Graduate Visa

To be eligible for the Graduate visa (often referred to as the PSW), the UK government rules say you must meet all the following criteria;

  1. have conducted your studies inside the UK and,
  2. have received a full degree award, not a certificate or diploma (exception: PGCE is eligible) and,
  3. apply whilst you still have a valid Student visa and,
  4. never have received a Graduate visa before.

If a Postgraduate Taught (PGT) student’s final date of award is delayed beyond their visa expiry date due to deferring or failing assignments, their official date of award would happen after their student visa expires. They would not be eligible for the Graduate Visa.

PGT students at Chester cannot extend their student visa. You cannot apply for the Graduate visa if you have switched to a different visa category (Skilled Worker, ILR, etc.) and you cannot apply for the Graduate visa from overseas.

Reassessments and the Graduate Visa

Taught Masters students can generally have two submission attempts/opportunities at their earlier “taught” module assessments, and their date of award would not be delayed. But the University can only guarantee only one submission attempt/opportunity at the final dissertation/research project is possible without delaying the date of award.

Any of the following three situations can cause a PGT student to be ineligible for the Graduate visa;

  • resubmission required for the final dissertation/research project, or
  • deferral of the dissertation/research project, or
  • 3rd submission opportunity for a taught module assessment.

In these three situations the date of award would be delayed and would fall after their Student visa expiry date so the student would be ineligible for the Graduate visa.

Dates of awards boards are set well in advance and must accommodate time for the tutors to mark the assessments, for results to be processed, and for any award outcome to be calculated and published.

Student Visa Extensions and the Graduate Visa

Masters (PGT) students at Chester do not have the option to resubmit or defer assessments “with attendance”. A Masters student who is required to resubmit an assessment has no required contact with the University after their student visa expiry date, so we are not permitted to issue a CAS.

No Student visa extension is possible for Masters (PGT) students at Chester.

Term Time Travel

If the Graduate visa is important to you, we strongly advise you to remain in the UK during term time. If you wish to travel overseas please do so during the official vacation periods which we share with the Home Office.

We understand that some student visa holders want to make use of the official vacation dates to work full-time in the UK. That is fine, but we strongly discourage any attempt to work full-time throughout the official vacation dates and then leave the UK for a social visit after term-time restarts. If you do this, you may find your Student visa may be cancelled and you may not be able to get back into the UK. Or the Home Office may refuse your Graduate Visa application.

It is fine to travel overseas after the course end date that was stated on your CAS. This time is treated as vacation period for visa compliance purposes. You would just need to return to the UK at some point before your Student Visa expiry date to be able to apply for the Graduate visa inside the UK whilst your Student Visa is still valid.

When to apply for the Graduate visa

After the Awards Assessment Board the Student Visa Compliance team will inform the Home Office about any individual who has been awarded a full degree and still has a valid Student visa. We will then email those students from studyvisa@chester.ac.uk to their University of Chester (“@chester.ac.uk”) account to confirm.

We always try to submit the Home Office reports and email the students on the same day as the awards board. Students usually get the email between 16:00 and 21:00. But if there are any unforeseen complications (e.g. if the Home Office website is down) the emails may go out the next working day.

We advise students to wait until they have received their email from studyvisa@chester.ac.uk before they apply for the graduate visa. If you are not sure of the date of your awards board, please go to this results process site and click on the assessment schedule for your faculty. The study visa team do not receive advance details about which students will go to which board, if you have further questions about your submission deadlines or board dates please contact your faculty’s Quality and Records Team.

Further information on the Graduate Visa including fees/costs and a link to the application form can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/graduate-visa.