How do I sponsor a migrant?
Other changes during the period of sponsorship
This page explains what you should do if you are sponsoring a student who wants to change their course or become a students' union sabbatical officer.
Sabbatical officers
The post of students' union sabbatical officer is a full-time, salaried, elected position. If you are sponsoring a migrant as a tier 4 general student, they can become a sabbatical officer at your institution for a maximum of two years, either during their course of study or in the academic year immediately after they graduate. They cannot become a sabbatical officer at a different institution.
If a migrant takes up a sabbatical officer post while they have current permission to be in the United Kingdom as a tier 4 general student, you will need to email us at MigrantReporting@ukba.gsi.gov.uk to tell us of this change in their circumstances.
If a migrant wants to take up a sabbatical officer post at the end of their course when their permission to be in the United Kingdom as a tier 4 adult student has run out, they will have to apply to us to extend their stay. You will need to give them a new visa letter detailing the post.
The term of office for a sabbatical officer is normally one academic year, and we can grant a migrant permission to remain as a tier 4 adult student to cover this period. If the migrant is re-elected after one year, they will have to apply to us again, and you will need to give them a new visa letter detailing the post.
Time spent as a sabbatical officer does not count as a work placement.
If a work placement is part of the migrant's course, any time they spend as a sabbatical officer will not count towards the total length of the course when we calculate whether the work placement exceeds 50% of the total course length. (For example, a migrant coming to the United Kingdom to do a three-year course can spend up to 18 months of the course on a work placement. If the migrant then spends a year in the middle of the course as a sabbatical officer, they can apply to extend their permission to stay as a tier 4 student to four years but the maximum length of their work placement will remain at 18 months - it will not increase to two years.)
While a migrant is a sabbatical officer, they may also take up other employment. This is limited to a maximum of 20 hours a week during term-time, and full-time work during vacations (if they are not working full-time for the students' union in the vacations).
Changing to a new course at your institution
If a tier 4 migrant wants to stay at your institution (that is, stay with the same sponsor) but change their course of study, you should tell us about this change and we will update our records. The migrant will not need our permission for the change.
If the new course is longer than the original one, the migrant must apply to us to extend their permission to stay as a tier 4 student. They can choose to apply immediately, or they can wait until shortly before their existing permission expires.
If the new course is shorter than the original one, the migrant must tell us immediately.
There is a different procedure if the migrant wants to change to a new course with a different sponsor.