Absences and travel outside the UK during the visit

While Sponsored Tier 5 visa holders are not employees, they should follow the normal absence reporting procedures within their host department/faculty/college for sickness absence and annual leave. Records of absence must be readily available in Tier 5 visa holders' files for audit purposes.

If a Tier 5 visa holder's funding changes as a result of taking Maternity, Paternity, Shared Parental, Adoption, or Sick leave (i.e. reduced funding while on maternity or sick leave, or a period of unpaid absence) this must be reported to the Staff Immigration Team within 5 working days after the date of the change.

More information can be found on the Changes in Tier 5 activities page.

An unauthorised absence would occur when a sponsored Tier 5 visa holder fails to attend when attendance is expected and they have not communicated their absence to their host department/faculty/college. Examples could include a failure to attend a timetabled lecture or seminar, an unexplained absence from a conference or other meeting, or an unexplained absence. An unauthorised absence of 10 days or more would have to be reported to the Home Office by the Staff Immigration Team (SIT). More information can be found on the Absence and travel outside the UK during the visit page.
 

Tier 5 visa holders are only permitted to take up to 4 weeks authorised unfunded absence in any calendar year (January to December), and any unfunded absence must be reported to the Home Office by SIT. Longer periods of unpaid absences and reductions in funding below the Tier 5 salary thresholds are permitted in cases of maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoption, and sick leave, but still need to be reported to the Home Office. More information on this can be found on the Changes in Tier 5 activities page.

As Tier 5 visa holders must receive funding during the whole length of their visit, and Tier 5 visa holders cannot be self-funded from their own savings, if problems or delays arise with this funding this must be discussed with the host department/faculty/college and SIT as soon as possible. SIT will try to help resolve the funding issue, but if the funding is cancelled or reduced below the required level this would have to be reported to the Home Office, and the visa could be cancelled.