Applying for a UK student visa with a conditional offer?

OP

KuntiSurya

Not sure where you are from. But, this was the steps I went through.

Conditional offer > Met the conditional offer > Uni Sent me a Unconditional Offer and a application form (can't recall the name sorry) > I sent that in > They sent me CAS > I applied for accommodations > I am trying to apply for my Visa now, but also wanting to vomit.

make sense?

Definitely makes sense but for us, A-Level students, meeting the conditional offer and getting the results in mid-August and THEN getting the CAS makes little sense. Time is sooooo limited. :angry:

Hardly ten days to get the visa, make travel arrangements and everything else.

ughhh...

UGH...ditto! :confused:

i hate this.

umm...sorry if this sounds a little stupid...but i'm just really confused...how did you find out that you met your offer? im guessing you did something other than A Levels? Because the people who did their A Levels need to get their results first to see if they met their conditional offer or not....or am i totally wrong? this is so frustrating :frown:

I'm guessing he did something other than A-Levels.

I called up the British Embassy in my country, they told me that I'll have to wait till my A-Level results and can't apply with the conditional offer. :/

Reply 4

KuntiSurya

ughhh...

UGH...ditto! :confused:

i hate this.

umm...sorry if this sounds a little stupid...but i'm just really confused...how did you find out that you met your offer? im guessing you did something other than A Levels? Because the people who did their A Levels need to get their results first to see if they met their conditional offer or not....or am i totally wrong? this is so frustrating :frown:

No worries, your not the one that is stupid, the people on our ends are.

Yea I did something completely different. Sorry guys, I am in Canada, no A Levels and I am a mature student. I had to cram into my brain a couple years worth of education, over a few months. I wrote 6 exams each 2ish to 3ish hours long. All because I did not have my grade 12 (did not graduate from high school) but now I do. Stupid thing is, I had a Accounting and Business degree from college, but still needed my grade 12. Not stupid because of UK standards, but stupid because of lack of NOT having to have my grade 12 to get that degree.

But yea, like I said, you cannot apply for/get your visa until you have your unconditional and your CAS.
I have to figure out how to place my stupid loan on the visa application. It says in your bank 28 days. Well, they do not deposit your full loan in one lump sum, you get so much, then each month you get some. STUPID!!

Seefour

Definitely makes sense but for us, A-Level students, meeting the conditional offer and getting the results in mid-August and THEN getting the CAS makes little sense. Time is sooooo limited. :angry:

Hardly ten days to get the visa, make travel arrangements and everything else.

I'm guessing he did something other than A-Levels.

I called up the British Embassy in my country, they told me that I'll have to wait till my A-Level results and can't apply with the conditional offer. :/

Ok, glad it made sense.. But am I still showing sexless here?
I really need to fix that.. oops
Nah I am female.

Reply 5

ughhh...

Seefour

Definitely makes sense but for us, A-Level students, meeting the conditional offer and getting the results in mid-August and THEN getting the CAS makes little sense. Time is sooooo limited. :angry:

Hardly ten days to get the visa, make travel arrangements and everything else.

I'm guessing he did something other than A-Levels.

I called up the British Embassy in my country, they told me that I'll have to wait till my A-Level results and can't apply with the conditional offer. :/

ugh!! i know right?!?! this totallyyy sucks! i hate how we don't have enough time :frown:

in my country they take AGES to get the whole process done and that just makes it all worse :frown:

i just hope we get to uni on time! good luck for it all!

KuntiSurya

No worries, your not the one that is stupid, the people on our ends are.

Yea I did something completely different. Sorry guys, I am in Canada, no A Levels and I am a mature student. I had to cram into my brain a couple years worth of education, over a few months. I wrote 6 exams each 2ish to 3ish hours long. All because I did not have my grade 12 (did not graduate from high school) but now I do. Stupid thing is, I had a Accounting and Business degree from college, but still needed my grade 12. Not stupid because of UK standards, but stupid because of lack of NOT having to have my grade 12 to get that degree.

But yea, like I said, you cannot apply for/get your visa until you have your unconditional and your CAS.
I have to figure out how to place my stupid loan on the visa application. It says in your bank 28 days. Well, they do not deposit your full loan in one lump sum, you get so much, then each month you get some. STUPID!!

ohh yeah that makes sense now! but wow...that sucks...but hey at least you're on your way to nearly getting done...i'm sure it'll all be sorted out! the bank thing is something i'm dreading :frown:

ugh...anyway...all the best with your visa application!

Reply 6

Seefour

Are we supposed to apply for a student visa with a conditional offer letter or do we have to wait for the A-Level results to come out and then apply with the unconditional letter from the uni?

I have firmly accepted a conditional offer from Birmingham City University. My A-Level result comes out on the 12th of August 2010 and the course starts on the 1st of September 2010.

I have no idea when to apply for my student visa. I've heard that the university sends out a visa letter once the results are out (after 12th August or something) and then, when a certain amount of deposit is payed, they also send an invitation letter, CAS or something?!

