Tier 4 student visa

Tier 4 is the student tier of the Points Based System for immigration (PBS), operated by the Home Office.

It is for full-time courses only and you must apply before you come to the UK. A Tier 4 student visa can be extended once you are here.

Your Tier 4 visa will be for your studies here only. You cannot move to another university or any other sort of organisation with this visa. If, for any reason, you are thinking of changing institution, you should talk to your department and to one of our Student Immigration Advisers. 

Our rating

We are a Tier 4 sponsor.

Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies

We will contact you automatically about your CAS once you have accepted your unconditional offer.

Pre-sessional English language courses

If you hold an offer that is conditional on attending a pre-sessional English language course at the University, you must obtain a Tier 4 visa for the pre-sessional course. You will be able to extend this for your degree course once you have met the English language conditions of your offer.

The Student Immigration Service offers a check and send service to help you extend your visa when you are here.

Tier 4 responsibilities

Our responsibilities

In order to be able to operate under the PBS system, we need to have a licence from the Home Office. It is very important for us to have this licence because it allows us to be able to ‘sponsor’ you for your visa.

As your visa sponsor we have to make sure, as far as possible, that you are not doing anything which breaches your immigration status.

Your responsibilities

You must make sure that you do not breach the conditions of your Tier 4 immigration status. You must not:

• stop your studies without our permission
• move away from Bath
• work too many hours in paid employment
• be self-employed or engage in business activity
• study at another institution with your visa for Bath
• fail to renew your visa if it is expiring and you are staying in the UK
• fail to register with the police

You must also:

• show us all the original documents that we ask to see, without delay (see below)
• tell us quickly of any changes to your personal details (such as your address). Details of how to tell us about changed details are available from Registration On-Line when you have registered
• attend your programme of study regularly. It is very important to us that all our students are getting on well but, if you have a Tier 4 visa, we are required to tell the Home Office if your circumstances change, you stop studying or we lose contact with you

What happens when I first arrive?

When you first arrive at the University you must:

• attend a session at which we check your original documents
• finish the Registration On-Line (ROL) process

You will then be able to fully register.

Copies of documents

We need to make a copy of your visa/ID card and passports - your registration will be temporary until this is done.

We will keep electronic copies of these documents. Your offer letter will have further details.

If necessary, we reserve the right to withdraw your application for a place or terminate any subsequent registration and you could be asked to leave the University if you do not provide the required documents.

Non-arrivals

We must tell the Home Office about any students who firmly accept a place but do not arrive to start their studies. If you are definitely not coming to the University for any reason, please do tell us. You should contact Undergraduate Admissions as soon as possible.

Arriving late

Please aim to arrive here for the start of the induction period. If you have any serious difficulties (such as obtaining your visa) and you are delayed, please tell your department.