Overview

• The Home Office has started texting and emailing thousands of international students and their families, telling those without a right to remain to leave or face removal.
• About 10,000 students have been contacted so far, with messages planned for roughly 130,000 recipients as visas approach expiry.
• Officials say unmeritorious asylum claims will be refused and any request for support will be tested against destitution criteria.
• New compliance measures begin this month requiring universities to meet tighter sponsorship and course completion quotas.
• Home Office data show 14,800 asylum claims in the year to June 2025 from people who arrived on study visas within an overall 111,000 claims, drawing criticism from university staff unions and reassurance messaging from NISAU UK.