All students - if you extend your studies please be aware of the following:

1. Graduate route - your eligibilty for the Graduate route visa could be affected by extending your studies.  To be eligible to apply for the Graduate route visa students must apply within the UK whilst holding a valid Student visa having been successfully awarded an eligible qualification at Exam Board. Therefore, whether or not you will be eligible will depend on whether or not you can apply for a new Student visa and/or be awarded within your Student visa validity. Please see our website for further information regarding the Graduate route visa    

2. ATAS - if you currently have an ATAS for your studies and extend your course by more than 3 months and/or need to apply for a new Student visa you will need to apply for a new ATAS certificate. Please see our website for information on how to apply.

Extending your visa for your current course

You may need to extend your visa to complete your studies.

• Speak to your faculty or school to find out if it is possible to extend your studies.
• Changes to your student status will affect your immigration status.
• If the faculty or school are happy for you to continue your studies, you will need to take an extension form and contact us to discuss. 
• Our advisers will tell you if you are eligible to extend your visa to stay in the UK to complete your studies.
• The form will confirm you have had immigration advice before extending your studies.
• EU, EEA and Swiss students: if you started your current course at the University on 1 July 2021 or after, you would need to get a Student Visa Adviser's signature on the extension form before it can be processed by the Faculty Office. Please contact student-visa-advice@bristol.ac.uk. If you started your current course or, if you transferred, a course you transferred from, before 1 July 2021, it is assumed that you hold a status under the EU Settlement Scheme. You would therefore not need to get a Student Visa Adviser's signature on the extension form before it can be processed by the Faculty Office. Please refer to our Brexit webpage for information on how to maintain your status under the EUSS and continue to be eligible to live and study in the UK. You are welcome to contact us for advice if you have any doubts. 

PGR Students

If you are a PGR student who has to have a viva as part of your studies, you can request a longer CAS that would cover your viva and allow extra visa wrap-up time after the viva. This should also allow you to have a valid visa at the time of the awarding exam board in order to apply for the Graduate Route visa. Since the viva date is not always known in advance of the submission date, the University can issue CAS that would allow you to apply for extra 4 months' of Student visa to make sure you can attend your viva in the UK. This is because it is the University regulation that your viva happens within 4 months of the submission date. If you are interested in having this extra time on your visa, please contact Student Visa Advisers. This extra time can also be added to a CAS that you request following an academic extension. Please make sure that you request a new CAS before your viva in any case as you still need to have outstanding academic engagements in order to be eligible for an extension in visa sponsorship. We cannot issue a CAS for a Student visa extension if you have already had viva.

Please note that the 20 hours per week working restriction will apply until you have both submitted your thesis and your new CAS end date has passed, unless an exam board awards your degree before your new CAS end date. If the exam board awards your PhD before your most recent CAS end date, the early completion will be reported to the UKVI and your visa will be shortened to the exam board date + 4 months wrap-up time. Travelling outside the UK during the adjusted wrap-up time may result in the remainder of your visa being cancelled, so it is important to seek visa advice before making any travel plans in these circumstances. 

Research Master's and MPhil students would not be able to extend a visa from inside the UK and would need to apply for any additional visa from their home country if they are eligible for a new CAS. PhD and other Doctorate programme students are able to apply for a new visa from the UK as they are exempt from the Academic Progression requirements.  

We do not advise you request this extra visa time too far in advance of finishing your studies. Your course end date can always change quite close to your submission date due to delayed progress, which can result in you having to pay for a visa extension twice.

Where to apply

You can only extend your Student visa within the UK if you are:

• a PhD student;
• resitting an exam or have previously resat an exam;
• adding a work placement or study abroad.  Please see Adding a work placement or study abroad webpage for further information;
• upgrading on an integrated course, eg from an integrated BEng to MEng, or integrated MPhil to PhD. Please see Transfer your course information for full details about upgrading;
• repeating a module/year of study or have previously repeated a module/year of study.  
  
  • If you are offered a supplementary year, please be aware that you must be taking at least one unit in each teaching block and that unit must be: 

  1. the unit that was previously failed; or  

  2. if that unit is no longer offered, an appropriate replacement unit for the original unit

  If you have a teaching block where you are not required to take any modules, the University is required to notify the UKVI as you will not be studying for more than 60 days. This means that the UKVI will cancel your visa and you will have to leave the UK. Please read the Student Visas information about Exams Only status.  Please also see Supplementary year webpage for further information.

When to apply

If you are applying inside the UK, you must do so before your current visa expires. Speak to a Student Visa Adviser to work out the best time to make your application. 

How to apply

If you are extending studies and need to apply for a new Student visa, you will need a new CAS for the new Student visa application.  Please contact the Student Visa Advisers to request a CAS.  Please also see the information on the Apply for a Student visa webpage for full details on how to apply and documents required.

Extending your visa for a new course

To be eligible to apply in the UK you must meet the UKVI Academic Progression requirements. Please visit our Academic Progression webpage for further information.