Deactivated student visa

conelize · Post by **conelize** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 10:33 am

My fiancee has a 3 year student visa to study at SOAS but in February left the UK due to a family emergency. As she missed so much school work she arranged with SOAS to restart her course in January, basically to pick up where she left off. SOAS informed the border agency to deactivate her student visa untill she comes back to the UK to resume her studies.

However my fiancee has Language classes at UCL booked for May/June and is hoping to take a summer course at SOAS and we are hoping to get married in the Autumn. If she came to the UK would the border agency be able to reactivate her visa once she arrives at the airport?

I ask this as a friend of mine who had a student visa but left the UK for a year for health issues had her visa deactivated but once she explained the situation her visa was reactivated by the UK border agency on arrival at customs.

Any help would be very appreciated as my fiancee is desperate to get back in the UK.

bruteforce · Post by **bruteforce** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:39 pm

never heard of the terms "activated" & "deactivated" in this regard. As far as I know if you cannot continue your studies for any reason and leave the UK then you have to re-apply with all supporting documents. They will treat the new application on its own merit.

IMO

joh118 · Post by **joh118** » Wed Apr 27, 2011 11:48 pm

a visa cannot be deactivated or activated...

in your case:

activated = valid visa
deactivated = cancelled visa.

his visa has been cancelled, to return he wll have to make a new application.

terriblescream · Post by **terriblescream** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 12:14 pm

Sounds like an alarm, activated and deactivated.

Never heard anything like that in immigration, if the visa is cancelled cannot return to the UK..

If it is not cancelled and still there, will be able to travel upto the UK border and face problems since UKBA would have been informed about the student.

Better to apply a new application since there has been gap, all new supporting documents like CAS, bank statements etc

conelize · Post by **conelize** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:20 pm

Apologies after talking with my fiancee it appears I have the terminology wrong. The visa has not been cancelled, however her university have temporarily "deactivated" their sponsorship of her visa as she is on Leave Of Absence. I am not sure what this actually entails though.

joh118 · Post by **joh118** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:26 pm

conelize wrote:Apologies after talking with my fiancee it appears I have the terminology wrong. The visa has not been cancelled, however her university have temporarily "deactivated" their sponsorship of her visa as she is on Leave Of Absence. I am not sure what this actually entails though.

have you read the numerous posts above telling you that there is no such thing in UK immigration where a visa is deactivated???? Even if the visa remains in the passport, once the visa number is put into the system, it will tell the immigration officer that the visa has been cancelled.

It is either valid or cancelled. One or the other.

I repeat: there is no such thing as deactivated or activated visa!

Post by **Greenie** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:33 pm

joh118 wrote:
conelize wrote:Apologies after talking with my fiancee it appears I have the terminology wrong. The visa has not been cancelled, however her university have temporarily "deactivated" their sponsorship of her visa as she is on Leave Of Absence. I am not sure what this actually entails though.
have you read the numerous posts above telling you that there is no such thing in UK immigration where a visa is deactivated????

It is either valid or cancelled. One or the other.

I repeat: there is no such thing as deactivated or activated visa!

err joh118 if you read conelize's post you will see that he is now saying that it is the sponsorship that has been 'deactivated' not the visa. He is not saying still that the visa has been deactivated.

Personally I would say that the correct terminology is that the sponorship has been withdrawn. In theory this is supposed to trigger the UKBA to curtail the visa but in practice they don't always seem to do this and I have seen people try to apply for another tier 4 entry clearance only to be told the current one is still valid.

Conelize your fiancee needs to contact her local British embassy to find out whether her current tier 4 entry clearance/residence permit is still valid or whether it has been curtailed. If they say it is still valid she should get a letter from her university confirming that she intermitted and that they are expecting her back on X date.

Post by **Greenie** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 4:57 pm

Sorry I have just re-read the original post and note that your fiancee wants to come to study with a different sponsor initially when she comes back. This makes things more complicated.

When did she apply for her most recent entry clearance/leave to remain please? was it before or after 5th October 2009?

conelize · Post by **conelize** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 6:45 pm

Sorry perhaps my original post was not clear. I am very new to this visa stuff and it's confusing the absolute heck out of me.

She does not want to return with a different sponsor. The language course at UCL is just a part time course that she applied for through SOAS (who sponsor her current visa). The UCL course has nothing to do with her current visa sponsorship. Ideally she would like to return for her UCL course (as she has already paid for it) as it starts in the next few weeks and when in the UK apply for a summer course at SOAS.

Thank you for your help so far people. Her personal situation which was totally out of our control is extremely distressing and difficult in ways we never imagined and all we both want is her back here to continue her studies and be together, so any advice is much appreciated.

Post by **Greenie** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:34 pm

conelize wrote:Sorry perhaps my original post was not clear. I am very new to this visa stuff and it's confusing the absolute heck out of me.

She does not want to return with a different sponsor. The language course at UCL is just a part time course that she applied for through SOAS (who sponsor her current visa). The UCL course has nothing to do with her current visa sponsorship. Ideally she would like to return for her UCL course (as she has already paid for it) as it starts in the next few weeks and when in the UK apply for a summer course at SOAS.

Thank you for your help so far people. Her personal situation which was totally out of our control is extremely distressing and difficult in ways we never imagined and all we both want is her back here to continue her studies and be together, so any advice is much appreciated.

When is she going to re-start her SOAS course? If she was on a 3 year course (presumably a degree course?) why does she need to do a language course and a summer course?

It is not possible to study part time on a tier 4 visa unless you are repeating study or writing up a thesis so she cannot use the visa she has to study part time, aside from that, she cannot use it to study at another insitution (unless she would still be sponsored by SOAS to study at UCL - however the fact is if the is part time she can't do it anyway) SOAS should know this. I suggest she speaks to the international student adviser there as they will be more informed about her circumstances.

conelize · Post by **conelize** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 9:51 pm

The language course at UCL is two hours one evening per week for 10 weeks. She has done atleast 2 of these in the past 18 months. It's not for a degree and the summer course is seperate from her degree but is an option that SOAS gives to their students if they want to remain in the UK and study over the summer. I believe they get extra credit from it but I can't confirm that. She has attempted contact with the international student advisor but due to bank holidays it's been quite difficult getting hold of them. Hopefully next week she'll have more luck.

Thanks

Post by **Greenie** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 10:01 pm

you haven't answered my question above: when is she going to re start her degree course?

She may have done the language courses previously when she was still here studying for her degree (this is permitted) but if she is going to come back to the UK before she is due to restart her degree and only be studying for 2 hours a week, this will be in breach of the terms of her tier 4 visa.

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Deactivated student visa

Deactivated student visa