International students have been urged to renew their visas by the office of Student’s Affairs at Uganda Christian University (UCU).
Renewal of students’ visas is a requirement laid out by the government, that all the international students are supposed to comply with. According to Tom Toboswa Kiplagat, the student’s affairs administrator, in order to have this process done, students should carry their admission letters, passports, students identification card, passport photos and an attachment letter from the office of the Director of Students’ Affairs (DOSA), which they present for scanning at the university before being sent to the immigration.
“The university scans these documents and sends them to the portal using the university code and they are sent to a special mail since students from different institutions used to exploit the university’s code,” Kiplagat said.
He added, “We communicate early enough to make sure that all our international students renew their visas on time because once they expire then it is out of our control.”
Kiplagat said many students take the communication for granted and end up facing extra charges which is why it is important for them to act early and communicate to their parents on time in order to avoid the extra expenses.
Many of the international students are already in the process of renewing their visas as they try to beat the expiry dates and have commended the university for alerting and reminding them.
Loretta Momella an international student from Congo pursuing a Bachelors in Business Administration said, “I am super grateful to the university because at times I forget but with the constant communication that is always put up, I positively respond.”
“For this semester l am in the process of getting my visa and I call upon my fellow students to renew their visas on time since we are all aware of the fine that is paid in case the visa expires,” she added.