BUT won't it be too late by then? I mean if I pay the deposit after 12th August and then they send the visa letter and other stuff and THEN I apply for my student visa, it's going to be the 20th of August or something and only ten days will be left for me to get my student visa and travel to the UK in time for university.

I would really appreciate if someone clears this all out for me.

:s-smilie:

Nope, you can't apply with a conditional offer! don't even try.

before any application you need what's called a 'visa letter' and you'll only get that once your offer becomes unconditional. you'll have to sit tight until A level results and i'm sure they'll make special allowances and take into consideration the fact that it you've got 10 days left :P usually the uni will courier the letter to your local uni representative if you ask them to so you'll have it real soon.

where are you applying from,if you don't mind me asking? i might be able to give you some more specifics.

EDIT: also in response to whoever asked how you find out if you met your conditional offer, you'll find out on a level results day. check UCAS track around 9AM GMT on the a level results day this year and you'll have an updated set of offers :smile:

and yes that doesn't leave a lot of time for you but that's primarily because most international students go to the larger unis that start on the 1st of october so they have over a month to sort their stuff out. Unfortunately the small number of international students that go to bham city/the smaller unis in london that start early september often miss out on the first week or two of uni due to visa issues but the uni will not penalise you for this and both the visa service and the uni will cut down the time they take as far as possible.

Reply 7

OP

Thanks for all the handy information. I'm a Pakistani but I'll be applying for the student visa from Oman.

So once I've got my CAS number and visa letter, I'll submit those along with my A-Level results and bank statement. Nothing else is required, right? Another thing is that I haven't recieved my TOEFL report yet. I got a 104 but have no idea what I'm going to do if the report doesn't arrive in time. By the way, I've got a B in IGCSE English Language, do they exempt me from the TOEFL?

Reply 8

Seefour

Thanks for all the handy information. I'm a Pakistani but I'll be applying for the student visa from Oman.

So once I've got my CAS number and visa letter, I'll submit those along with my A-Level results and bank statement. Nothing else is required, right?

Another thing is that I haven't recieved my TOEFL report yet. I got a 104 but have no idea what I'm going to do if the report doesn't arrive in time.

By the way, I've got a B in IGCSE English Language, do they exempt me from the TOEFL?

Did you not take English literature? English language probably won't exempt you. To be completely sure email your university's international student office asap.

And don't just apply with the documents you mentioned above, you can't trust someone on a forum to know precisely which documents you will and won't need. The ones you mentioned are the obvious ones but you might need even more so find out from the border agency website or this site http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/ + email the ISO about that too if you're unsure.

Usually unis have a representative agent in Muscat but I couldn't find one on google so you're probably on your own :p:

EDIT: definitely don't trust anyone on here to tell you which documents you'll need. a key missing document could mean your application takes 10 days more than it should or gets rejected wrongly

Reply 9

OP

From what I've heard, in Muscat, there are these VFS guys who forward our applications to the Embassy and they tell us if there are any documents missing or such. Anyways, thanks a lot, appreciate it. :smile:

Reply 10

The_Timepasser

15

I was wondering abt this all along! And I might transfer courses or somethin so tht might waste a couple of days.

Luckily I start on Sep 20...missing the first few days would really suck.

Reply 11

Seefour

From what I've heard, in Muscat, there are these VFS guys who forward our applications to the Embassy and they tell us if there are any documents missing or such. Anyways, thanks a lot, appreciate it. :smile:

You're welcome. A word of warning though, the border agency delegated visa issuing services to VFS in a bunch of eastern countries and VFS service is absolute ********. You'll be sitting around waiting for hours and it'll be tough enough getting an appointment. They are effectively the embassy when it comes to applying out of countries where they've been delegated authority. So don't rely on them helping you out at all. Make sure you have everything ready before your VFS appointment or it could be delayed by weeks. Also, VFS workers aren't generally the brightest and unless you show up ready perfectly, they might not even notice a missing document, send in your application wrongly and have it rejected. I've dealt with them loads of times, for my student visa and before that the various times i visited britain/went on holiday so do not rely on them to get anything right.

Reply 12

OP

Damn it. I was completely relying on the VFS people to tell me which documents to attach and what to do and stuff. Where do I get all the guidelines then?

First thing I want to know is what documents should be attached. Where do I fill out the form? How does everything work? Does my provisional result work or do I need the original certificate? Is any proof of accommodation required? :s-smilie:

Reply 13

Seefour

Damn it. I was completely relying on the VFS people to tell me which documents to attach and what to do and stuff. Where do I get all the guidelines then?

First thing I want to know is what documents should be attached. Where do I fill out the form? How does everything work? Does my provisional result work or do I need the original certificate? :s-smilie:

The best thing to do is create a list of questions and email your uni's ISO now. They won't be very busy yet and so will have enough time to help you. You could also ask some specifics on tsr. Don't rely on most people here though.

You need your original certificate, a provisional result/photocopy won't work. For a list of documents to be attached look at the border agency website or the UKCISA website + email your uni for specifics. What exactly do you mean by how does everything work/where do i fill out the form?

Reply 14

OP

But my original certificate comes out on the 22nd of August and my course starts on the 1st of September!?!

