Skip to main content

Visas and immigration

A student in an airport corridor with passport and ticket.

Our Student Visa and Advice team in Scotland are available to help you with any aspect of applying for a student visa or your queries around student immigration both before you travel to the UK and once you are fully enrolled at Heriot-Watt University.

On these pages you will find detailed information on applying for a variety of visas and help with visa and passport issues.

Please find below guidance relating to recent UKVI rule changes applicable to student visa holders and others.

Immigration Updates

  • For nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan: the UK Government has introduced a 'Visa Brake' which means Student or Skilled worker visas will not be issued to nationals of these countries who apply from outside the UK.
  • Graduate Route length of permission reduction: for applications made after Friday 1st January 2027 undergraduate and postgraduate taught students will be granted 18 months permission. PhD applicants will continue to receive 3 years.
  • Visa fees for a number of routes increased on 8th April 2026
  • To keep up to date with any UK Visa and Immigration changes, you can check the UKCISA website under their 'News' section.

Starting an undergraduate programme

  • If you have already been studying in the UK, you must have successfully completed the qualification for which you were last granted a student visa (or if you changed programme, the programme that you changed to). This means that you must have received the award or have formal written confirmation of the award from your institution. Please note that other conditions still apply as per previous rules.

Changing from BEng to MEng

  • If you change from BEng to MEng you may be able to extend your student visa from inside the UK. You must apply for and receive a new visa before you can continue on the MEng programme. You are strongly encouraged to discuss this with the visa advice team.

Changing programme

  • You are not permitted to change programme if the new programme cannot be completed within the length of your current visa. If however you changed programme (within the length of your current visa) and subsequently require additional time to repeat part of that new programme, you may be able to extend your visa from inside the UK. Other conditions in regard to course changes still apply.

Extending visa for current programme

  • If you have transferred from another campus and decide to increase the amount of time spent studying in the UK, you must apply for your visa extension from outside the UK unless you will be progressing from BEng to MEng - please discuss such cases with the visa advice team.

Additional time needed due to re-sits/repeat year

  • If you have had to repeat a course or undertake a resit and now need additional time to complete your programme, you might be able to apply for your visa extension from inside the UK. Please seek advice from the student visa team if you need additional time following a repeat year or having completed a resit/s.

Contact the Visa, Advice and Compliance team

Our Visa, Advice and Immigration team are available to answer your enquires through the Student Portal. You can also view frequently asked questions (Heriot-Watt login required) for many topics related to International students studying at our Scottish campuses.