13 December 2010
From 10 January 2011, English language students wishing to attend exclusively English language courses will be able to apply for a student visitor visa allowing them to stay for up to 11 months. The extended student visitor visa will only be available to applicants outside the UK.
Students wishing to study other courses in the UK for longer than 6 months will still need to apply under Tier 4 of the points-based system.
If you are a 'non-visa-national' who does not normally need a visa to study for up to 6 months, you must apply for the extended visa if you wish to take a longer English language course.
The extended student visitor visa's other requirements, entitlements and restrictions are the same as those for the current student visitor route. The student visitor route does not allow students to work, take a work placement, bring dependants, extend their stay or switch into other courses at the end of their stay. Our Visa services section contains more information about the student visitor route.
The fee for an extended student visitor visa will be the same as for a student visitor visa.
We will carry out a review of the extended student visitor visa within the next 12 months, to ensure that it is operating as intended.
This change does not affect the ongoing consultation on the main student route to the UK (Tier 4 of the points-based system), which has set out proposals to tackle abuse and make the system more selective and robust.
A written ministerial statement about the change is available under 'Related documents' on the right side of this page.
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