Students’ Union Sabbatical Officer

This is one of our Student visa guides, part of the information we provide on study related visa matters.  If individual advice on a matter not covered by this guide is required, please contact the Student Advice and Support Service.

The Student visa route can be used to take up work as a Students’ Union sabbatical officer.  For Student visa purposes UKVI explain that ‘a Student Union Sabbatical Officer post is a full-time, salaried, elected, executive union position. A Student may be a Student Union Sabbatical Officer for a maximum of two years at the same institution, either during their course or in the academic year immediately after they graduate. The post must be at the institution that sponsors them or they must be elected to a National Union of Students of the UK position.’

Work as a Students’ Union Sabbatical Officer is not subject to the normal visa limit of 20 hours per week in term-time.

If you already have Student visa that will cover the period as a sabbatical officer, the Academic Registry (Student Records or Doctoral College Office as appropriate) must report the change from study to sabbatical role to UKVI.

In some circumstances, existing Student permission may be sufficient without any change to visa eg if Student visa has been granted for a programme including a placement year and the sabbatical role is taken during that time.

In other circumstances a CAS may be issued to apply for further Student visa, for example:

  • Where the sabbatical role is being taken up after studies and current Student permission is due to expire.
  • Where a sabbatical role was taken mid-course and extra time is now required to resume and complete studies.

Any request for a new CAS is submitted online. The Student visa permission application could be made outside the UK or inside the UK as a Student visa extension.  If you are applying for extra visa with a CAS issued for a sabbatical officer role there is no requirement to show funds in support of the visa application.  If you are applying as a student returning to studies after a sabbatical post, whether you will need to show evidence of funds may depend on whether you apply inside the UK and your residence history or your nationality (see the relevant visa application guide linked above).

There is a general five-year limit on Student visas for students at bachelor’s degree level, time as a sabbatical officer does not count towards this limit.  There is no such time limit for postgraduate students.

We give more detail on how Graduate visa works in our separate guide.

A Graduate visa could be used to work as a sabbatical officer after studies.

One of the general requirements for Graduate route eligibility is that the degree was obtained during the current grant of Student visa.  If a student takes up a sabbatical post during studies and returns to complete studies with a Student visa they can meet this requirement in the normal way.  In addition, there is a special concession for students who go on to further Student visa for a sabbatical post after completing studies.  This allows students who became eligible for Graduate route on the basis of the Student visa before the sabbatical officer visa to apply later and switch to Graduate route from the sabbatical officer visa.  In short it is possible to defer the switch to Graduate route relying on this concession and preserve the Graduate visa for pursuing other work activities later.

How can the University support you?

Our webpages include the most common visa related topics.  If you require advice or guidance beyond what is covered please contact the Student Advice and Support Service.

Last updated: 30th March 2026