UK Student Visa Advice in Birmingham & London

Up to 20 hours a week in term if you’re on a full-time degree-level course at a higher education provider with a track record of compliance, and full time in the holidays. Below degree level at such a provider, the limit is 10 hours a week in term. On other courses, including all part-time courses, you can’t work, and no Student can be self-employed or work as a professional sportsperson or entertainer.

Only if you’re a full-time postgraduate on a course of 9 months or longer at a higher education provider with a track record of compliance and, for courses starting on or after 1 January 2024, it’s a PhD, other doctorate or research-based higher degree. Government-sponsored students on a full-time course of 6 months or longer can also bring family. Each family member needs £845 a month in London or £680 elsewhere, for up to 9 months, on top of your own funds. Read our dependant visa guide.

Usually yes, if you have a CAS and your new course starts within 28 days of your current visa ending; you can apply up to 3 months before it starts. You can’t switch if you’re here as a visitor, short-term student, Parent of a Child Student, seasonal worker or domestic worker in a private household, or with permission outside the Rules. If you’re already a Student, your new course must usually be at a higher level, with some exceptions.

Usually not. To switch to a Skilled Worker visa you must normally have completed your course, or be on a full-time degree-level course at a higher education provider with a track record of compliance with a job that starts after your course ends, or be a full-time PhD student with a job that starts at least 24 months after your PhD began. You can apply for a Graduate visa only once your sponsor has told the Home Office you’ve successfully completed your course.

For a course of 12 months or more, you get the length of the course plus 4 months; for a course of 6 to 12 months, plus 2 months. From outside the UK you can usually arrive up to 1 month before a course of 6 months or longer, or 7 days before most shorter courses, but never before the start date on your visa. From age 18, Student time is usually capped at 5 years for degree-level study and 2 years below degree level.

It lets you stay and work, or look for work, after you successfully complete a UK bachelor’s, master’s or other eligible course with a higher education provider with a track record of compliance. It lasts 2 years if you apply on or before 31 December 2026, 18 months if you apply on or after 1 January 2027, and 3 years after a PhD or other doctorate. You must apply in the UK before your Student visa expires, and it can’t be extended.

Not from outside the UK. Since 26 March 2026, the Rules don’t allow nationals of these four countries to get a Student visa from abroad; applications made before that date are decided under the old rules. The bar doesn’t apply to applications made in the UK, but you must be on a visa you can switch from and meet every other requirement.

You can usually ask for an administrative review, which checks whether the caseworker applied the Rules or guidance wrongly. It costs £80, and you must apply within 28 days if you applied from outside the UK, or 14 days if you applied in the UK. New evidence is considered only in limited cases, so we look at the refusal and tell you plainly whether a review or a fresh application makes more sense.