If your application is successful, you will receive proof of your permission to stay in the UK. This may be in the form of a biometric residence permit (BRP) which is a physical card, about the size of a credit card, which contains your personal information, your biometric information (photograph and fingerprints) and states your immigration status and some of your conditions. You may also receive your permission digitally in the form of an eVisa which can be used to view and prove your immigration status online.
If it was possible to re-use your biometrics from a previous immigration application, you may receive both a BRP card and an eVisa. Non-visa nationals will normally receive an eVisa only, and visa nationals will normally receive both.
If you are an EU or EEA national and used the UK Immigration: ID Check app to submit your application, you will receive an eVisa only. You will not receive a BRP card.
If you receive a BRP, it will be sent to the correspondence address you listed in your application. If you used your Student sponsor’s address, they will receive your BRP and sign for it. If you used your own address, it will be delivered to your address, but you will need to sign for the delivery when it arrives.
Whether you receive your permission as a BRP or as an eVisa, you should receive a decision letter with it. 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 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.
Make sure you contact your Student sponsor immediately if you think you will have a problem enrolling before the latest enrolment date. If you do not enrol as expected, your institution will be obliged to notify the Home Office.
As soon as you receive your new Student permission, you must check that all the information on it is correct, including:
- Your name and date of birth.
- That you are a student on the Student route. That the start and end dates of the permission are correct.
- Work conditions.
- The sponsor licence number (SLN) of the institution that you intend to study at (for BRP cards).
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 (for example, if you have been given incorrect work conditions). Our passport, visa and BRP problems page will share how to correct any errors.
If you are a BRP holder and you have been given the incorrect length of permission or the incorrect conditions (see Student conditions), you may be able to request that the Home Office carries out an administrative review of the error and grant you the correct length of permission and/or the correct conditions. The deadline for making this application is within 14 calendar days of receiving your BRP and, if the Home Office agrees that it has made a mistake, it will refund your administrative review fee.
Contact an international student adviser at your Student sponsor as soon as you receive your status if you think you have been given the incorrect length of permission or the incorrect conditions.
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.
