Student Route Visa

If you have doubt that you need a visa to study in the UK, you can visit GOV.UK website. This tool will tell you if you need a visa and if it is a Student Route visa.

Depending on your course, and if you have studied in the UK before you will have to provide the following:

If you are a national of one of the exempt countries listed here, the Home Office specifies that you can be considered under the differential evidence requirement. While this means that you do not need to send financial and educational qualification documents with your visa application, you must still ensure that you obtain them ahead of applying. This is because the Home Office can request the evidence as part of their decision process and they will refuse your application if you are unable to provide it within the specified time-frame.

You will still have to send your original passport and all other relevant supporting documents. 

To apply for the Student Route you must meet the requirement of 70 points:

*offers may require an English qualification higher than CEFR B2 or you might not need to take separate english language qualification. For more details see the List of documents to submit.For more information on eligibility and how to meet the requirements, visit the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) pages.

All Student visa applications made for a programme of study of more than 6 months in duration will be required to pay a fee for access to NHS health care in the UK. You must pay this fee in advance, it is a mandatory requirement for a visa application even if you hold alternative health insurance. If you do not pay it, your visa application will be refused. You can find out more information about the health surcharge here.

The busiest time of the year for the Home Office is the summer period, therefore you should submit your Student Route visa application as soon as you have received your CAS letter and gathered the correct documentation.

Please do not travel to the UK until you have received your Student Route visa and only travel from or after the first date that visa is valid.

Once you have submitted your visa application online, the waiting time starts when you either:
• Attend your appointment and provide your biometric information at the visa application centre.
• Verify your identity using the UK immigration: ID check app. This will depend on the visa you apply for; you will be advised by the Home Office whether you can use this.

You should receive a decision on your application within 3 weeks after you have attended your visa appointment or verifying your identity using the ID check app, however, this could be longer during busy periods.

Always check with your visa application centre how long their processing times are. Due to higher demand than usual over the summer could mean that there may be a delay in processing your visa application.

Please note that priority and super priority visa services refer to the visa processing times and do not account for the time it takes for your documents to arrive at the Visa application centre for collection.

We understand that delays to your visa application process can be distressing, however we advise that you do not apply for a Visitor visa to travel as you are unable to switch from this visa into the Student Route from within the UK.

To make a successful UK visa application you will generally follow these steps.