force and keep it updated about certain specified changes in their circumstances. The police registration condition was likely to have been printed on your 30-day vignette, your biometric residence permit (BRP), or in your letter from the Home Office.

From 5 August 2022, no-one is required to register under the scheme or update their local police force about changes, even if their immigration documentation says they must. This change affects those who have already registered and those who have a condition saying they must register but who have not yet done so.

If you are someone who was previously, or has recently been, given a condition to register with the police, and you are confused or concerned about what the abolition of the scheme means for you, please contact the international student adviser at your institution or contact us on our Students' advice line.

A FAQs document, published by the Home Office, National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) and Counter Terrorism Policing was shared with us (8 August 2022) and answers a number of questions about the abolition of the police registration condition/requirement:

It should no longer be added to new grants of immigration permission.
If it is printed on an existing visa / BRP / digital status it will not be amended by the Home Office. However, it no longer has any relevance.
If you have registered in the past and received a Police Registration Certificate (PRC), the FAQs advise that you no longer need to keep it and will not be expected to show it to anyone in the future. However, we would strongly advise that you do keep it.
Any fee you have previously paid for registering with the police will not be refunded.
If you have an appointment booked, you no longer need to attend it or pay any fee for it.
If, prior to the scheme being abolished, you failed to register within the required timeframe, you are no longer required to register. However, we remain unclear as to whether a previous breach of the police registration condition may still have an impact on your immigration history and/or future immigration applications. We don't yet know if instructions will be given to Home Office caseworkers to ignore such a breach in the future. We will be seeking clarity about this.

Considerations regarding the Immigration Rules

Last modified: 16 October 2020

In this section, we discuss some of the considerations you should have for the Immigration Rules you had to satisfy when you applied for your Student immigration permission, and how certain changes could affect your immigration position or future applications.

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Living costs

Criminal convictions, driving offences

Bank statements

Biometric Residence Permit (BRP)

Good practice

Last modified: 19 August 2022

In this section we explain the importance of preparing for a new Student application, we tell you the things you should keep in your own files, and we explain one of the key responsibilities you have as the holder of Student permission.

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Prepare to extend your visa

Keep copies of important documents

Report changes of circumstances

You must keep the Home Office informed about a number of details relating to your personal circumstances. This means notifying it of certain changes of circumstance. How you inform the Home Office of a change of circumstances depends upon whether your visa is in the form of a biometric residence permit (BRP) or a vignette (a sticker in your passport). See the information below for details of which option you should use. Full information can be found on the Home Office website.

Your address details (and/or those of your legal representative)

The Home Office will write to you if there is a problem with your Student sponsor's licence; or your Student sponsor institution closes; or there are any other issues or problems with your Student permission. Therefore, it is important that you keep the Home Office informed of your current address.

You may have given a temporary address, or your Student sponsor institution's address, to the Home Office when you applied for entry clearance in your home country. You must report a change of address to the Home Office once you have a fixed UK postal address. Any correspondence address you use when making a Student application in the UK will become your permanent contact address, in the Home Office records, until the next time you make an immigration application. Therefore, if you are only using the correspondence address for your Student application, you should report a change of address after the outcome of your application.

If the Home Office only has your Student sponsor institution's address, and not your personal address, you may not receive important correspondence. If your college closes and/or its staff resources become limited it may not forward your correspondence to you promptly or correctly.

You must also report your change of address to:

your Student sponsor, who is obliged to hold current contact details for you; and
your official financial sponsor, if you have one; and
your home country's Embassy or High Commission, if they require it.

We advise that you also inform your bank, doctor's surgery, insurance companies, driving licence issuer, and, if you own a vehicle in the UK, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).

If you change your own address, or if your legal representative's address changes, you should let the Home Office know. If you have a biometric residence permit (BRP), you should use the MCC form. If you have a vignette in your passport, but no BRP, you should use the Home Office online form. If you are in the UK and you have a pending visa application (which means you are awaiting a decision), or you have recently been granted permission but you are awaiting receipt of your BRP, you should use the Home Office online form to report a change of address.

Other changes whilst you are in the UK

Type of change	BRP	Vignette
Name, nationality	Online form	MCC form
Appearance, date of birth, gender	Online form	No report required
Details of new passport	MCC form	MCC form
Criminal convictions	MCC form	MCC form
Changes to relationships with family members who have leave to be in the UK as your dependent	MCC form	MCC form
Other relevant changes	MCC form	MCC form

Changes of circumstance whilst you are outside the UK

You may wish to report a change of circumstances whilst you are outside the UK, for example when you are on holiday. Such changes of circumstance could include where you: have gone home to get married and you change your name before returning to the UK; and/or change your nationality, surrender your former passport, and then obtain a passport from your new country of nationality.

If you have a BRP, the current advice given to us by the Home Office is that you apply for new confirmation of your leave via the online portal at www.visa4uk.fco.gov.uk. Under Select Visa Type, select the following options:

Reason for visit Other
Visa Type Others
Visa Sub Type Vignette Transfer

You will get a vignette for the entirety of your leave, instead of a new BRP.

