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When to arrive
Unless you have made arrangements to arrive early, you should try to schedule your travel plans to arrive on Saturday 12 January 2013.
This is the first date that you can access University accommodation.
Arriving at this time allows you take advantage of our Airport Welcome Team and participate in Orientation Day and our other welcome events.
Arriving early
However, if you plan to arrive earlier, there is the option of gaining access to your accommodation from Monday 7 January but you should have received an email directly from Allocations advising you of this arrangement.
Your contract would be amended accordingly.
Hogmanay is a very busy period in Edinburgh, and so if you do want to arrive in Edinburgh at the beginning of January, you should try to book temporary accommodation as early as possible.
Visas for travel
Your visa is valid for travel to the UK from the "valid from" date on the visa itself. This date is the earliest point that you can arrive in the UK on your visa.
Arrival via the Republic of Ireland
Student visitors who are non-visa nationals who choose to travel to the UK without applying for a visa/entry clearance before they travel should not enter the UK via the Republic of Ireland.
The Republic of Ireland has a 'Common Travel Area' with the UK. This means there is no immigration presence on arrival in Edinburgh from the Republic of Ireland. As such you cannot apply for the visiting student visa through this route.
If you travel to Edinburgh through the Republic of Ireland, you will receive a ‘tourist’ stamp in your passport upon arrival.
Tourists are not permitted to study and as such the University would not be able to enrol you on your course of study. In this case, you would need to leave the UK to a location outside of the Common Travel Area (Amsterdam, Paris or Frankfurt for example) to return to the UK and legally apply as a Student Visitor at the airport.
If you have a Tier 4 (General) student visa before travelling, you can travel through the Republic of Ireland.
However please keep copies of your boarding pass and flight tickets for your journey from the Republic of Ireland to Edinburgh.
This can later be used as evidence of your arrival date in the UK.
This article was published on Feb 14, 2013