Immigration updates

General updates

CAS issuing timeframes and FAQs: You can find out when to expect your CAS and detailed answers to all of our Frequently Asked Questions on our CAS page.

Immigration Health Surcharge: The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) for Student (and Student Dependant visas) has increased from £470 to £776 per year. The increase came into effect on 6 February 2024. If you need to extend your Student visa or apply for a Student visa to start a new course, you will need to pay the higher fee. If you are planning to apply for the Graduate work visa when you finish your studies, you should be aware that the IHS fee has also increased for Graduate visa applications to £1035 per year.

Dependant changes: Restrictions on which students can bring dependants were recently introduced for all courses with a course start date of 1 January 2024 or later. Students can now only bring dependants if they are studying a research-based postgraduate course or are government-sponsored. At Exeter, this means that only students studying MPhil, PhD and Masters by Research programmes will be eligible to bring their dependants unless they are financially sponsored by their government for their studies. Our MRes programmes are considered taught programmes so students on these programmes are not able to bring dependants to the UK with them. The changes do not apply to students whose courses began before 1 January 2024, these students are still likely able to bring dependants and for their dependants to extend their visas with them. More information is on our Dependants page and you can contact International Student Support for advice on your particular circumstances.

Ukraine Visa Schemes extensions: The Home Office have announced that all people holding visas under one of the Ukraine visa schemes will be able to extend these visas to stay in the UK until September 2026. Applications for these visa extensions will open in January 2025. More details here: Government extends stay for Ukrainians in the UK - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Last updated: 20 February 2024