As your Student sponsor, Queen Mary University of London is required to report some matters to UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI). This includes if any of the following events occur:
The report from Queen Mary is sent to UKVI electronically. The report means that Queen Mary will stop sponsoring your immigration permission. You will normally receive confirmation of this report from the Academic Registry.
After Queen Mary has sent the report, UKVI will normally curtail your immigration permission - read the relevant sections below, depending on whether you are in or out of the UK, to see how long your permission will be curtailed by.
Our understanding is that, if the event which triggers the report occurred after the official end date of your course, Queen Mary will not report anything to UKVI. If you are unsure, please contact the Student Enquiry Centre, who will be able to confirm if a report has been made.
If you are in any doubt about what you should do, you should:
It is difficult to say how long it will take for UKVI to curtail your immigration permission. They could make a decision the day they receive the report from Queen Mary or it could take many months.
If you are in the UK and UKVI curtails your immigration permission, they will write to inform you of that decision. UKVI will normally serve the curtailment notice by posting you a letter or sending you an email. If you are sent a letter, your immigration permission will be curtailed to 60 days from the date they write to you, plus an additional three working days to allow for the postage time. If you are sent an email, your immigration permission will be curtailed to 60 days from the date they send the email. UKVI will normally ask you to cut up your BRP card and they will give you an address to post it to, before you leave the UK. It is advisable to make sure you have a copy or a photo of the BRP before you post it.
You cannot appeal against this decision. If you think the decision is incorrect, seek advice from a Welfare Adviser at the Advice and Counselling Service.
When Queen Mary sends the report to UKVI, it will include your term-time contact address, phone number and e-mail address. UKVI will send the letter or e-mail to the addresses provided in the report from Queen Mary. For this reason, it is very important that you make sure that your term-time contact details on MySIS (https://mysis.qmul.ac.uk) are always up to date.
If your contact details change from those in the report, you should inform UKVI so that they always have your correct address. You can inform UKVI of changes of your address by following these instructions.
Your immigration permission will be curtailed, even if you do not receive the letter informing you of this. If this happens you may accidentally stay in the UK illegally. Depending on how long you have stayed in the UK, this may prevent you from making a new UK immigration application.
To avoid the risk of accidentally staying in the UK illegally you should leave the UK within 60 days of the date when Queen Mary reported you to the Home Office.
If you have remained in the UK and you have resumed your studies or will do shortly (within the next 60 days), you can contact a Welfare Adviser at the Advice and Counselling Service. The Welfare Adviser will be able to check with UKVI to see if your immigration permission has been curtailed.
If it has not been curtailed, the Welfare Adviser will ask UKVI to make a note on their records to state that you have resumed your studies or will resume your studies shortly. This should mean that your immigration permission will not be curtailed.
If you need more time to complete your studies, you will need to make a new immigration application. For more information, see our guidance on applying for Student immigration permission.
If your immigration permission has been curtailed, the Welfare Adviser will see if it is possible to overturn the decision. If it is not possible to overturn UKVI’s decision, see the next section.
If UKVI has decided to curtail your immigration permission to 60 days, you will need to know the new end date. You should be able to find this in the curtailment letter or email from UKVI. You can then work out if you can make a new Student immigration application.
You can check our guidance to see if you would be eligible to make a new application in the UK, based on your new (curtailed) visa end date. You course should re-start within 28 days of your new (curtailed) visa expiry date.
If you are not sure what date you will be resuming you studies, contact the Student Enquiry Centre. Your resumption date will also be confirmed on your CAS statement.
In some cases you may be able to apply for further permission to stay in the UK. For example:
If you think any of the above might apply to you, you should seek advice from a regulated specialist immigration adviser.
If Queen Mary reported that you successfully completed your course earlier than expected, UKVI’s policy is to curtail your immigration permission so that you would have the same "wrap-up" period after your new end date as you would if you had completed when expected. For example, if you had been granted four months of additional immigration permission after your course was due to end, UKVI will curtail your immigration permission so that you have four months immigration permission from your new course end date. You can read more about this policy in the section "Deciding the date of expiry for curtailed leave" in UKVI staff guidance document Curtailment.
If Queen Mary withdraws your sponsorship because there are relevant changes to your studies, such as you withdraw or interrupt your studies, then you may continue to work until the new end date of your cancelled Student immigration permission. This has been confirmed in An employer's guide to right to work checks .
For full details of when employers may and may not employ you in these and similar circumstances, see information under the heading, 'Impact of a change of circumstances on a student's right to work' in the UKVI publication, An employer's guide to right to work checks.
If your immigration permission has been curtailed and you leave the UK, or are overseas at the time when your immigration permission is curtailed, then you should not try to travel back to the UK with this permission.
For example if you complete your course early and this results in your immigration permission being curtailed, but you wish to return to the UK for your graduation ceremony, you should apply for the appropriate permission before returning to the UK.
If you are not sure whether your immigration permission has already been curtailed, you can contact us and we can help you to check.