Many students dream about studying at Top UK Universities renowned for quality education around the world. The most important reason for that is, the UK is known for its rich culture, long history, best education quality, and of course due to the UK being an English-speaking country. Even the expensive tuition fee of UK Universities cannot stop thousands of students and the UK is still a major education attraction for many decades. Tuition-Free Universities in the UK
The UK has also started giving post-study work visas (valid 2 years) to attract talent and compete with other major study destinations e.g. Australia, Canada, Germany, etc. This post contains step by step guide on How to apply for a UK Student visa 2024 after you get an offer letter from UK University.
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UK Student Visa Application in 2024:
Please follow the below steps to ensure that you’ll be traveling to the UK as soon as you get acceptance from UK University:
1- Once the university issues your admission letter, make sure that it is an unconditional offer letter (with no conditions associated). What that means is, sometimes universities offer conditional letters if you are fulfilling all requirements except IELTS score, or for example reference letters, etc. In this case, they’ll ask you to submit an IELTS score or any other pending document to convert that conditional offer to an unconditional offer letter. They will issue an unconditional offer letter straight away if you fulfill all the requirements for an unconditional offer letter, so don’t worry if you get an unconditional offer at first instance, that’s even better and saves you 2-3 weeks.
2- The second and most important step is to pay 2,000 pounds or 3,000 pounds deposit to confirm your place at university and get a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (or also called, CAS Number) to apply for a UK Student visa. Some Universities also ask for bank statements having enough amount for study (first-year tuition fee) and living expenses for the first 9 months. The amount must have been in the account for at least 28 days.
When you are waiting for the CAS number, don’t forget to book TB Test Appointment for a UK Student visa. It’s a mandatory document and you must have a TB certificate showing that you’re not suffering from TB. And you can only get this certificate from authorized centers by the UK Home office. You can visit their website to see which labs are approved by the UK home office to issue TB certificates in your home country.
3- After you got the CAS Number, you have already fulfilled more than 50% of visa requirements and now you are good enough to apply for a UK Student visa. The Gov.UK website contains all the information regarding visa processes.
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First of all, Go to Gov.UK and go to the UK Student visa option and click on Apply.
4- You’ll sign up and create your account first, it’s straightforward. Simply enter your email and password so that you can remember it later.
5- Then you need to answer all the questions about your background (Name, Passport details, Family details, Any Travel history, Any past visits to the UK etc), studies (University details, Course details, Fee details, CAS Number), Accommodation (Where do you plan to stay in the UK) etc and pay the visa Fee (UK Student visa fee is 363 pounds) and Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS Fee for UK Student visa is 470 pounds per year) to book the visa appointment. It’s not optional and everyone must pay both amounts before booking a visa appointment.
6- After you paid both the Visa fee and IHS fee, the next step is to book a visa appointment. You can select any appointment center in your home country and visit it on the appointment date.
7- On Appointment day, you need to submit your fingerprints and all the documents to VFSGlobal. The documents for a UK Student visa include, but are not limited to: Passport, CAS Letter, Degree, Transcript, Bank statement, Account maintenance letter, TB Certificate, etc. Other documents that you might add can be: Police clearance letter, Flight Reservation, Accommodation Letter, Covid Test report, and more.
7.1. UK Student Visa Interview Questions:
In some cases, they might call you for a UK Student visa interview as well to make sure that you are a genuine student. So-called creditability interview was mandatory earlier for Tier 4 student visa but now it’s waived off and the embassy is rarely conducting any interviews (except in some cases where they think the interview is necessary for making a visa decision). If called, UK Student Visa Interview questions are: Why you have chosen the UK, Why this University, Why this course, Who will Sponsor you, Why do you want to resume your study, What are your Plans after this degree, Any travel history etc.
UK Students Visa Processing time
8- They usually take 15-20 working days to process a student visa application. You’ll get an email and a call from VFS Global that your visa application has been processed and you can collect your passport. If you have paid them, they can also deliver a passport directly to your address as soon as the embassy takes a decision on your UK student visa application.
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9- If you got a UK Student visa Approval from UK Home Office, Great, now you can fly to the UK and fulfill your dream of studying at the best universities in the world. If approved, you’ll get a 90 days visa vignette on your passport and your visa will start from your intended travel date. They also give an approved visa application letter that you must carry while going to the UK as immigration authorities might ask for it sometime at Airports.
10- The UK is also required to have a mandatory 14 days quarantine for some countries due to Covid19 Travel restrictions. Before you fly, you need to fill out the passenger locator form and give details of where are you planning to quarantine for the first 14 days.
Please note that this post only contains abstract details and an overview of what to expect in the visa process and mentally prepares you about possible things during your admission and visa journey.
Please ask in the comments below if you still have any questions, our qualified team would love to help you. Thank you in advance for reading this long post.
