granted FLR with student visa?

[rella]

Has anyone been granted an FLR approval while on a student visa when not completing their academic program? In other words, can you quit school and be granted an FLR with HSMP approval?

rella

[kawasaki1]

From IND's law about student visas:

57. The requirements to be met by a person seeking leave to enter the United Kingdom as a student are that he:

...

(iv) intends to leave the United Kingdom at the end of his studies; and

(v) does not intend to engage in business or to take employment, except part time or vacation work undertaken with the consent of the Secretary of State for Employment; and

Under those rules, one *should* leave when he finishes studies (and I'm guessing that would apply to people who drop out).

However, keeping that in mind, a lot of people change to WP (including myself) or HSMP at the end, totally invalidating point (iv).

Also, I knew a couple of people who dropped out and stayed the full duration of their student visa without studying (including exits/entries to the country without problems). My impression is that either the universities don't inform the HO of dropped out international students, or it might take a looong time.

Furthermore, when one quits a job under WP, HO usually send a letter (these days) that you have to leave the country in 28 days, and I have not heard that students get the same. Therefore, you could say you were 'staying around to look for another university' etc, whilst in the mean time applied for HSMP.

IND website ironcally posted the following today on their website (which might be of concern):

Information about overseas students
[22 April 2004]

INFORMATION ABOUT OVERSEAS STUDENTS

IND is keen to receive information about all cases of overseas students (not those from EU countries) who have either accepted a place at your establishment but have never attended, or who have dropped out of a course of study for no apparent reason. You need not notify us in cases where you know the person concerned has transferred to a course at another UK institution.

You can email us via the address below. Click here for details of the information we need you to include in your email.

icc7@ind.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Again, Kayalami and co. should provide you with more factual advice, as you seem to have pointed out a few 'grey areas' in the matter.

[rella]

I would guess that the main thing HO is worried about are people who use a student visa to get into the country with no intention of really attending school or who abuse it after they graduate or quit from school. I'm hoping that as long as a person is honest, that they'll be more likely to let you stay....

My husband and I went through the immigration law and the enforcement regulations today and it does look like a gray zone. The rules are straight-forward about students, but when you look at the regs about FLR, it becomes fuzzy again.

We didn't see the call for employers to turn in foreign students though! I wonder if that is for people without work permits, who are trying to get jobs on their student visa? I wonder if HO mass-mailed that out to employers and universities?

Going against advice given here, my husband called Croyden today to try to get more info. He told the caseworker his exact situation and asked if he had a chance of getting FLR (IED) processed. The caseworker didn't seem concerned at all. He said that submitting the HSMP application in itself was starting the process for a new visa and that the student visa would be in effect until a decision was reached. So, don't know if this guy knew what he was talking about, and it is the opposite of what I was told when I called last week... but all that we can do at this point is wait out the decision on the HSMP, and if it's approved, turn in the FLR and hope it all goes through. If we can just get the FLR for the initial year, then we should be home-free, since my husband has enough work lined up to support us.

One thing the person at Croyden said was not to submit the FLR until the HSMP is processed. He said it wasn't a good idea to have two sets of paperwork going at once. I don't know if that's truly the case, but since you hear different things depending on whom you talk to... guess we all have to use our best judgment to figure out how to navigate the system. Thank goodness that we have forums to ask questions and that there are really knowledgeable people who can help us to understand this immigration process.

rella

[kawasaki1]

Heh, well good luck with all the appliacations.

Do keep the forum posted once you have it all sorted out!