If your visa will expire during your employment, it is your responsibility to apply to the UKVI for an extension or for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)

Your Tier 1 or Tier 2 entry visa will show an expiry date. We will record the expiry date on your employee records. If you are still employed by the University three months before the expiry date we will send a reminder to your University email address, reminding you to contact the UKVI, if you require it.

One of the main conditions of granting a visa extension, or Indefinite Leave to Remain, is that you must have been resident in the UK for most of the previous visa period.

This means that you must not have been out of the UK for more than 180 days in any 12 month period. If there have been absences greater than 180 days the extension or ILR is likely to be refused.

Visa extensions

You may request an extension within 60 days of the expiry of the visa. Extensions to a visa do vary but you can only be sponsored via Tier 2 for a maximum period of 6 years.

Note that there are no guarantees that an extension to your visa will be granted. The decision whether to extend your visa will be subject to your continuing residency status in the UK in the initial visa period and to UK policy at the time of extension.

If you want to extend a visa related to a Tier 2 certificate of sponsorship, the University will need to apply for a new certificate of sponsorship against which the visa can be assessed. Please contact hr-compliance@york.ac.uk if you require us to provide an extension certificate of sponsorship.

A Tier 2 visa extension request must be made while you are in the UK. You cannot make an out-of-UK Tier 2 visa extension application. Therefore, if you are near to the expiry date of your Tier 2 related visa and you leave the UK, you must check that you can return to the UK, and make an extension application, before your visa expiry date.

Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR or Settlement)

When an extension period for a Tier 2 visa has completed, you may make an application for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) . The UKVI will take a number of factors into account in assessing an application for ILR as set-out on the ILR webpage. One of these is providing evidence of your continuing residence in the UK. The current guidance can be found at:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/indefinite-leave-to-remain-calculating-continuous-period-in-uk

ILR is not guaranteed to be granted even though you may have been working and living in the UK for five years.

If you obtain an ILR visa you will gain continuing and unlimited eligibility to work in the UK and must bring your ILR visa to HR for us to make the necessary copies and update our records.