If your application is successful, you will receive proof of your permission to stay in the UK. As of 31 October 2024, the Home Office stopped producing biometric residence permit cards (BRPs), therefore you should receive proof of your permission to stay as a digital status, an eVisa. This can be used to view and prove your immigration status online. If you currently have your permission in the form of a BRP, you should now set up a UKVI account and receive your eVisa.
When you receive confirmation of your permission, you should also receive a decision letter. This should normally be sent via email. It is important that you keep this somewhere safe as it is proof of your grant of permission, and carries details of the conditions of your permission.
If you are unsure about your eVisa, how to access it, or you require some help troubleshooting a problem with your eVisa you can view our eVisa page for further information and guidance.
Make sure you contact your Student sponsor immediately if you think you will have a problem enrolling before the latest enrolment date of your course. If you do not enrol as expected, your institution will be obliged to notify the Home Office.
If you are changing institution and your new institution is a Probationary Sponsor, they will need to see your new permission to stay before you can enrol on your new course. They should tell you the latest date that you will be allowed to enrol on your course. This date might have been included in your CAS statement. Since standard applications can take many weeks to be decided, you might need to make a priority or a super priority application in order to obtain your new permission to stay before this latest enrolment date.
As soon as you receive your new Student eVisa, you must check that all the information shown is correct, including:
- Your name and date of birth.
- Your picture.
- That you are a student on the Student route.
- That the start and end dates of the permission are correct.
- The conditions (i.e., work conditions).
The Home Office requires you to have any errors amended and requires your Student sponsor to notify them if a student has been given the incorrect conditions. It is important to note that your eVisa is a digital representation of your immigration status. If your eVisa has an error, it is important to understand whether how your status is being displayed is incorrect, or whether a caseworking error was made on your application and your actual permission is incorrect.
You should make sure you are familiar with how much leave you should be granted, what your work conditions are, and what route you are applying under to be able to make this distinction. If you received an email outlining your successful application, you should have also received a "decision letter". This may be an attachment in this email. This should outline the length of the permission and its conditions. If this is incorrect, you should submit an administrative review within 14 days of receiving your decision. This costs £80 but will be refunded if the Home Office agrees they have made a mistake in caseworking your application.
If all of the details of your permission are correct, but your eVisa is displaying something incorrectly, you should submit an eVisa correction. Our eVisa page provides more details on this.
Contact an international student adviser at your Student sponsor as soon as you receive your status if you think there are any mistakes.
Your permission to stay will start when the Home Office grant your Student permission. This means that you must comply with all the conditions attached to your immigration permission as a student on the Student route from the date on which the Home Office informs you that your application has been successful.
The date that your Student permission ends will depend on the length and type of course. The Home Office will use the course dates listed on your CAS to calculate the length of your course. If you will be studying for part of a month, this will not be rounded up to a full month.
| Course |
End of immigration permission |
| 12 months or more |
4 months after the end of the course |
| 6 months or more, but less than 12 months |
2 months after the end of the course |
| Pre-sessional course, less than 6 months* |
1 month after the end of the course |
| Other course, less than 6 months |
7 days after the end of the course |
| Postgraduate doctor or dentist on a Foundation Programme |
1 month after the end of the course |
* If it is a pre-sessional course which will prepare you for degree-level study at the same institution (or at its partner institution), your sponsor may issue a single CAS for both courses. In this case, your immigration permission will end after the main course, not after the pre-sessional course.
The Home Office will decide whether to grant or refuse your Student route application. If your Student route application is refused, you will usually have the right to apply for an
administrative review of the refusal, which should be made clear in the decision notice. The Home Office will review its decision to see if a case working error was made.
When an application is refused, the Student route application fee is not refunded. However, if you paid the immigration health surcharge (IHS) as part of your application, this will be refunded in full.
You should tell your Student sponsor that your application has been refused so that you can receive help and advice about how this might affect your study and what your options might be.
