If you are in the UK on a non-Student visa you may need to apply for a Student visa under the University of Bedfordshire's sponsorship before you can join your intended course of study.

Once you have a conditional offer letter our visa team can advise you accordingly.

If you are already in the UK with valid leave to remain under a category which allows you to switch to a Student visa in the UK (see Question 2, above), you may, at your own risk, register with the University of Bedfordshire on the basis of having applied for a visa under our sponsorship, before obtaining a decision concerning your visa application.

You will need to prove that you have applied for your visa whilst you had valid leave to remain. The documents the University of Bedfordshire accepts as valid proof of an in-time Student visa application consists of:

1. A copy of your application Documents Checklist and;
2. Your transaction confirmation email, showing that you have paid for your visa application
   and;
3. Your Immigration Health Surcharge payment confirmation email
   and;
4. Appointment Confirmation page with QR code or email to confirm to submit documents via IDV App
5. Copy of passport and previous visa

The first three documents listed above must be dated before your previous visa expired to constitute evidence of an in-time application.
You will be required to agree to certain conditions in order to be registered at the University of Bedfordshire before you obtain your visa.

The International Office will closely monitor the status of anyone who registers without having obtained a visa. In order to assist us with this process, you must ensure that you provide the International Office with copies of all correspondence received from the UKVI.

You can either email us scanned copies to visamonitoring@beds.ac.uk or bring the original documents to the International Office.

It is also essential that you report to the International Office as soon as you receive your Student visa or any other decision concerning your visa application, including a visa refusal or a letter telling you your application is deemed invalid.

Failure to do so will lead to your removal from the University register.

If you do decide to register on the basis of having a visa application pending, but your application for a visa is refused, you could be removed from the University register, may have to return to your home country, and you may not be eligible for a full refund.

You may register on a course at Bedfordshire on the basis of a Skilled Worker visa, as long as your main purpose of being in the UK remains to work, and not to study. If the main purpose of your stay does change from work to study, you may well be in breach of the conditions of your visa. If your visa does not cover the full duration of your proposed course you will be encouraged to apply for a Student visa before being able to register at the University.

In some cases, your work visa may not allow you to transfer to a Student visa whilst remaining in the UK. If this is the case, you will need to return to your home country and apply for a Student visa from there before you are permitted to join your course of study. If you are on a Skilled Worker visa we may ask you to provide a letter from your employer confirming your continued employment and that they are happy for you to study alongside the employment. We may also need to confirm with UKVI that they are happy for us to register you with us.

You can visit the UK to study for up to 6 months on a standard visitor visa. This is therefore suitable for a short course or for students returning to complete less than 6 months of a current course. If you wish to study longer you’ll need to apply for a Student visa or a Short-term study visa (for English Language courses up to 11 months). It is not possible to switch from a visitor visa to a Student visa whilst in the UK.

As such, you will have to return to your home country to apply for a Student visa and obtain your visa, before you can return to the UK and register for a place at the University of Bedfordshire. In the case where an applicant is required to return to their home country before they can apply for their visa, the University of Bedfordshire will require evidence of having returned home before a CAS is issued.

Short-term study visas are for English language courses lasting longer than 6 months and up to 11 months only. You should also be aware that it is not possible to switch from a Short-term study visa to a Student visa whilst in the UK. You will need to return to your home country to apply for a new Student visa and obtain your visa, before you can re-enter the UK and register for a place at the University of Bedfordshire.

As such, a condition of your offer would be to provide evidence of return to your home country before the University would issue you a CAS. Valid evidence will take the form of a scanned copy of the entry stamp in your passport proving your entry to your home country, and a copy of the boarding pass for your flight home.

The conditions of your leave to remain in the UK on a Dependant or Spouse visa do allow you to study, both full-time and part-time. As such, it may be possible for you to register at the University of Bedfordshire on the basis of holding one of these visas.

However, you must be aware that if the person on whom you are deemed to be dependent leaves the UK, or if your relationship ends, you will no longer have leave to remain in the UK and you will need to suspend your studies until you gain another visa which renders you eligible to remain in the UK as a student.

In some cases, this will involve returning to your home country and re-applying from there. Please be aware that if you are studying part-time and you are required to apply for a Student visa, you will not be able to continue studying part-time.

Please also note that if your Dependant or Spouse visa does not cover you for the full length of your course you may have to apply for a Student visa either prior to commencing your course or in the middle of the course itself.

If the University believes that the need to apply for a Student visa will disrupt your studies, you may not be able to register for, or continue with, your course until you have made the Student application.

For these reasons, it is generally recommended that you convert to a Student visa before registering for a course at the University of Bedfordshire. This will be discussed with you when you apply to study at Bedfordshire.