Immigration compliance

Thinking of interrupting your studies or leaving BU?

We liaise direct with the Home Office regarding immigration compliance procedures for our students who apply for visas to study at BU. Please read the following important information about your visa responsibilities and what you need to do if you interrupt your studies, do not enrol, fail your assessments, or withdraw from your course.

Student visa responsibilities

It is important that you understand the responsibilities that come with your Student visa. There are immigration rules set by the Home Office that you must follow. Bournemouth University (BU) holds a Student Sponsor licence and therefore there are also certain immigration rules that we must follow. Please read this information very carefully and refer to it while you are studying with us.

Your responsibilities

Visa

If you are granted a new Student visa during your studies or granted a visa in a different immigration category you must email a copy to [email protected].

Passport

You must have a valid passport while you are a BU student. If your passport expires before the end of your course, you must apply for a new one before its expiry date, and email a copy to [email protected].

Contact details

You must keep us updated with your local address and phone number – even if you only live somewhere for a short time. You can update this yourself on MyHub or contact [email protected] if you have any problems.

Attend classes/exams/appointments and submit assignments

You must attend your classes in-person (online study is not permitted) and submit your assignments on time. If you are going to miss a deadline or a class, you must tell your Programme Support Officer (PSO) in advance. If you do not engage with your studies, you could be reported to the Home Office and withdrawn from your course. You can contact [email protected] to find out the name of your PSO.

Leaving your course

Your Student visa ties you to BU. If you withdraw, suspend or are withdrawn from your BU course, you must let us know what you decide to do.

If you decide to stay in the UK and study at a different University, your visa will not be valid for your new course and you will need to apply for a new visa. If you decide to leave the UK, you must send us evidence that you have left the UK. You can find more information about leaving/interrupting your BU studies on our Thinking of interrupting your studies or leaving BU? page, and the immigration implications information as below.

Study on a full-time course

Your Student visa only allows you to study full time. You are not allowed to change to a part-time course.

Police Registration Certificate (PRC)

Some nationalities need to register with the police once they arrive in the UK. If you need to register, it will clearly state on your visa “register with the police within seven days”. You can find out all the information you need about where to register, what documents to provide and how much it costs on the Dorset Police website.

It is very important that you update your PRC if:

You extend your visa, or change to a different type of visa
You move address
You change your institution.

Visa correction

If you think there is a mistake on your visa, for example a spelling mistake, wrong work conditions, or if you think the visa expiry date is wrong, you should try to get your Entry Clearance sticker corrected before you travel to the UK.

If you are already in the UK and you think there is a mistake on your Biometric Residence Permit, you can find out how to apply for it to be corrected on the Gov.uk website.

BU's responsibilities

Enrolment

We will not be able to enrol you until you have uploaded evidence of your Student visa as part of Online Enrolment. This will be a copy of your Student visa (Entry Clearance sticker and decision letter) if you got your visa from outside the UK. If you applied from within the UK, you can either upload a copy of your BRP or evidence you have submitted your visa application.

If you do not show us these documents before the enrolment deadline, you will not be allowed to enrol this year and will be reported to the Home Office. BU is not allowed to let you enrol on your course if your visa is tied to another institution. In this case you must apply for a new visa, using your BU Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) before you come to enrol.

Monitoring and reporting

BU must report you to the Home Office if:

You do not enrol on your course
You do not engage with your course. This means you have not been attending classes or submitting your work (this will lead to you being withdrawn from your course)
You withdraw or are withdrawn from your course
You complete your course earlier than expected (this is based on the course end date noted on your CAS)
You take a break (interrupt) from your studies
You have a gap of 60 days or more with no studies
If you fail any units on your course:
- There may be a gap between the date you get your results, and when you start the re-sits
- There may also be a gap between when you complete your re-sits, and when you can continue with the course
  (If either of these gaps are more than 60 days long, you will need to leave the UK until your course restarts).

You can find information about the action the Home Office will take after receiving these reports as below.

If you have any questions about any of the information above, please contact AskBU on [email protected] or 01202 969696.

If you interrupt your studies

Why will we need to report you to the Home Office?

When you received your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) from BU, you were informed that any changes to your course would be reported to the Home Office. If you interrupt your studies we will need to report this to the Home Office according to the current Immigration Rules and published guidance. If you interrupt your studies for more than 60 days, the Home Office rules require that you leave the UK during this time. Please read the detailed information below.

What does this mean for you?

BU gave you the CAS, and we will need to report on your CAS if you are not studying. The Home Office granted you the Student Route visa, and it will be the Home Office who will curtail (cut short) the visa and contact you regarding this; BU will not be informed. Therefore we cannot tell you what your new visa expiry date will be, or when you should leave the UK. For this reason you should make plans to leave the UK as soon as possible.

If we need to report your 60 day non-engagement to the Home Office, when you leave the UK your Student Route visa will automatically expire. This means that even if the Home Office have not contacted you with a new visa expiry date, your visa will be invalid from when you leave the UK, so you will not be able to re-enter the UK on this visa.

You can find out how to make a new visa application on the Home Office website.

