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Child students

The status of their licence

This page explains how the status of your approved education provider's licence may affect you while studying or when you are applying to study.

The licence of your approved education provider may be suspended or withdrawn. The affect this has on you will depend on if the suspension or withdrawal is before you apply to come or travel, or if you are already in the United Kingdom.

If your approved education is taken over by another organisation, they must apply for a licence if they do not already have one, within 28 days of them taking over the organisation.

More information

  • Suspended licence

    Licence suspended What will happen
    Before you apply to come You can still apply for permission to come to the United Kingdom but we will hold your application until the suspension is resolved.
    Before you travel to the United Kingdom If you have a visa letter that you got before your approved education provider's license was suspended, and have already been granted permission to enter the United Kingdom, but you have not yet travelled, we will try and contact you to tell you not to come until we have resolved the suspension.
    If you do travel to the United Kingdom If you do travel to the United Kingdom, you will be allowed to enter and start studying with your approved education provider.
    If you are already in the United Kingdom studying

    If you are already in the United Kingdom and studying with your approved education provider, we will not tell you if we suspend their licence. However, if the result of the suspension is that your approved education provider loses their licence, we will tell you and your permission to stay will be limited. 
    If you are extending your stay You can still apply to extend your permission to stay if it runs out when your approved education provider's licence is suspended, as long as you already have your visa letter. However, we will hold your application until the suspension is resolved.

  • Withdrawn licence

    Licence withdrawn What will happen
    Before you apply to come If your approved education provider's licence is withdrawn, your visa letter will become invalid and you will not be able to use it to support any application for leave to come to the United Kingdom. Any applications made using an invalid visa letter will be refused.
    Before you travel to the United Kingdom If you have been given permission to come but have not travelled yet, your permission to come is cancelled.
    If you travel to the United Kingdom, you will not be allowed to enter.
    If you are already in the United Kingdom studying

    We will limit your permission to stay:

    • to 60 days if you were not involved in the reasons why your approved education provider had their licence withdrawn (we will not limit your permission to stay if you have less than six months left. You may want to apply for permission to stay with another approved education provider during this time);
    • immediately if we think you were involved in the reasons why your sponsor's licence was withdrawn.

  • Organisation taken over

    Organisation taken over What will happen
    If you are inside or outside the United Kingdom If your approved education provider is taken over by another organisation, the new organisation must apply to become an approved education provider within 28 calendar days of them taking over the business (if they are not already licensed by us).
    If they do not already have a licence or do not apply for one within 28 days, we will limit your permission to stay to 60 days. You may want to apply for permission to stay with another approved education provider. We will not limit your permission to stay if you have less than six months left.
    If your new approved education provider does not get a licence, you cannot study with them.

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