Extending/renewing your visa
Read the information below about extending your student visa and if you have any questions, please attend one of the weekly online Immigration Drop-in Sessions or contact the Immigration & Compliance team so we can advise you further.
Visa extension to complete course
If you require additional time to complete your course, you may be able to extend your student visa in the UK providing you have been attending and engaging with your course as required, however there are few conditions in place that you must meet.
Repeating with attendance
You must be continuing your course with attendance to be eligible for a visa extension in the UK.
Undergraduate and Taught Masters students:
As a taught student you may be able to extend your student visa in the UK if you have been attending and engaging with your course as required, and you are required to repeat modules with on campus attendance.
This will however depend on various factors, for example when the modules (including a work placement module) that you’re required to repeat will be running. If there is a more than 60-day gap between your visa expiry date and the next engagement on the course, you will need to return home in the interim. The Immigration & Compliance team will need to make a full assessment of your academic situation before supporting a further CAS for a visa extension.
A visa extension may not be possible if you are repeating without attendance, or if you are only sitting an exam or submitting coursework with no timetabled sessions on campus. For detail see the Repeating or re-sitting without attendance section.
You can start the visa extension process by contacting the Immigration & Compliance team for a ‘CAS Request Form’.
Research students:
As a research student if you have been given additional time to complete your course, you may be able to extend your student visa in the UK. You can start the visa extension process by contacting the Immigration & Compliance team for a ‘CAS Request Form’ at least three months before your visa expiry date. During the visa extension process, the Immigration & Compliance team will check your campus swipes as well as academic progress with your academic school. A CAS will be issued when we are satisfied of your academic progress, overall engagement as well as the ability to complete your course within the extension period.
Please note, we may not be able to approve multiple visa extensions on the same course as it doesn't show progression as per the Home Office's visa regulations. It is therefore important that before requesting for a CAS you contact your academic school and supervisors for a realistic assessment of your progress as well as the timeframe it will take you to complete your course.
ATAS Clearance
If your course is subject to ATAS Clearance, you will need to obtain a fresh ATAS certificate before your visa extension CAS can be issued. Please note the ATAS applications are processed by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and getting a clearance certificate can be a time-consuming process so make sure that you apply for a fresh clearance certificate at least 3 to 4 months prior to your visa expiry date.
Reasons for which you cannot extend your visa
In addition to repeating without attendance, you also cannot extend your student visa for the following reasons:
- If you have outstanding University debts.
- To apply for Graduate visa – for example, you cannot extend your student visa to wait for your results or academic outcome and be eligible to apply for the Graduate visa.
- To attend graduation ceremony – you must contact the Graduation team for a visit visa letter. See graduation webpages for detail.
- If you have finished your course and starting a new one and wish to extend your visa to fill the gap between your visa expiry and start date of the new course. See ‘continuing for further study’ section below for detail.
- If you do not meet the academic progression requirements set by the Home Office. See section below for detail.
- If you will exceed the 5-year time limit because of a visa extension. See study time limits section below for detail.
Academic Progression requirements
Students who have previously studied in the UK must be progressing academically or going forward in their study. For example, if you have completed a master’s degree in the UK, you will not be permitted to study an undergraduate degree. Similarly, if you were unable to successfully complete the course for which your last student visa was granted, you cannot apply for a new visa in the UK to study another course at the same level. Instead, you must leave the UK and apply for a new student visa from outside the UK i.e. in your country of nationality or normal residence. Please note the academic progression rules have changed several times over the years and can be complex. The University will therefore assess if you meet these requirements before we issue you with a CAS.
Study time limits (cap)
There are certain time limits set by the Home Office on the length of time that can be spent studying in the UK. The Home Office will take into account all previous time periods spent studying in the UK, at degree level on a Student visa, Tier 4 (General) visa or old-style student visa. This includes any time that you spend repeating modules etc.
The Home Office will base their calculation on the length of your previous visas and not the length of the course, so they will take into account the 'valid from' and the 'valid until' dates of each of your previous visas since the age of 18. Study undertaken on any other visa categories such as Visitor visa, Dependant visa or Short Term Student Visa is exempt from the time limits.
Below degree level:
Students who are aged 18 or above cannot spent more than two years studying in the UK below degree level (RQF 6 or SCQF 9 e.g. Foundation programmes, English language courses or diploma courses).
Degree level:
In general, a maximum of five years limit applies to studying in the UK at degree level or undergraduate level (RQF level 6 or Bachelor’s level).
However, some courses are exempt from the time limit, which are medicine, architecture, dentistry, or veterinary medicine and Music at a music college that is a member of Conservatoires UK (CUK) and certain Law conversion courses.
Postgraduate and above levels:
There is currently no time limit on study at postgraduate degree level and above (e.g. Masters and Research/PhD levels). However, the University will consider the Home Office’s academic progression rule whilst making a decision on applications for a CAS.
See Time limits section on the UKCISA website for more information.
How to apply to extend your visa
If you have completed a course in the UK and applying for further study, your new CAS will be issued by the admissions team. However, if you are applying for a visa extension to continue the same course, your CAS will be issued by the Immigration & Compliance team.
The Immigration & Compliance team provides comprehensive visa assistance and support to our international students so an immigration adviser can help you to submit your visa extension application. Following the online application submission, we will guide you of the further steps and can also assist with any Home Office queries with regards to your application until you receive a decision on your visa application.
If you have any further questions please contact us via email or attend one of the Immigration Drop-in Sessions so we can advise you further.
Completing the online visa application
You will need to apply for a student visa extension via an online form. Whilst you are waiting for your CAS to be issued, you can download and use our Adobe PDF screenshot guide below, which explains the process of filling-in your online application:
Continuing for further study at Huddersfield
If you have successfully completed the course for which your current visa was granted and are now applying to extend your visa in the UK to start a new course, the start date of the new course must be no later than 28 days of your visa expiry. If this gap exceeds 28 days, you must submit your new Student visa application outside the UK, in your country of nationality or normal residence. You cannot extend your student visa to fill the gap between your visa expiry and start date of the new course.