What you must do:

Complete the CAS Request Form and email it to us at [email protected], confirming that you have understood the information we have given you
Send us the curtailment letter when you receive it from the Home Office
When you have left the UK, send us evidence of that. Acceptable evidence is the entry stamp to your country in your passport or if your country does not stamp in your passport, a copy of your boarding card (flight booking confirmation is not acceptable).

You can find more details here about the current Immigration Rules and published guidance.

If you have any further questions please email [email protected] for immigration advice before interrupting or withdrawing from your studies.

If you do not enrol

Why will we need to report you to the Home Office?

When you received your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) from BU, you were informed that any changes to your course would be reported to the Home Office. If we are informed that you use the CAS issued from Bournemouth University to apply for your Student visa, but you do not enrol on your course, we will need to report this to the Home Office according to the current Immigration Rules and published guidance. Please read the detailed information below.

What does this mean for you?

BU gave you the CAS, and we will need to report on your CAS if you do not enrol on your course. The Home Office granted you the Student Route visa and it will be the Home Office who will cancel your visa and contact you regarding this:

You will not be allowed to enrol at Bournemouth University
If you have travelled to the UK, you must either apply for a new visa using a CAS from your new institution, or you must leave the UK
If you have not travelled to the UK, you will not be allowed to travel to the UK on your Student Route visa, if it was granted.

What you must do:

Email [email protected] as soon as possible to confirm:
- if your visa was granted - if refused please send us the Refusal Notice
- if you travelled to the UK or not
- if you did travel to the UK, what are you doing now.
If you travelled to the UK and have since left, send us evidence of that
An acceptable evidence is the entry stamp to your country in your passport or if your country does not stamp in your passport, a copy of your boarding card (flight booking confirmation is not acceptable).

You can find more details here about the current Immigration Rules and published guidance.

If you have any further questions please email [email protected] for immigration advice before interrupting or withdrawing from your studies.

If you fail your assessments

Why will we need to report you to the Home Office?

When you received your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) from BU, you were informed that any changes to your course would be reported to the Home Office. If you fail your assessments and there is a gap of more than 60 days from when you failed, until when you will begin studying again, we will need to reported this to the Home Office according to the current Immigration Rules and published guidance. The Home Office rules are that if the gap is more than 60 days, students on a Student Route visa are not allowed to stay in the UK during this time. Please read the detailed information below.

What does this mean for you?

BU gave you the CAS, and we will need to report on your CAS if you are not studying any more. The Home Office granted you the Student visa, and it will be the Home Office who will curtail (cut short) the visa and contact you regarding this; BU will not be informed. Therefore we cannot tell you what your new visa expiry date will be, or when you should leave the UK. For this reason you should make plans to leave the UK as soon as possible

If we need to report your 60 day non-engagement to the Home Office, when you leave the UK your Student visa will automatically expire. This means that even if the Home Office have not contacted you with a new visa expiry date, your visa will be invalid from when you leave the UK, so you will not be able to re-enter the UK on this visa.

You can find out how to make a new visa application on the Home Office website.

What you must do now:

Complete the CAS Request Form and email it to us at [email protected], confirming that you have understood the information we have given you
Send us the curtailment letter when you receive it from the Home Office
When you have left the UK, send us evidence of that. Acceptable evidence is the entry stamp to your country in your passport or if your country does not stamp in your passport, a copy of your boarding card (flight booking confirmation is not acceptable).

You can find more details here about the current Immigration Rules and published guidance.

If you have any further questions please email [email protected] for immigration advice before interrupting or withdrawing from your studies.

If you withdraw from your course

Why will we need to report you to the Home Office?

What does this mean for you?

BU gave you the CAS, and we will need to report on your CAS if you are not studying any more. The Home Office granted you the Student visa, and it is going to be the Home Office who will curtail (cut short) the visa and contact you regarding this; BU will not be informed. Therefore we cannot tell you what your new visa expiry date will be, or when you should leave the UK. For this reason you should make plans to leave the UK as soon as possible.

If we need to report your withdrawal to the Home Office, when you leave the UK your Student visa will automatically expire. This means that even if the Home Office have not contacted you with a new visa expiry date, your visa will be invalid from when you leave the UK, so you will not be able to re-enter the UK on this visa.

What you must do now:

Update all your contact details with the Home Office
Send us the curtailment letter when you receive it
If you make a new visa application to stay in the UK, send us evidence of this
If you leave the UK, send us evidence of that. Acceptable evidence is the entry stamp to your country in your passport or if your country does not stamp in your passport, a copy of your boarding card (flight booking confirmation is not acceptable).

You can find more details here about the current Immigration Rules and published guidance.

If you have any further questions please email [email protected] for immigration advice before interrupting or withdrawing from your studies.

Immigration and visas

Get advice about your visa application and find the answers to a range of immigration-related questions.

Thinking of interrupting your studies or leaving BU?

If you are thinking about interrupting your course, changing your mode of study, or leaving BU we can provide advice and guidance for you.

AskBU: contact us

AskBU is your one-stop-shop for student enquiries - you can contact us by email and phone, or drop in to see us at Talbot or Lansdowne Campus - we're open during term time and vacations.