Visa responsibilities

As a student sponsored for a Student Visa by the College you have a responsibility to comply with the conditions of your visa and to help the College meet its responsibilities to the Home Office. Below is a quick guide to what you will be required to do at various stages of your time here at Imperial and the kind of information we will require from you.

Responsibilities

Registration - Your responsibilities

  • You must complete your online enrolment on My Imperial before you begin your studies, whether remotely or in-person. You will also need to upload a copy of your current passport, your stamped Student Visa entry clearance vignette in your passport and your BRP in a timely manner once you have arrived in the UK for on-campus study.
  • If you applied for Student Visa entry clearance outside the UK you will need to collect your Biometric Residence Permit (BRP). You can collect your BRP from a Post Office or the College depending on where you opted to get this sent to when you made your visa application. If you are collecting it from a Post Office you will also be required to upload a copy of it to My Imperial as soon as possible. If your BRP has been delivered to the College you will receive an email inviting you to book a time to collect it. Please note that using the online booking system is the only way to collect your BRP from the College, as this process has been designed to ensure the safety of students and staff.
  • Please make sure you let us know if there is an error on your BRP – remember to check the expiry date, conditions of leave and your personal details

Registration - Our responsibilities

  • We are required to verify that you have the correct immigration permission to study at the College and to keep a copy of your passport and visa or BRP on file. You must upload a copy of these to My Imperial so that they can be verified.
  • We need to report to the Home Office if any student with a Student Visa for the College fails to enrol on the course within the permitted time frame. If you have not registered within the deadline, we are legally obliged to report this to the Home Office who will take action to cancel (curtail) your immigration permission.

Conditions of your visa – Your responsibilities

Conditions of your visa – Our responsibilities

  • If you breach the conditions of your visa we are obliged to report this to the Home Office

Keeping in touch – Your responsibilities

  • Every student is allocated an Imperial College email address and we will use this to contact you. You must check this email address regularly. Look out for communication from visacompliance@imperial.ac.uk and reply to us promptly
  • Make sure you provide us with your most up to date UK postal address and telephone number. You can update these details through your MyImperial account
  • You must let us know of any changes to your circumstances for example if you change the type of visa you are using to study at Imperial or obtain a new passport
  • Let the College know immediately if you lose your BRP or passport and need to apply for a new one by emailing international@imperial.ac.uk  

Keeping in touch – Our responsibilities

  • We are required to keep your UK contact details on file
  • If we make a report to the Home Office about your circumstances, we will inform you by email that we have done this and explain what this means for you

During your studies – Your responsibilities

  • Make sure you know when your programme is running and when the holiday and assessment periods fall.  Information about your programme will be available from your course office and the College term dates are available online. 
  • Unless undertaking a work placement which is an assessed part of you course you are not permitted to work full-time during term-time even if you have completed all lectures and coursework
  • Attendance at lectures, seminars, tutorials and practical classes is an integral part of a student's programme of study and students are expected to be regular and punctual in their attendance
  • Let your Department know if you are absent for any reason. You may be required to provide evidence of the reason for your absence
  • Let your Department know as soon as possible if you decide to interrupt your studies for any reason
  • Your responsibilities still apply if you take part in a work placement, clinical placement or study abroad programme and you must continue to keep in touch with us as above

During your studies – Our responsibilities

  • We will make a report to the Home Office of any change of circumstance to your course information, for example if you transfer your course of study or you complete earlier than expected or if you are taking part in a clinical or work placement or study abroad programme
  • We will make a report to the Home Office if you interrupt part way through the year, complete your course earlier than expected or are required to repeat without attendance. Following this the Home Office will take action to cancel (curtail) your immigration permission
  • We are required to monitor your attendance and engagement with your studies. If you do not make satisfactory academic progress or are absent without permission then you risk being withdrawn from your course. This will result in a report in your change of circumstances being made to the Home Office and they will take action to cancel (curtail) your immigration permission.

Further Information

Imperial College London has an International Student Support team who can help you with your visa application and any immigration queries you have. They are based on level 3 Sherfield, South Kensington Campus and can be contacted at international@imperial.ac.uk