Student visa holder – eligibility to work during and after their course

Part-time working

For evidence of eligibility to work part time, students will provide their prospective employer with:

a) a letter that confirms the holiday dates for the current academic year and,
b) their confirmation of enrolment.

Part a is a standard letter, downloadable by all students, therefore this will not be personalised. Part b will contain personalised information about the student’s enrolment at Sheffield Hallam University.

Full-time work during vacation periods

Students are eligible to work full time during the recognised University vacation periods in spring and winter, as per the official University academic calendar.

Please note: The summer vacation period does not apply to all courses. During the summer vacation period, students can only work full time if they meet the following criteria:

1. Their course started in January, or they are on a course of longer than 12 months in duration regardless of the course start date.
2. They don’t have any referral study or retakes during the summer vacation. It is the student’s responsibility to inform their employer if they have referral study or retakes and therefore cannot work full time.

To evidence eligibility to work full time during recognised University vacation periods, as per the official University academic calendar, students will provide the documents in part a and b as described above. Their confirmation of enrolment will state when their course started and the duration of the course.

Full-time work after course completion

Student will evidence their right to work full-time upon course completion with either their completers transcript or their Sheffield Hallam University Graduate route notification email. Both documents will be personalized.

Alternatively, prospective employers can visit the Employer Checking Service to check directly with UKVI. However, after Sheffield Hallam University has reported successful completion for the Graduate route to UKVI, it can take some time for UKVI to update a student’s status, so it may provide a false response that states the student is still restricted to working a maximum of 20 hours per week.