Entering the UK before Student Visa start date

[888notsure]

Hi all, would appreciate if anyone has advice/guidance for me on this topic.

I have accepted and will enroll in a master's degree program in the UK. I plan to apply for the student Visa by the end of May. The program's start date will be in the first week of September 2022. From what I understand this would mean the earliest I can enter the UK will be the first week of August.

However, would I be able to enter the UK on a tourist visa for the first two weeks of July and then re-enter the UK on the second week of August on the student visa? I plan to be in the UK for those two weeks so that I can attend my undergraduate graduation ceremony which was postponed due to COVID in the summer of 2020.

I saw on some websites saying that if I have already received the student visa; I shouldn't attempt to enter before the 1 month period prior to the course start date.

[vinny]

Be careful of 30C.

[sah10406]

would I be able to enter the UK on a tourist visa for the first two weeks of July and then re-enter the UK on the second week of August on the student visa?

Yes.

I saw on some websites saying that if I have already received the student visa; I shouldn't attempt to enter before the 1 month period prior to the course start date.

You must have misunderstood. You cannot enter the UK on your Student visa before it has started, but if you do not need a visa for a visit to the UK, you can enter as a Visitor for genuine separate short visit, which of course requires that you leave at the end of your visit.

There are some things you cannot do, but you are not planning to do them anyway:

* Apply for a Visitor *visa* if you already have a Student visa, because it will cancel the Student visa. If you are of a nationality that does not need a visa for a visit anyway, that is fine.

* Pretend to be a Visitor when in fact you just want to enter the UK before your Student visa starts, and to stay in the UK until it does. This is something US students in particular seem to think is a very clever loophole that they have discovered, when in fact it just leaves them stranded in the UK as a visitor unable to start their studies.