Extending your studies
You can only extend your Student visa within the UK if you are:
- a PhD student;
- re-sitting an exam or have previously re-sat 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, e.g. 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.
All students - if you extend your studies please be aware of the following:
- Graduate route - your eligibility 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
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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-visas@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
This section covers information specific to postgraduate research students extending their submission date and requesting extra visa time.
CAS and Visa Expiry Date
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, the University will issue CAS that will end 4 months after your submission date to allow maximum possible time for viva as per University regulations. Alternatively, if viva date is known at the time of requesting CAS, you can request a CAS that has the viva date as the end date. In both cases the UKVI will grant you extra 4 months of visa wrap-up time on top of the CAS end date.
As of 16th September 2024 all CAS issued to continuing students will end 4 months after the submission date, or on the viva date if known at the time. CAS with the submission date as the end date will no longer be issued from that date.
Requesting New CAS
If you are interested in having this extra time on your visa, even if you do not have an extension to your submission date, please contact student-visas@bristol.ac.uk. 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.
We do not advise you request this extra visa time too far in advance of finishing your studies: your submission date can shift closer to the time, which may result in repeat visa applications.
Annual leave and Working
Please visit our Working in the UK during your Studies page for information about working on your Student visa.
You can request annual leave for the entire time between submission and viva to work more than 20 hours per week during this period. This is in addition to the 25 working days' leave per year. You will be expected to stay in touch with your supervisor throughout this time. Please see this page for more information (PGR student leave entitlements | Academic Quality and Policy Office | University of Bristol). We will publish information on how to request this leave on this webpage shortly. If you have questions before then, please email us.
If you do not have annual leave approved by your supervisor between submission and viva, you will be limited to 20 hours per week work during that time. Students are considered as 'on leave' automatically between viva and exam board date (irrespective of their CAS end date), so can work more than 20 hours then.
Early Completion Report to the UKVI
Early completion of a course will be reported to the UKVI after viva if the viva is held more than 2 weeks earlier than the CAS end date. This will adjust your visa end date and affect your ability to return to the UK if you leave the UK and re-enter around that time - for further information please see this page and speak with Student Visa Advisers if anything is unclear.
Specific Information for Research Master's and MPhil Students
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. Unfortunately this UKVI concession does not apply to other types of research students.
If you are an MPhil or a Research Master's student who needs extra visa time, please speak with the Student Visa Advisers about your situation in good time as you may need to arrange to go to your home country to apply for a new visa.
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.