Arrivals

You, the student, complete enrolment online and our Student Administration teams will then complete registration remotely or in person, depending on your immigration status. 

You cannot be registered unless you have completed enrolment.   

Our detailed How to enrol guide will help you with each section. 

PLEASE NOTE: For the purpose of this section of the enrolment task, all non-British/Irish passport holders are visa holders as you likely require immigration permission to be in the UK. 

The University of Kent has an obligation to ensure all students have the Right to Study in the UK. This means checking passport and immigration documents before registration. It is your responsibility to ensure these are kept up to date throughout registration. 

Documents that you may need to provide in this section can be found here.    

An eVisa is an online record of your immigration status and the conditions of your permission to enter or stay in the UK. You will need to create a UKVI account to be able to access your eVisa. Information on how to create a UKVI account will be included in your visa decision letter. More information here. If you already have a UKVI account you can use the View/Prove service.

Some immigration categories are exclusively eVisas. Categories include (but are not limited to):

• Student visa (EU/EEA/Swiss nationals from overseas or all nationalities applying from within the UK)
• EU Pre-settled Status
• EU Settled Status 
• British National Overseas (BNO) visa

UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) are developing a digital immigration system. This means we are replacing physical documents with an online record of your immigration status which will be applied to all immigration categories. 

If you have created a UKVI account, you will need to provide a sharecode for the Right to Study and your BRP in your enrolment task for us to verify your digital status. We anticipate that Biometric Residence Permits (BRP) will still be issued until January 2025, therefore if you are due to receive a BRP you will need to collect this and provide it to the University, along with a sharecode to your digital status - we will require both for this transition period. 

To get a sharecode, you will need to visit the following website and follow instructions:

https://www.gov.uk/view-prove-immigration-status

When requesting for a sharecode to be generated, please ensure you select ‘To prove my immigration status for anything else' when asked for the purpose for the code. The screen may look like this:

Once you are shown your share code (which must begin with 'S' for our purpose), please download it as a PDF document and upload it as 'immigration permission' during the enrolment or re-registration tasks. Then we can verify your digital status.

If you are either:

• a national of an EU country, Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland or the USA
  
• a member of the Registered Traveller Service
  

you can normally use eGates to enter the UK. There are over 270 eGates in place at 15 air and rail ports to enable quicker entry.

You should retain evidence of your date of arrival in the UK (such as a boarding pass or travel ticket/booking) as your passport/visa will not be stamped. You will be required to provide this in order to complete enrolment and registration.

Non-visa national 

If you are a non-visa national you can seek entry as a visitor at the border. This will either be via eGates (if an applicable nationality as above) or you will be stamped in by a Border Force officer.

If you enrol prior to arriving in the UK, you will need to upload a copy of your travel booking as 'immigration permission' in the enrolment task.

If you enrol after you have arrived, you will need to upload a copy of your boarding pass or ticket as evidence of your date of arrival. You will be required to provide this in order to complete enrolment and registration.

Visa national

If you are a visa national this means you need permission to enter the UK, usually by way of a visa sticker in your passport. 

If you enrol prior to arriving in the UK, you will need to upload a copy of your vignette (yellow visa sticker in your passport) as 'immigration permission' in the enrolment task AND evidence of when you intend to travel to the UK ie booking confirmation, boarding pass with the date of travel and your name. 

If you enrol after you have arrived, you will need to upload a copy of your stamped vignette. 

You should retain evidence of your date of arrival in the UK (such as a boarding pass or travel ticket/booking) in the event your vignette does not get stamped. You will be required to provide this to the Student Immigration Compliance team in order to complete your registration.  

If you are already in the UK and you have a pending immigration application (as a Student using the CAS issued by Kent or another immigration category), you will be required to provide evidence such as a copy of either:

• Document Checklist or
• Submitted Application

You can download either of these documents from your UKVI visa application portal.

You will also be required to sign a Combined Disclosure Form and return it to the Student Immigration Compliance Team before you will be registered. This will give us your permission to contact the Home Office to verify and check on the status of your application to ensure you retain the right to study.

We will email you if we require you to complete a form after assessing your documents provided in the enrolment task.

If you are a distance learning/overseas campus student (for example Hong Kong Baptist University - HKBU) and are not required to come to the UK for your course, please upload a copy of your passport for the Right to Study section of enrolment and update your term time address to an overseas address.

If you are a distance learner and reside in the UK, you will still be required to provide evidence of your UK immigration permission in the task.

If you see the following message in your student portal it means we have not yet checked your Right to Study. Please do not be alarmed if your record states 'non-compliant' or 'no visa record'.

Once enrolment is complete the Student Immigration Compliance team will look at your documents and complete registration. 

Student visa holders ie if you received a CAS from the University for sponsorship on a Student visa, will be required to register in person at the Arrivals Hub (Canterbury) or the Gillingham building (Medway)

You will receive an automated email when registration is complete. 

All students will collect their Kent ID card in person at the Arrivals Hub at your campus. 

If you are progressing to the next stage (academic year) of your course or are returning from intermission, you will be required to complete Returning Registration. 

You will need to confirm/provide evidence of your passport and immigration permission (current visa) in the 'Right to study in the UK' section of the task.

Depending on your nationality and circumstances, you may need to provide a share code or additional evidence.

If you have any issues with your passport or immigration permission, please contact the Student Immigration Compliance Team.