"Curtailment letter" vs "Required to Leave"

[ritalololo]

So, my question is that I withdraw from my Master Programme at the end of April 2017 and left within the same month. Before I left, I notified the university and the visa department to inform the Home Office.

In May 2017, the university said that they emailed the Home Office, together with my flight detail

In August 2017, I received a curtailment letter through email. It said that my visa has been curtailed to November 2017.

Now I am applying for another Tier 4 for my PhD programme. In what I called "dangerous section", there are two questions:

1. Have you ever been deported, removed or otherwise required to leave the UK?

2. Have you ever voluntarily elected to depart the UK?

After I did some research, "curtailment letter" is just a notification for the new deadline of your visa (shorten visa).

"Required to leave the UK" means that you've overstayed and/or committed an immigration offence, thus you are required to leave.

"Voluntarily elected to depart" means that you have already been required to leave and you willing follow the order, with or without assistance from the authority.

Thus, I believe I can tick "No" to both of these question as I lawfully left the UK even before the university can inform the Home Office or the curtailment letter.

[sah10406]

If you are concerned or anxious about ticking "No", just tick "Yes" and explain the circumstances. In my experience, many people tick "Yes" to this poorly-phrased question even if the only reason they were "required to leave" was that their previous visa expired.

No specific problems would come from over-cautiously ticking "Yes" when the answer should be "No". It is not trying to trick you, it is just trying to ascertain the reality of your immigration history, and is badly worded. Give all the information and the case worker will figure it out.

[vinny]

Concur.