The Short-term study visa is suitable for students studying on a part-time or a full-time course that lasts less than 6 months, including the shorter Study Abroad programmes. If you are likely to stay for two semesters, you should apply for a Tier 4 student visa to come for a year as STS visa cannot be extended.

If you are on an STS visa and you later decide you want to extend your stay, you will have to return home and apply for a Tier 4 student visa before you can return to the UK.

Please note that even if UKVI issue your STS visa for 6 months, you must leave the UK within 30 days of the course end date on your STS visa letter or before the visa expiry date, whichever is soonest.

You can apply for a Short-term study visa if you are coming to the UK to complete a short period of research or to learn how to conduct research. To be eligible to use this route you should be studying a course overseas that is the equivalent of a UK degree-level course. You will be required to provide a letter from your home institution confirming what course you are studying, and that your proposed research at the University of Bristol relates to it.

You will not be allowed to do any other research or be classed as a sponsored researcher.  Any individual seeking to come to the University as a sponsored researcher must do so through the Tier 5 (Government Authorised Exchange) route of the point-based system. To explore this route, you should contact your hosting School in the first instance who would then liaise with the relevant HR Employee Services Team who can issue a Tier 5 Certificate of Sponsorship if you are eligible.

If you are applying to do postgraduate study or research in one of the subjects listed in appendix 6 of the Immigration Rules, you will need to obtain an Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate to provide it with your visa application. It will also be required for your registration at the University. Please visit our ATAS webpage to learn more.

Please note that even if UKVI issue your STS visa for 6 months, you must leave the UK within 30 days of the course end date on your STS visa letter or before the visa expiry date, whichever is soonest.

If you are registered on a full-time University of Bristol programme, for which you have already received the majority of the teaching, you can come back on a Short-term study visa to resit exams and repeat modules. Please see our Exams Only webpage for more information on this mode of study. All your study commitments for that period must not exceed the 6-months limit and should be stated on the Short-term study visa letter that you submit as part of your visa application. 

Please note that even if UKVI issue your STS visa for 6 months, you must leave the UK within 30 days of the study period end date on your STS visa letter or before the visa end date, whichever is soonest. Please see the ‘How long you can come for’ section below for more information. If you need to extend your stay in the UK to do extra study, you must leave the UK and obtain another visa. You may not be able to come back in the same category and may have to apply for a Tier 4 visa. Please contact us to discuss your options.

If your course requires Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) clearance, you must obtain a new certificate before applying for a Short-term study visa to come back for resits/module retakes. Your original Confirmation of Acceptance of Studies (CAS) should confirm if your course requires ATAS, but please check our ATAS webpage for further information. 

If you have submitted your postgraduate research thesis and have left the UK, you could apply for a Short-term study to return for your viva examination. You will need to request a Short-term study visa letter confirming your viva date issued your Faculty. Please note that you will need to leave the UK within 30 days of viva date stated on the letter, even if your visa validity dates are longer. 

Non-visa nationals are able to apply for a Short-term study visa stamp at the UK border as opposed to having to return to their home country to apply for an entry clearance.

If your course requires Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) clearance, when you apply for a STS visa, you may reuse the original certificate you obtained to study the doctorate for which you are now having a viva. 

If you choose to study through distance learning, the University cannot offer sponsorship for a Tier 4 student visa. You will instead need to secure an STS visa for every visit to the University, throughout the duration of your course.

There are risks and limitations associated with doing this, which should be carefully considered: 

• Students of nationalities not eligible to apply for a STS visa stamp at the UK border will have to pay a visa application fee for each visit.
• UK immigration rules and policies change often and with little notice. The University cannot guarantee that the STS visa rules in place when you begin a distance learning course will remain in place throughout the duration of your course. The rules in place at the time of each visa application will apply, not those in place when you begin your course.
• If at any point your STS visa application is refused, this may affect future visa applications.
• You will only be allowed to enter the UK for limited periods, totalling no more than 56 days in the UK in any 6 month period. Study completed during visits can include induction weeks, short periods of intensive face-to-face learning and exams or assessments. 
• This route should not be used 'frequently and successively'. For example, if you are seeking a second period of leave under the STS route where less than 2 months have passed since you last visited the UK as an STS student, or you are applying for more than 5 periods of STS leave within a 5-year period.

