<p>Has anyone had the experience of getting a visa to study in the UK for a semester, and then deciding to study a second semester and getting your visa extended? How difficult is it to do that? If your first student visa expires, how long do you need to leave the UK in order to apply for a new visa? And if it expires, can you remain a bit (or leave briefly and return) to visit and travel around as a tourist just on your U.S. passport? Thanks.</p>
<p>This really isn’t the kind of stuff you should rely on a message board to answer. I kind of know the answers to some of your questions, but I might be wrong, or simply not 100% accurate. It’s not worth risking something as serious as being deported from a foreign country. You need to contact a British Embassy.</p>
<p>Getting a student visa is not totally simple as the rules have been changing the past few years, sometimes some one gets denied for what are essentially clerical issues. It is also not cheap, so get one ahead of time for the longest time you could stay, you can always leave early.</p>
<p>I am not sure how it works with the US-UK no visa required tourist rules, you may have to leave the UK under the student visa and then return, entering as a tourist, I think you get 6 months in the UK and 90 days in the Shengen area (most of western Europe)</p>
<p>cupcake, unfortunately this being the UK they are likely to refer her to some extraordinarily unhelpful private company for $3 a minute or something…</p>
<p>[UK</a> Immigration Forum | Free Immigration Advice | UK Resident](<a href=“http://www.ukresident.com/forums/index.php]UK”>http://www.ukresident.com/forums/index.php)
is a great forum for this type of question
complex questions could require paying to join and getting access to all the boards</p>