Student Visitor Visa

[Dut]

My girlfirend is a Thai national and holds a student visitor visa for the UK. The visa is a type 2 multiple entry student visitor visa and it was issued for 6 months. On the original visa application form she stated she was studing for 8 weeks and would leave the UK on May 12th, which she did. The visa does not expire until the end of August so can she come back to the UK in June and continue to study on the same visa as it has not expired? She has been accepted at the same school on the general english short course for another two weeks.

[7by7]

Whether her visa is valid for multiple, single or dual entry will be indicated by the endorsement of either ‘MULT’ or ‘1’ or ‘2’ after ‘Number of Entries’ on the vignette.

The guidance says

.......you will not be able to........do a new course whilst you are in the UK

but I can find nothing in the immigration rules to say this. (Paras 56K to 56M).

[ThaiVisaExpress]

We had a client who applied for a 1 month stay to visit family in the UK she stayed the full month and returned promptly.

After a further month she returned to the UK staying the further 4 months of the visa, she applied again for a further visit visa without using my company I must add, and the ECO refused her on various grounds including on the original application you stated you wished to visit the UK for 1 month yet you returned therefore losing your credibility etc etc.

Edited May 19, 2010 by ThaiVisaExpress

[Dut]

I have emailed the public visa enquiries at the home office who have stated that all she will need is proof she is still studying on a course then she will meet the visa requirements and will not need to apply for a new visa. I have this email printed out and we will bring it as proof. This is in contrast to the advice I got from an agency saying she could be refused entry as she originaly stated on the application form she would only be here 2.5 months.

Which piece of information is correct?

I cant understand why you would be issued a 6 month visa in the first place if you only asked for 2.5 months and then could not return as the visa stated MULT under number of visits.

Any help and guidance much appreciated.

[Eff1n2ret]

I cant understand why you would be issued a 6 month visa in the first place if you only asked for 2.5 months and then could not return as the visa stated MULT under number of visits.

You're absolutely right, she's perfectly entitled to stay in the UK, or travel in and out as many times as she likes during the 6 months. If, as a student visitor, she uses the "extra time" to embark on another course, that is to her credit (and of course to the benefit of the UK economy as she will pay another fee). As already pointed out, there is nothing in the Immigration Rules to prevent her doing this, and although the quoted guidance says she should not "do a new course while in the UK" the UKBA cannot infer that meaning into the Rules. If she completes the course for which she got the visa, any suggestion that she shouldn't take another one at the same accredited college within the 6 months would be laughed out of court. I think they put the "no new course" in the guidance to discourage bogus students from getting a visa for study at some prestigious and expensive university, and then when they arrive in the UK without the dosh they showed to the ECO, enrolling on some mickey mouse "English" or "Computer Studies" course - a common scam in the past. Of course, there's nothing in that section of the Rules that prevents that either, but it just goes to show what a shambles the published guidance is.

So I wouldn't worry about what she's proposing, it's not against the Rules. The only caveat is, as raised by ThaiVisaExpress, the fact that visitors, whether student or otherwise, are almost always given a 6-month visa even if they're only coming for 2 weeks. If they then stay for 6 months, they haven't broken the law, but when they next apply for a visa the ECO may not believe that their circumstances are as stated on the application. If, for example, your g/f stated that she was coming for the initial short course, and had to be back at work on such and such a date, they'd wonder why that hadn't happened, and be a little less keen to give her another visa. It depends what was stated on her application and what her circumstances are if/when she applies again.

[Dut]

Thanks for the advice, this is what I thought.

Her reason for return to Thailand was to take exams, which she has already done and now is coming back to the UK for a holiday and study for an extra 2 weeks. She will then go back to Thailand for more exams as she is studying at an Open University there. The course here was to help her studies in Thailand.

Regarding the next application, as long as we state on the application what both visits were for and show her exam results in Thailand I am sure they will see that the same reason applied and common sense should prevail!