Hey..guys, I'm a 3rd year PhD student in Australia. I'm planning to visit London for 3-4 months later this year. I'll be doing some academic research there. I'm bit confused about the type of visa that I need. I've been searching through internet for a while, but seemingly there's no information regarding visas for visiting PhD students to UK. I'm wondering whether I can apply for 'Academic Visitor' visa. If you have any experience on this, please give me some advice.

Tons of info at the Border Agency website

http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/howtoapply/infs/inf5students

If you are not planning on working, I can't see it being a problem.

Hi ,
You can apply for visit visa or if your research institute in london send you letter than you can apply for study visa that would best suit you. Good Luck.

Hey,,.thanks. The problem is I'm not going to be enrolled in any course of studies in UK, and I'm a full time PhD student in Australia. Thus, I cannot visit UK as a visiting research student. For all practical reasons I'll be an academic visitor, working jointly with a Prof there for few months. I think I have to apply for 'Academic Visitor' visa, but I'm wondering whether my student status in Aus would cause any problems. I called the High Commission, but the help desk people knows nothing more than what is already there in the website. Please let me know if there are other PhD student visiting UK with 'Academic Visitor' visa.

I wanted to share my experience with everyone as I could not find anything on the internet that confirmed whether PhD's would be considered for the Academic Visitor visa in the UK. The wording on the UKBA website seems to imply that PhD candidates do not fit the criteria for this visa.

I am a PhD student, and had an offer as a Research Visitor to one of the universities in the UK for 12 months. As I was not considered a student by the UK university, I could not get a CAS number, and hence couldn't apply for the Student Visa, After searching the internet I decided to apply for the Academic Visitor visa, as this was the only visa that would allow me to stay in the UK for a year.

I was recently granted the Academic Visitor visa, which I am very happy about. Total time to process my visa was 9 days including a weekend. I included the following documents in my application:

- A letter inviting me as a Research Visitor for 12 months from a UK university
- A letter from my home university granting me "leave" and permission to accept the offer
- An academic CV including all seminars given and publications
- Two of my publications
- Bank statements showing scholarship payments from my home university
- Bank statements showing I had sufficient funds for my 12 months in the UK

I hope this has helped clear the confusion for anyone else who has the same problem.

Good to see this info here.I have got great information's to this posting. It will make some contributions in needed times.

Hi iperera, any update on how your application went?