Graduate Route

To be eligible to apply for the Graduate route visa students must apply within the UK whilst holding a valid Student visa having been successfully awarded a relevant qualification at Exam Board.  Therefore, if extensions and/or resits delay your award date you may not be eligible to apply for the Graduate Route.  

If your course end date is extended within your visa period, you will not be able to obtain a new CAS for an extension to your Student visa.  In this case, you will need to ask your school/faculty when you will successfully complete at Exam Board to check if it will be before your visa expires.

If your course end date is extended beyond your visa period, you should contact us for advice as to whether you will be eligible for a new CAS to extend your Student visa.  If you are granted a new Student visa to complete your course, you will still need to ensure that you will be awarded your relevant qualification at Exam Board before your new visa expires.  If you are granted a new Student visa it will expire 4 months after the new course end date stated on your CAS, as the UKVI will grant you an additional 4 months after the end of the course as 'wrap up' time. 

Student Visas cannot confirm if you will be eligible to apply for the Graduate route visa if your study end date/award date is delayed as this will depend on when your course and new visa will end and when you will be made successful at Exam Board.  Your school/faculty will be able to advise you when Exam Boards take place.

If your successful completion at Exam Board will be after your visa end date and you are not eligible for a new CAS to extend your Student visa, you will not be able to apply for the Graduate route visa unless your results can be published earlier than planned, before your current Student visa ends.  You can ask your school/faculty if this is possible.

If you appeal a result or award and this delays you being successfully awarded a relevant qualification at Exam Board, you may not be eligible to apply for the Graduate route visa.  If the appeal result is not heard before your visa expires you will not be able to apply for the Graduate route visa if you have not been awarded a relevant qualification.  If you appeal an Exam Board outcome, you should contact us for advice.

If you are awarded a diploma or certificate instead of your degree you will not be eligible for the Graduate route visa as this is not considered a relevant qualification.

The University cannot report you as successfully completed if you have a tuition fee debt.  Please ensure that any debt is fully paid by the end of your studies if you hope to apply for the Graduate route visa.

• students must have completed a relevant qualification, please see UKCISA for details
• students must have completed the same course mentioned on their CAS.  Your CAS was issued by the University to apply for your student visa.  Therefore, please check that your CAS was issued for the course you are expecting to complete.  There are some exceptions to this, such as when a student has transferred courses as permitted by their current visa please see UKCISA for details
• if you are awarded a diploma or certificate instead of your degree you will not be eligible for the Graduate route visa as this is not considered a relevant qualification
• students must have completed their course during their current student visa
• successful completion must have been reported to the UKVI by the University and applications can only be submitted after the University has notified the UKVI that students have successfully completed their course
  • if you apply before this notification has been undertaken you risk your visa being refused. Notification can only happen after students have been made successful at an Exam Board. Student Visas will be emailing students once the notification has been made so that you know when you can submit an application.

• students are normally expected to undertake their studies in the UK to be eligible for the Graduate route. You must have studied in the UK for:
  • Courses of 12 months or less – this includes one year Masters courses, even if your CAS was for just over 12 months – must have studied the whole course in the UK. Postgraduate taught students who take a dissertation module over the summer are expected to be studying in the UK during this period.  
  • Courses longer than 12 months – must have studied in UK for at least 12 months

This means that you are expected to be in the UK studying during term time, you are able to travel during vacation periods or on weekends.  All postgraduate students are expected to be in study during the summer.  Postgraduate Research students are entitled to 25 days annual leave per year in addition to University closure days and bank holidays. You should inform your supervisor of any intended holidays. 

• you cannot switch to the Graduate route from any other type of visa
• if you have, or have previously had, a Doctorate Extension Scheme (DES) visa you cannot apply for a Graduate visa

Check your student visa end date - check your visa end date to ensure that you have enough time on your student visa to allow you to successfully complete your course and receive our email notification (confirming that this has been reported to the UKVI) and that it allows you time to apply for the Graduate visa in the UK, as applications must be made in the UK whilst holding your student visa.  When the UKVI grant visas they will give you a visa until your CAS course end date plus an additional 4 months, so undergraduate students' visas should expire in October and masters students' visas should expire in January.  If you think you have the incorrect visa end date please contact us.

Students who have been wholly sponsored (all your tuition fees and maintenance) by a government or international scholarship agency, will need a letter of consent from the sponsor to stay in the UK under this route.

If you have been sponsored by the University, you do not require this.  The application form has a question asking if you have received funding from a financial sponsor.  If you have received University funding you can say no to this question. Financial sponsor for the purposes of the Graduate route are only Government or international scholarship agency, the immigration rules Immigration Rules - Immigration Rules Appendix Graduate - Guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) state:

GR 1.5. If the applicant has in the 12 months before the date of application completed a course of studies in the UK for which they have been awarded a scholarship or sponsorship by a Government or international scholarship agency covering both fees and living costs for study in the UK, they must provide written consent to the application from that Government or agency.

Therefore, if your funding is from the University and not from a government or international scholarship agency it is not a requirement of the visa as confirmed in the immigration rule above.  As such, you will not require a letter of consent from the University.

Applications will be £822 and you will also be required to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) at £1035 per year of visa that you are applying for i.e. 3 years for PhD students, 2 years for other students. 

Eligibility for dependants is restricted to those who are already in the UK as dependants of the student with the exception of babies born in the UK during the Student's last student visa period.  Please see UKCISA for more details.

Results should be available mid June.  If you appeal your result or have resits or have extended your studies please check with your school/faculty which Exam Board you will receive your results at, it is possible that you will not have your results in June. If you are submitting assessments or resitting exams in the reassessment period 21 July to 1 August 2025, it is possible you will be awarded in mid August and can be reported then, but you should confirm that with the school/faculty.

Our reports to the UKVI regarding successful completion for undergraduate students are likely to be at the beginning of July.  You will receive an email from Student Visas confirming when the report has been made.

Results should be available in November/December.  If you appeal your result or have resits or have extended your studies please check with your school/faculty which Exam Board you will receive your results at, it is possible that you will not have your results in November/December.

Our reports for postgraduate taught students are likely to be mid December.  You will receive an email from Student Visas confirming when the report has been made.

Dates can be found on our website.  Your supervisor should be able to discuss with you which Exam Board will be applicable for your studies. Your viva must take place before the deadline for the submission of examiners' reports and the reports must be sent to the Exams Office by the deadline for you to be awarded at that board. If that's unlikely to happen in your case, please contact us for advice. 

• We expect to make the reports to the UKVI within 3 weeks of students being notified that they are successful following Exam Boards. If you know you have been awarded your degree but do not hear from the Student Visas within 3 weeks, please contact us to check if a report has been made. If your visa is expiry date is imminent, please contact us sooner.
• If you think you will receive your results after your visa has expired, please read the section 'What if your Student permission expires before you receive your results?' on the UKCISA website.