- Student Support / Immigration and Visas / How to obtain your BRP card
If you have successfully applied for a student visa and you are from outside the European Union, once you enter the UK you will need to collect your full Student visa, called a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP).
Student visa applicants from within the European Union will be granted a digital immigration status instead of a BRP card.
If you have used the University of Manchester’s BRP Alternative Collection Location code (2HE372) in your visa application, this means that your BRP will be sent directly to the Student Services Centre at the Univeristy of Manchester and that you will be able to collect it from us.
Once your BRP has arrived at the Student Services Centre, we will contact you by e-mail with information on how to collect it, including what you need to bring with you.
If you have asked for your dependant(s) BRP(s) to be sent to the Student Services Centre at the University of Manchester, please contact the Student Immigration Team so we can arrange for you to collect the card(s).
If you decided not to use the University of Manchester’s BRP Alternative Collection Location code, your BRP will be sent to the Post Office nearest to your UK address and details of this will be provided on your UKVI decision letter. Please see further information below.
If you have any questions, please contact the Student Immigration Team.
In order to collect your BRP from the Post Office, you must bring with you:
- Your passport
- Your UKVI decision letter which accompanied your 90-day travel visa
You do not need an appointment to collect your BRP from the Post Office. Most students who select Post Office collection will find that the Piccadilly Plaza Post Office is their collection point. The opening times of other Post Office branches can be searched for here.
If you lose your decision letter after arrival in the UK, before collecting your BRP, if you know where you need to collect your BRP from, just take your passport with the vignette in to collect your BRP, and explain that you have lost the decision letter.
Once you have made your visa application it is not possible to change the collection of your card from a Post Office branch to the University, or to change the collection of your BRP from the University to a Post Office branch. If your BRP has been sent to a Post Office that is no longer convenient for you to visit, you can arrange for your BRP card to be sent to a different Post Office; see the Home Office website for details.
After you have collected your BRP card, you will need to complete your right to study check at the University.
As you will be under 18 you need to be accompanied by a responsible adult (someone who is over 18 years) when you go to the Post Office. Your parent or guardian can be your Responsible Adult without prior approval from the Home Office only if:
• They are collecting their own BRP at the same time, and
• The vignette in their passport states that you are their dependent (this will be shown by a printed remark such as “Dependant of John Smith”).
In all other cases the adult who will accompany you must be approved in advance by the Home Office, even if they are your parent or legal guardian.
In order to register as the Responsible Adult go to www.gov.uk/biometric-residence-permits/collect
It will take at least a week for the UKVI to process a request to approve a Responsible Adult, and the process cannot be speeded up if that person is about to leave the UK, so please ensure that they apply as soon as possible.
The Responsible Adult will have to provide evidence of their identity when accompanying you to collect your biometric residence permit.
To prove their identity the Responsible Adult must present one of the following identity documents:
• Passport
• European national identity card (European citizen only)
• UK issued biometric residence permit.
If approved, you and the Responsible Adult will receive an authorisation e-mail. You and the responsible adult will need to present these to the Post Office Customer Service Adviser at the time of collection and you will not be able to collect your permit without them.
If you have not travelled with someone who is able to collect on your behalf please contact visa@manchester.ac.uk as it may be possible for a member of the Student Immigration Team to collect your BRP on your behalf from the Post Office.
If you know where you need to collect your BRP from, just take your passport with the vignette in to collect your BRP, and explain that you have lost the decision letter.
If you do not know where you are required to collect your BRP from, or if you lose your passport, after arrival in the UK, prior to BRP collection you should use the form on the Gov.UK website to report your situation to the Home Office. They will write to you in 5 working days with instructions telling you what you need to do next.
If you will be collecting your BRP card from the Student Services Centre and have received a notification e-mail from the University to book a BRP collection appointment but have not been able to do so, please follow the steps below.
On the booking page, you must select a date range at the top of the page so that it is highlighted in purple and then click on a date in that range to reveal the available appointment slots:
If the date range you are seeking is not showing, you should revisit the page as future appointments are added on an ongoing basis throughout the year.
