You have been staying in a foreign country for two years and your visa will expire next June. You plan to take a three-month professional course and need a visa extension. Write a letter to a consular officer at the embassy. In your letter: - explain when your visa will expire - describe the professional course you plan to take - ask for an extension to your visa
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am an international student in the United Kingdom, and I came on a student visa about two years ago from India. Since then I have been living in the United Kingdomthis great country and studying to completefinish my post-graduation degree. If my studies proceed according to scheduleIf everything goes fine with my studies and according to the schedule, I expect to complete my degreeI should be able to complete my degree in Civil Engineering this coming June, which is only a few months awaya few months away from now. This will complete my current programmeSo, no problem there, and I appreciate the opportunity to study hereI would like to thank you again for that.
But, then, I intend to continue my educationI am also thinking of continuing my education for another three months after finishing my post-graduation degree except, of course, the problem is that my visa is going to expire as soon as I finish my degree. SpecificallyBy the way, I want to use these additional three months to pursue a professional AutoCAD diploma courseprofessional diploma course in “AutoCAD” since it aligns closelyit very much aligns with my goal of becomingmy ambition to prepare myself as an engineera fine Engineer.
Now that you know why I want to stay another three months in your country, I would be very gratefulI would highly appreciate it if you could grant meif you grant me a three-month visa extensionvisa extension for that period.
Yours faithfully,
Chetan Singh
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter clearly explains the June expiry, identifies the three-month AutoCAD diploma, and makes an explicit extension request, with ideas arranged in a logical sequence. Its main weakness is inconsistent formality, including conversational phrases such as So, no problem there and By the way, plus one overcomplicated sentence. Prioritise a consistently respectful consular tone and express the request and supporting reasons more directly.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is clear and every bullet point is developed, but several conversational remarks are unsuitable for a formal embassy request.
State the expiry date and request directly, removing informal asides and using a consistently courteous official tone.
Coherence and Cohesion
Paragraphing clearly separates the current visa, planned course, and request, though some linking phrases are overly conversational.
Replace But, then and By the way with direct logical connections between the degree completion, course, and extension.
Lexical Resource
The response uses a sufficiently broad formal vocabulary, with occasional imprecise collocations such as post-graduation degree and fine Engineer.
Prefer natural expressions such as postgraduate degree, professional development, and qualified civil engineer.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex sentences show good control overall, although one long sentence is overloaded and a few conditional and capitalization forms are inaccurate.
Split the sentence beginning But, then and write I would appreciate it if you granted me an extension.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You have been staying in a foreign country for two years and your visa will expire next June. You plan to take a three-month professional course and need a visa extension. Write a letter to a consular officer at the embassy. In your letter:
- explain when your visa will expire
- describe the professional course you plan to take
- ask for an extension to your visa
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.