Students who require immigration permission to be in the UK
All students are required to be enrolled on their course and must register online. In order to register online, student visa holders have to provide their passport and visa beforehand. The instructions on this are provided on My Imperial and by Admissions in their email communications sent to you.
The following information is for students who have applied for a visa under the Student Route (previously known as Tier 4 Student visa) OR have pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme. If you have any other type of UK visa please scroll down.
If you are a non-EU/EEA national on a Student Visa: You will receive a temporary 90-day entry vignette in your passport. You will need to travel to the UK within the validity period of the dates given on the visa. Please note that you must only enter the UK on or after the start date and before the end date of this vignette. If you enter before the start date then you will NOT have activated your visa and will have to exit the UK and re-enter according to the dates on your vignette. Certain nationalities can use E-gates at a UK airport to enter the UK.
You will need to ensure you keep evidence of your date of entry to the UK in the form of a boarding pass/flight ticket or booking confirmation. You will need to provide this to the visa compliance team so they can check that you have activated your student visa. You will be sent an email to provide this once you have uploaded your 90-day entry vignette to My Imperial.
You will also get a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) once you arrive in the UK. The collection arrangements are outlined below. Please note you do not have to apply separately for a BRP. This is provided automatically when your visa is approved.
In-person registration
BRP Collection from Imperial
If you are collecting your BRP from Imperial, you will be emailed with instructions to let you know:
- what you need to do to collect your BRP
- when you can collect your BRP if it is ready for collection
You will only be able to collect your BRP at a dedicated time. You will have the chance to book a time slot once you have sent the Visa Compliance team the required documents. Again, you will be emailed about what to provide once you have uploaded your entry visa to My Imperial and this has been checked by the Admissions team.
BRP Collection from the Post Office
You will need to bring:
- the passport you used to enter the UK
- any immigration documents that are not contained in your passport (e.g. refugee status letter, Biometric Residence Permit)
If you are collecting your BRP from the Post Office, the letter you receive with your 90-day entry visa should tell you when your BRP will be ready for collection from the Post Office. You will receive an email with further instructions about what you need to upload to My Imperial.
Students who have applied in the UK for a new Student Visa
If you have requested for your BRP to be delivered to Imperial then we will contact you once it arrives and then you will need to book a time to collect it. If you collect it from the post office then please follow the above instructions.
Digital Immigration Status
This applies to EU/EEA/Swiss Nationals and non-visa nationals applying inside the UK using the ID Check app after 31st December 2021. You will be granted a Digital Immigration Status by the United Kingdom Visas and Immigration (UKVI) once your application has been successful. If you are an EU/EEA national who has been granted pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, then you will also have been granted a Digital Immigration Status.
If you have digital immigration permission, you will not need to collect a BRP. However, you will need to prove your immigration status. The letter or email you received from UKVI will include details of your immigration permission. You will see that to prove your immigration status, you will need to generate a share code for us to check and verify your status. You will be able to generate a share code from the View and Prove Government webpages. Access your digital status and generate a share code by selecting ‘Start Now’. Please ensure you choose the purpose of the check as ‘other’/ ‘something else’ instead of 'work' or 'rent', as these codes will not work to check your status.
You will then need to enter the share code details in the My Visa section of My Imperial for the Admissions team to check. Please also attach a PDF of your share code.
If you have digital student immigration status:
In addition to the above, you must ensure you only enter the UK on or after the start date of your digital student permission. You will also need to ensure you keep evidence of your date of entry to the UK in the form of a boarding pass/flight ticket or booking confirmation. You will need to provide this to the visa compliance team so they can check that you have activated your student visa. You will be sent an email to provide this once your status has been verified using the share code you have provided on My Imperial. If you enter the UK before the start date of your visa then you will be entering as a visitor and therefore you will need to leave the UK and re-enter on or after the start date of your digital status.
Further information can also be found on our International Student Support team webpages. You can contact this team if you have any visa-related queries and/or immigration issues.