Getting a CAS - Your Journey to a Tier 4 Student Visa Explained: Contents: 1. Introduction what is a CAS? 2. Accepting your offer 3. Providing academic and identification evidence 4. The Tier 4 Agreement 5. The Immigration History Declaration Form 6. ATAS Certificates 7. Receiving an academically unconditional offer and paying your tuition fee deposit 8. Providing financial evidence 9. Receiving your CAS 10. Next Steps 11. My CAS checklist 1. Introduction what is a CAS? : Congratulations on choosing to study with Canterbury Christ Church University, and on receiving your offer! As a student who requires a Tier 4 visa in order to study in the UK, we have prepared this simple guide to help you understand the process of applying for this visa, and the documents you must provide to the university before we can issue you a CAS. What is a CAS? Before you can make a Tier 4 student visa application, you must receive your CAS document from the university. CAS stands for Confirmation of Acceptance of Studies, and is created by the university once you have provided us with copies of all of documents you will need for your visa application. The CAS is how the university confirms to the UK Visa and Immigration Authority (UKVI) that you have been accepted as a genuine student of the university, and that you have provided evidence to us to show that you are: i: Academically qualified to start your course. ii: Eligible to apply for UK entry clearance to start your course under the UK Immigration Rules. iii: Financially able to pay for your course, and to support yourself during your stay in the United Kingdom. Until you have received your CAS from the university, you must not make a visa application. Any application made without a CAS will be refused, which may cause you problems if you intend to travel to the UK in future.
During the course of your visa application, your International Admissions Officer will guide you through each step. It is important that you follow their instructions carefully, as they are trying to help you. The university can only issue your CAS a maximum of three months before your course start date, and only if we have received all evidence that is required in the checklist at the end of this document. Before requesting your CAS, please ensure that you check you have sent all of this evidence, and that your course starts in three months or less. 2. Accepting your offer: After your application is made either via UCAS (The UK online university application system), our direct online application form or our paper application form, your International Admissions Officer may either request further documents, or they may send you an offer. If you are sent an offer, you will need to accept it to move to the next stage (Providing Evidence). In order to accept your offer, you need to do the following: i: If you applied via UCAS, you need to log in to UCAS TRACK and accept your offer. ii: If you applied directly to Canterbury Christ Church either online or via the paper form, you will need to sign the offer acceptance document that has been sent with your offer. Once your offer has been formally accepted, your Admissions Officer will ask you to provide a number of evidential documents via e-mail. 3. Providing academic and identification evidence: After you have accepted your offer, you will need to provide evidence to show that you have successfully met or exceeded the academic requirements of your offer. We will also require a copy of your passport). Your Admissions Officer will ask you to send the following: i: A scanned copy of your passport. ii: Your Personal Statement (if you applied via UCAS, we will already have this) iii: One or more academic references, depending on your course. If you have applied via UCAS, we will already have at least one of these. iiii: Scanned copies of your academic qualifications, including English language qualifications where requested. 4. The Tier 4 Agreement: We will ask you to sign a document known as the Tier 4 Agreement. In this document, you formally agree to abide by the UK Immigration Rules regarding attending your course, sickness and interruption of your course, your contact details and other rules regarding your stay in the UK. In this document, you also acknowledge that if you fail to attend your course in accordance with the conditions of your leave to remain in the UK, the university may report this to the UKVI and withdraw you from study. You also acknowledge that if you are
withdrawn from your course for any reason, the UKVI will curtail your visa and give you a limited period within which either to apply for a new one or leave the UK. 5. The Immigration History Declaration Form: We will also ask you to sign our Immigration History Declaration Form, in which you will need to detail any previous studies in the UK which you have undertaken, and the length/type of that study. This will allow us to calculate whether you will be permitted to study in the UK again for your course, as the UKVI have set limits or caps on how long International Students are able to study in the UK at certain academic levels. In this form, you also give the university consent to contact the UKVI directly in order to make enquiries on your immigration status and previous UK immigration history. 6. ATAS Certificates: Certain courses will require you to gain a special certificate from the UK government before you are able to receive a CAS and apply for your visa. Typically, these are courses which include content which may be used to create harmful substances or technology. An ATAS (Academic Technology Approval Certificate) is gained following an online application, and will form part of your offer conditions if appropriate. 7. Receiving an academically unconditional offer and paying your deposit: Once all of your immigration and academic documents are received and verified by the university, we will send you an academically unconditional offer. This offer confirms that you have the required qualifications to start the course, but will still include certain immigration conditions to be met. One of these is that in order to firmly secure your place, you need to make a payment equal to or exceeding 50% of your first year s tuition fees. We would advise you to do this as soon as you are able, as international money transfers can take some time, and it is only after payment is made that we are able to request financial evidence (usually bank statements) from you in support of your visa application. You can make your deposit online by visiting https://payments.canterbury.ac.uk, by direct bank transfer (you will be given our account details on request), or you may contact our Finance Team directly by e-mailing finance@canterbury.ac.uk. In any case, once you have made your payment please let your Admissions Officer know so that they can confirm it has been received by our Finance Team. We are required to tell the UKVI how much you have paid towards your accommodation and tuition before your CAS is issued, so it is very important that we know a payment has been made. Please do not be alarmed if once you have made your payment, our Finance Team are not immediately able to confirm it has been received. As mentioned earlier in this section, international money transfers can take some days to complete, and you can be assured once you have made payment and informed us, your Admissions Officer will maintain regular contact with the Finance Team until they confirm the funds have been received.