For those courses where we offer the choice of full-time residential study or distance learning, the full-time residential mode with a Tier 4 student visa carries significantly less risk.

Read the UKVI Short-term study visa eligibility information to check if your proposed study is eligible for STS.

Please contact us before you travel if you are unsure if you are eligible for an STS visa.

Some nationalities are required to apply for an STS visa before travelling into the UK, whilst others can be stamped in under STS on entry into the UK at the airport (see 'how to apply' heading below for more information).

If you are coming to study a medical elective, you can come on a Tier 4 student visa or on an STS visa.

An STS student can come to the UK for up to 6 months to complete one or more elective courses linked to their overseas study, where they are studying medicine, veterinary medicine and science, or dentistry as their principal course of study equivalent to at least degree level study in the UK. Those studying electives are unable to do any other type of work. You will require an STS visa letter issued by the Faculty of Health Sciences. 

Please note that even if UKVI issue your STS visa for 6 months, you must leave the UK within 30 days of the course end date on your STS visa letter or before visa expiry date, whichever is soonest.

When applying for a visa you will be required to provide a letter from your home institution confirming what course you are studying, and that the medical elective you plan to take at the University of Bristol relates to it.

An STS visa/entry stamp is given for a 6-month period, but an immigration condition of the STS visa is that you must leave the UK within 30 days of the end of your study/research or before the end of the 6-month period, whichever is soonest. 

This means that you cannot add further periods of study/research within the 6-month visa period if they were not included in your original visa letter. When you apply for an STS visa the UKVI assess if you are a genuine student, and this includes an assessment of whether or not you have given a true account of how long you intend to study in the UK. Therefore, if you do not leave within the period expected, this could affect visa applications in the future.

STS visa route should not be used 'frequently and successively'. For example, if you are seeking a second period of leave under the STS route where less than 2 months have passed since you last visited the UK as an STS student, or you are applying for more than 5 periods of STS leave within a 5-year period. Different time limits apply to students on distance learning programmes: please read the Distance Learning section above.

For further information, please read the UKVI Short-term students guidance.

• Short-term study visa letter which states your study dates. This should only be issued by the relevant School/Faculty Office (not by supervisors or academics).
• Financial documents evidencing that you can pay any course fees and support yourself during your stay in the UK. This can be bank statements and payslips covering the last 6 months, or a letter from an official financial sponsor confirming funding.
• Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate, if applicable. Please see the ATAS section below and our ATAS webpage for further information.
• Visiting researchers and medical elective students will also need a letter from their home institution confirming their course of study and that their research/electives at the University of Bristol relate to it.

The above list is not exhaustive and other documents may be required depending on your individual circumstances. Plead the UKVI list of documents you must providewebpage for further details of additional supporting documents.

Some nationalities are required to apply for an STS visa before travelling into the UK, whilst others can be stamped in under the STS route on entry into the UK at the airport.  Even if you are not required to apply for an STS visa before travelling to the UK, you must ensure that you can meet the eligibility requirements of this visa category. You will also need to travel with the required documents and show your STS visa letter to the border officer, so that you can be stamped in as a Short-term student when you arrive in the UK. See the 'Documents you must provide' section above for more information about that. It is important that you are not stamped in as a Visitor because you would not have permission to study with that type of leave. 

Please use the UKVI's check if you need a UK visa tool to see whether you need to apply for the visa before travelling or instead bring the supporting documents with you to show at the UK border. 

If you are eligible to receive a stamp at the border and are either a Registered Traveller, or a national of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea or the USA, please do not use eGates as you will be admitted to the UK as a Visitor and not as a Short-term student. You will need to make sure that you see a border officer on arrival in order to receve an STS stamp. Once your passport has been stamped, please check that you have been given the correct stamp before you leave the terminal.  It must state 'STS' or 'short term study' to be registered for your course.  If it is incorrect please return to the border officer and ask them to re-stamp your passport.

If you do need to apply before travelling to the UK, please see the UKVI's how to apply webpage.