Home Office guidance [Transferring a visa to a new passport - Entry Clearance Basics 17] only refers to those who wish to apply because their passport has expired, and only refers to those who have a vignette. If you experience any difficulties trying to notify the Home Office of a change of circumstances whilst you are outside the UK, you should contact your local entry clearance post or the international students’ adviser at your institution.

Your Student Sponsor's duties towards you

Last modified: 20 October 2020

All Student sponsors have specific duties they must undertake. These duties are outlined in Sponsorship duties at the Home Office Student sponsor guidance.

Your Student sponsor must provide information about you to the Home Office in a process called 'reporting'. Your Student sponsor must meet these duties even when you are:

doing a work placement as part of your course; or
studying at a partner institution that was named on your Confirmation of Acceptance of Studies (CAS).

If your Student sponsor does not inform the Home Office of something that it should, it could lose its Student sponsor licence.

If your institution submits a report about you to the Home Office, then you need to be aware of what can happen next. You will find examples of what your institution may need to report, below.

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Non-enrolment or late enrolment

Attendance and participation

Breaks from study

If you become ill during your studies, or if you are unable to attend or complete work due to other personal circumstances, then it might be agreed that you can miss a required class or assignment and then continue on your course.

However, if your planned break means that you cannot complete your course as planned within your current Student leave, then you may need to defer your studies. It is really important that you establish as soon as possible how much of your course you can miss, so you know whether you must defer your studies. If the length of your absence is unclear at first, maintain regular contact with your tutor, supervisor, student adviser, or other appropriate staff member, during your absence so that you and your institution can make a decision about whether you will need to defer your studies.

When a Student sponsor decides to defer a student's course, it is obliged to notify the Home Office of this. The Home Office's policy is then to write to the student and curtail their leave because, for the time being, the Student sponsor has withdrawn their sponsorship. The curtailment will shorten the student's leave to 60 days. You should always assume that your leave will be curtailed if you defer your studies, unless you have less than 60 days left on your current leave.

While the Home Office may take some time to issue a curtailment letter, and the resulting curtailment date will be 60 days later, it is usually a good idea to leave the UK during a deferral of studies. This is because your type of leave should always reflect your reason for being in the UK.

In some situations, it may not be physically possible for a student to leave the UK, even though their Student permission will be curtailed. For example, you student may be too ill to travel. If this happens, you should seek specialist immigration advice as soon as possible; the student adviser at your institution may be able to refer you to an immigration solicitor.

After your date for resuming your studies is confirmed, your Student sponsor will issue a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) with your new end date. You will need to make a new Student Route application using this new CAS. We advise you to seek advice from your institution about this. When and how you apply will depend on a number of factors including the length of your deferral, the level of your course, whether you are in the UK or outside the UK, whether your previous Student permission has already been curtailed and, if it has, when the curtailment takes effect.

Withdrawing, finishing early, switching out of Student permission

Breaking your immigration conditions

Avoid overstaying

Last modified: 16 October 2020

Overstaying means allowing your visa, or BRP, to expire whilst you remain in the UK. Overstaying is a criminal offence. There is no period within which you can lawfully overstay.

If you submit a valid application for further leave to remain before your current visa/BRP expires, and your application is still being decided when your current visa/BRP expires, you will not be an overstayer in this post-expiry period. Instead your previous immigration permission and the conditions attached to it will continue while your application is pending.

If you become an overstayer, and then wish to make a new Student application in order to remain in the UK, your Student sponsor may not issue you a CAS in order for you to do this and/or it may withdraw any unused CAS that you were issued before you became on overstayer. Seek advice from your Student sponsor about its policies on issuing CAS to overstayers, and on whether someone who makes such an application can study.

Overstaying will have serious consequences for any future immigration applications that you make. If you overstay by more than 30 days you will normally be prohibited from coming back to the UK for at least 12 months from the date you leave the UK. Overstaying in the UK could also affect applications you make for entry to countries other than the UK. You must tell the truth in immigration applications and declare any periods of overstay if asked about them. If you are found to have used deception in an immigration application you are likely to be barred from the UK for ten years.

If you need more time in the UK to complete your studies, see Making a Student route application in the UK.

Protecting your Student status

Conditions of Student immigration permission

Study

ATAS

Work conditions

'No recourse to public funds'

Police registration - no longer required

Considerations regarding the Immigration Rules

Living costs

Criminal convictions, driving offences

Bank statements

Biometric Residence Permit (BRP)

Good practice

Prepare to extend your visa

Keep copies of important documents

Report changes of circumstances

Your address details (and/or those of your legal representative)

Other changes whilst you are in the UK

Changes of circumstance whilst you are outside the UK

Your Student Sponsor's duties towards you

Non-enrolment or late enrolment

Attendance and participation

Breaks from study

Withdrawing, finishing early, switching out of Student permission

Breaking your immigration conditions

Avoid overstaying

About UKCISA

Useful links

Protecting your Student status

Conditions of Student immigration permission

Considerations regarding the Immigration Rules

Good practice

Your address details (and/or those of your legal representative)

Other changes whilst you are in the UK

Changes of circumstance whilst you are outside the UK

Your Student Sponsor's duties towards you

Avoid overstaying

Related content

About UKCISA

Useful links