8. Providing Financial Evidence: Once we have confirmed that your deposit payment has been received, we will need you to send us scanned copies of bank statements that show you have not only the funds to pay the rest of your Year 1 tuition fee, but also enough money to support you to live in the UK. This is known as maintenance. The total amount you must show that you have is: Remainder of your Year 1 tuition fee + 9,135.00 maintenance fund The most usual form of evidence provided is a bank statement printed by your bank. This statement needs to be in your name or in the name of your parents, and must be a personal (not business) account. If the account is held by your parents, they will also need to provide your birth certificate and a letter of consent for this money to be used for your education. If the money is held in a joint account, we are able to accept this as long as your name is printed on the statement. The statement must show: Your name or your parent/legal guardian s name The account number The name and logo of your bank The amount of money available The statement must cover at least a consecutive 28 day period, and on every day of the statement, the amount of money shown must never be below the amount specified above (remainder of your tuition fee, plus 9,135.00). If your statement is not in UK Pounds Sterling, you must ensure that one the day you make your visa application, the lowest amount of money shown in the statement is equal or above the required amount in Pounds Sterling in your local currency, as per that day s exchange rate on www.oanda.com (the website that the UKVI uses). Certain other forms of evidence (for example, online bank statements, letters from your bank, or confirmation of a student loan) are acceptable, and your Admissions Officer will advise you of this if you are unable to provide a suitable bank statement. Please note that any bank statement provided to us must have an end date no later than 31 days before you make your visa application. Therefore, as you are only able to apply
for your visa three months before the course start date, statements that are submitted too early cannot be used, and you will need to provide alternative evidence. Once you have made your tuition fee deposit and your course is less than three months away from starting, we would encourage you to collect this evidence and send it to us as soon as possible. This will allow plenty of time for us to issue your CAS and for you to make your visa application. As the UKVI can often take several weeks to reach a visa decision, the earlier we can send your CAS and you can make your visa application, the more likely it is that you will be able to make travel arrangements and arrive for your course on time. Please remember not to book any travel until you have received your visa decision from the UK Visa and Immigration Authority. 9. Receiving your CAS: Once you have accepted your offer, made your deposit payment and have provided all required academic, immigration and financial documents, the university will send your CAS by e-mail. The CAS is a.pdf document which will list several details about you and your course. Most importantly, the CAS will display our institution code and your CAS Number. You will be required to enter these details into the UKVI online visa application form when making your visa application. Once you have received your CAS, you may begin the process of applying for your visa online. As we have mentioned, several of the details you will need to enter are already present in the CAS document, so it is very important that when we send the CAS to you, you check it to ensure there are no errors in your passport number, date of birth and other details we can change these and send an updated CAS if we are informed promptly of any required changes. 10. Next Steps: Once you have received your CAS and confirmed that all details are correct, you may make your online visa application. Depending on the service type you have required, you will either be asked to send in your evidence documents by post, or bring them in person to a visa appointment at your local visa application centre (VAC). In order to complete your visa application, you will be required to make what is known as the Immigration Health Surcharge. This is a payment which will give you cover for medical treatment in the UK during your studies. You will not be able to complete your application without making this payment. As part of your visa application, you may also be required to submit a medical certificate confirming that you are free of Tuberculosis (TB) you will be informed if this is the case during the course of your online application.
Once you have completed your online application and made the Immigration Health Surcharge and application fee payments, the UKVI website will provide you with a list of documents that you must submit to them, either by post or in person as mentioned earlier. It is very important that you send all of the documents that are requested, otherwise your visa may be delayed or refused. Please do not send any documents that are not requested by the UKVI, as these may harm your visa application. Please ensure that you only send original documents, photocopies will not be accepted. You must ensure that you only send the UKVI documents which you have already shown your Admissions Officer and that they have approved. If you send any documents which the university has not seen and approved, you increase your risk of a visa refusal. 11. My CAS checklist: I have received an offer letter from Canterbury Christ Church University (either academically unconditional or academically conditional) I have accepted my offer, either via UCAS or directly via e-mail. I have provided copies of my academic qualifications and identification documents to my Admissions Officer. I have completed, signed and returned the Immigration History Declaration Form and Tier 4 Agreement to my Admissions Officer. I have gained an ATAS certificate if I am required to do so. I have met my offer conditions and received an academically unconditional offer. I have paid my tuition fee deposit, and it has been confirmed by Canterbury Christ Church. I have provided my financial evidence, and my Admissions Officer has confirmed it is acceptable. IF ALL ITEMS ABOVE ARE TICKED, YOU ARE ABLE TO REQUEST YOUR CAS!