Immigration Compliance Hub - Registry
From July 2025, an expanded Immigration Compliance Team within Registry will manage the University’s international student compliance activities, delivering student support and fulfilment of our duties for student visa holders.
Key responsibilities of the team
- Visa registration: in-person checking of passport and visa documentation for all non-UK/Irish nationals, including those on student visas
- Monitoring non-registered students: withdraw within 10 days of the latest course start date any student visa holders who do not register
- Proactively monitor student engagement, utilising the new systems and reports which have been developed. This removes the need for Schools to operate local methods for capturing engagement of student visa holders which do not feed into the APEX dashboard, and for School staff to check the APEX dashboard to review student engagement
- Reviewing & approving requests for visa extensions, and issuing the CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Study) to the student
- All relevant reporting on the UKVI Sponsor Management System
Impact of these changes on our processes and people
Duties and expectations of School colleagues
Any administrative and learning & teaching activities which are not specific to student visa-holders will still be undertaken by Schools (and Colleges). In some subject areas, where there is a requirement for a higher/different level of engagement monitoring or checks for professional or accreditation reasons, some aspects of this primarily linked to progress on placements will remain local to minimise duplication.
Registry will still require input from Schools, and therefore nominated staff contacts, to provide information and support decision making. For example:
- Prior to withdrawing students non-registered or non-engaged students, Schools will be asked to confirm whether there have been any points of contact with the student at a local level e.g. appointments or exchanges with an Advisor of Studies, Advising Team, Programme Lead etc
- Confirming course details for visa extensions e.g. submission dates for PGT/PGR students
Information we will request from you
The Immigration Compliance team will contact you in cases where more information on student visa holders is required. For example:
Engagement/Attendance
Where there is no centrally recorded evidence of engagement (physical attendance, coursework submission, supervisory meetings etc) and a student is not compliant with our engagement policy, we will ask contacts to confirm whether School staff are aware of any reason why a withdrawal should not be processed
Non-registered students
For new students: where visa registration is not complete and the student has missed the latest arrival date listed on their CAS, we will ask contacts to confirm whether School staff are aware of any reason why a withdrawal should not be processed
Visa Extensions
Where students required a visa extension, staff will be asked to confirm the new course end date e.g. for PGT students, this will typically be the dissertation submission date OR end of resit repeat period. For PGR students, this will be the Viva or corrections submission date, and the supervisor must confirm the student needs to be in Glasgow for any correction period
Placements
We are required to notify UKVI of a change to a student’s circumstances within 10 days of this taking effect. This includes any changes to a student’s place of study. In this context, a placement should be interpreted any period of time where students engage in their studies outside of the University of Glasgow locations – this includes, but is not limited to:
- Erasmus/Turing and study abroad mobility periods
- Compulsory language year abroad
- Industry placements for integrated master’s programmes (e.g. Meng or Msci)
- Clinical placements/rotations for Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and Veterinary Medicine
- Other work placementsResearch furth of Glasgow (PGR)
- Time spent at a partner HEI e.g. joint degree or CDT
Absences
Where students submit a MyCampus absence report, the report has not been approved by a member of staff in the School in MyCampus, but the absence has led to the student becoming non-compliant with our engagement policy, we will ask for the absence report to be reviewed by the relevant School.
Providing a named contact
Due to the nature of the emails being sent and their often tight deadlines, we would ask for at least one or two named contacts per School (to avoid single points of failure) - if your team has a shared inbox we will copy this into communications as well.
How we will contact you
APEX is being developed as an operational and case management tool, but until this is complete, contact will be via Outlook in the first instance.
The team will be reaching out with UKVI Contacts to hold further briefing sessions prior to the start of the new academic year.
Required turnaround times for information
Given the urgent need for information, we would ask for a response within 2 business days/48 hours. This is required to adhere to UKVI regulations to report any changes within 10 days.
Faster response times may be required however when decisions are being reached on withdrawing students.