I thought the provisional would work. :s-smilie:

Reply 15

Seefour

But my original certificate comes out on the 22nd of August and my course starts on the 1st of September!?!

I thought the provisional would work. :s-smilie:

Nope, unfortunately anyone can fake a provisional. Again this is down to the majority of unis starting in october so you've gotta apply once you've got your original.

Are you sure your A level results come out on the 12th? According to UCAS they come out on the 19th http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Important_UCAS_Dates_For_2010_Entry so you'll likely only find out whether you got in by the 19th afternoon. And probably will only be able to apply by the 22nd or 23rd anyway.

Email your uni to find out whether you should apply for your visa with a official visa letter from them or just a 'CAS number' (some new database system which may mean you don't have to wait for an official acceptance letter in the post)... Either way you'll have to apply after A level results day so be prepared for that

Reply 16

OP

Byron'Buster'Bluth

Nope, unfortunately anyone can fake a provisional. Again this is down to the majority of unis starting in october so you've gotta apply once you've got your original.

Are you sure your A level results come out on the 12th? According to UCAS they come out on the 19th http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Important_UCAS_Dates_For_2010_Entry so you'll likely only find out whether you got in by the 19th afternoon. And probably will only be able to apply by the 22nd or 23rd anyway.

Email your uni to find out whether you should apply for your visa with a official visa letter from them or just a 'CAS number' (some new database system which may mean you don't have to wait for an official acceptance letter in the post)... Either way you'll have to apply after A level results day so be prepared for that

Yeah I'm sure about that, CIE A-Level provisional results come out on the 12th of August. I mailed the university before and they told me that they now send the CAS number and no visa letter is sent through post.

Again, the same question comes in, if I apply for my student visa on the 22nd of August or such then there will only be like a week left for the course to start. How is it possible to get a student visa in such a short period of time? The VFS guys told me that it takes 10-15 working days! :frown:

And by 'original' do they mean copies of the original or what? Do I send them the original certificates of my results? How will I get them back then?

Reply 17

Seefour

Yeah I'm sure about that, CIE A-Level provisional results come out on the 12th of August. I mailed the university before and they told me that they now send the CAS number and no visa letter is sent through post.

Again, the same question comes in, if I apply for my student visa on the 22nd of August or such then there will only be like a week left for the course to start. How is it possible to get a student visa in such a short period of time? The VFS guys told me that it takes 10-15 working days! :frown:

And by 'original' do they mean copies of the original or what? Do I send them the original certificates of my results? How will I get them back then?

Okay well the CAS thing is good news but you do still have to wait for the originals.

And yes you send in the original certificates, photocopies aren't appropriate though take some photocopies with you in case they want photocopies for their records in addition to the originals. You'll get the originals back when you get your visa though the vfs global people are retarded and will fold the documents in half and fit them in an envelope leaving a permanent scar on your a level certificates.

And seeing as you hold a pakistani passport (as opposed to a canadian or american or even indian one) it will probably take around 10 days. Just make sure you give them bank account info with enough money in the account to support your studies and your application is perfect. They will pick at the smallest things like if you made a spelling error and scratched out a bit on your application form :p:

so none of that.

Lastly, yes, it looks like you may miss fresher's week, but sometimes you can get it sooner. Another thing, make sure you bring a long a copy of that email the uni sent you explaining how the CAS procedure works. I honestly wouldn't put it past your typical VFS agent to ask you to produce a visa letter.

EDIT: provided your application is in good condition and there are no issues with your passport it can even take like 5 days... mine took around 4 working days but I had a different passport and applied from a different country so can't definitely say what it'll be like from muscat.

Reply 18

OP

Byron'Buster'Bluth

Okay well the CAS thing is good news but you do still have to wait for the originals.

Which originals? Correct me if I'm mistaken but the CAS is supposed to be an electronic document, right?

And yes you send in the original certificates, photocopies aren't appropriate though take some photocopies with you in case they want photocopies for their records in addition to the originals. You'll get the originals back when you get your visa though the vfs global people are retarded and will fold the documents in half and fit them in an envelope leaving a permanent scar on your a level certificates.

Gotcha. Thanks. And nooooooooooo, I don't want scars on my A-Level certificate. It's super crisp and neat. :frown:

And seeing as you hold a pakistani passport (as opposed to a canadian or american or even indian one) it will probably take around 10 days. Just make sure you give them bank account info with enough money in the account to support your studies and your application is perfect. They will pick at the smallest things like if you made a spelling error and scratched out a bit on your application form :p:

so none of that.

I'll make sure everything is perfect. Lets hope that I get the visa within ten days or so. :biggrin:

By the way, thanks a lot for all the information you've provided. Lets just hope for the best. I'll be going to the bank tomorrow to get my bank statement and will be traveling to Muscat on the 10th of August to get my biometrics done and then back to Karachi to get my 'original' certificates and then back to Muscat by the 22nd for submitting the visa application and then back to Karachi after I get my visa and hopefully to Birmingham then, just in time. :biggrin:

August will be HECTIC.

Reply 19