Getting Sick on a Student Visa

Hi All

I am getting ready to travel to the UK for a year of postgrad study.  I have a tier 4 visa.  I want to know what happens if, while I am in the UK studying I get sick enough and have to drop out of school will the NHS still take care of me or will I be deported?

London does crazy things to people's health that is why I am concerned.  Two friends of mine have already gone over to start their classes and have new health problems.  One got a nasty respiratory infection that has dogged him for weeks and he is only two or three missed classes from getting kicked out.  My other friend met with a GP who discovered he has some auto immune disease that could keep him at home for a month!! 

I am always getting colds and crud in the states and I am horrified what could happen to me if I go to London.  Thanks

Your first friend needs to talk to his uni, because there are procedures in place to take account of illness so that you shouldn't get kicked out for getting ill. I don't think London is any more pathogenic than any other big city, and it certainly wouldn't be the likely cause of an autoimmune disease, so I think you're maybe being a bit paranoid You would have to talk to your uni to find out exactly what the procedures are for the scenario you describe, but you shouldn't have to drop out completely due to illness. If you did have to drop out, you would have to go home, but you wouldn't be deported as such.

No doubt I am a bit paranoid    but it has served me well.  I just want to know what happens to any visa holder in a worst case scenario. 

You do all that work to get there then find out you have a disease or sickness that is going to require weeks or months of treatment and you have leave school or you job.  Are you totally out of luck?  Would the NHS ship an ill person out for treatment in there own country?

No doubt I am a bit paranoid    but it has served me well.  I just want to know what happens to any visa holder in a worst case scenario. 

You do all that work to get there then find out you have a disease or sickness that is going to require weeks or months of treatment and you have leave school or you job.  Are you totally out of luck?  Would the NHS ship an ill person out for treatment in there own country?

The NHS wouldn't do anything - they are legally obliged to treat you if you need treatment.

The problem would come if you had to leave school or your job completely, because in that case your visa would most likely no longer be valid, which means you would no longer be legally allowed to live in the UK, you would not be allowed free access to the NHS (in that case you would have to pay for all treatment except ER emergency treatmenet) and you would have to leave.

With a work visa, your permission to live in the UK is based on you being employed by your UK company. If you were sick long-term, you may be entitled to sick pay provisions while still being employed by the company, but if you were forced to leave the job completely, you would have to leave the UK because your visa would not be valid anymore (and you would not be entitled to free NHS treatment without a valid visa anyway).

Similarly with a student visa, if there aren't any provisions for continuing to stay enrolled at the university while you are sick, and you had no choice but to drop out, you would have to leave the UK, otherwise you would become an illegal immigrant

So, it's about the validity of your visa, not about what the NHS would do.

Having said that though, is there any particular reason why you think you might get sick? Do you have underlying conditions that make you think you might be susceptible to bad illnesses?

Chances are that your friend with the auto-immune disease would have been diagnosed with it anyway, regardless of whether they were living in London or not. And anyone can respiratory infections anywhere - I doubt it had anything to do with London as a city.

Great advice.  Always good to know before you go imo.  It is just scary when your two best friend go and get sick really fast after being their, make me think it is inevitable for me.  Like to movie final destination    Just have to take my vitamin c

I don't think London is any more pathogenic than any other big city, and it certainly wouldn't be the likely cause of an autoimmune disease, so I think you're maybe being a bit paranoid

Maybe, maybe not? I think he's on to something. Whether its the actual germs or the stress of moving/visiting the city, I've had the vast majority of my American friends here report they became sick soon after they moved. My friends that have visited have gotten colds when they visited me right away. For my own part, I didn't have a single cold/flu/etc for three years leading up to moving to London, and within two days of living here was so sick I could barely move with a flu - 104 fever!

I suspect the 'germs are different' and it takes you a while to buid up a local immunity. But maybe its more a correlation from the stress of moving/registering for a new school/learning a new transport system/etc etc.