Documents required

The documents you need to provide with your visa application depend on your circumstances. Some documents are mandatory and others need to be provided depending on your circumstances and what your CAS says. The following list should help you to work out what documents you will need to provide. It's important to provide all of the documents needed, as not doing so can cause a visa refusal.

Student Visa documents

• A current passport - Your passport must contain at least one full page that is blank on both sides.

• CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies -   You do not need to submit the CAS letter itself, just the CAS number (a unique 14-digit number as part of the application. A new CAS must be provided with each visa application. If you are continuing your course at the University or you have completed your course and are applying to study a new course, you must provide a new CAS.

• Qualifications -  If you are studying at bachelor’s degree level or above with us, you are not required to provide evidence of your academic qualifications with your visa application. If you are studying a course below bachelor’s degree level, you must provide evidence of the qualifications listed in your CAS. If no qualifications are listed in your CAS, you do not need to submit any.

• English language evidence - Your CAS will confirm how your English language ability has been assessed by the university. If it has been assessed by you providing a certificate or qualification, then this will be mentioned in your CAS, and you must provide the certificate listed. If no English language qualifications are listed in your CAS, then you will not need to provide any with your application.

• Translations - If any document is not in English, the original must be accompanied by a full translation. The translation must contain validation from the translator that it is an exact translation of the original document as well the translations company’s contact details and the date of the translation.

• Proof of finances - You need to provide evidence that you have a specific amount of money available to you for tuition fees and living costs in the UK. See our webpages for guidance on the financial requirements and how to demonstrate your finances. Failure to provide finance documents which meet the requirements could lead to a visa refusal. If you are extending your visa from within the UK and have lived here with a valid visa for at least 12 continuous months at the time of your application, you do not need to provide any financial evidence with your visa application.

• Under 18 consent - If you are under the age of 18 when you start your studies, you will need to provide a letter of consent from your parent(s) or legal guardian(s) as well as your birth certificate or adoption certificate.

• Your tuberculosis test result - If you're coming to the UK for more than 6 months and are resident in one of the countries which require a TB test, you may need to take a tuberculosis (TB) test. Once you have had your TB test, if it is clear, you will be given a certificate which can be used to support your Student Visa application. This certificate is valid for 6 months. Unfortunately, you will be unable to make your Student Visa application without this certificate.You do not need to provide a TB test result if applying for a student visa from within the UK.

• ATAS Certificate - Some international students on postgraduate programmes need an ATAS (Academic Technology Approval Scheme) certificate. ATAS certificates are valid for 6 months. This means if you are extending your visa, you will need a new ATAS certificate, even if you previously had one. See our ATAS information for more guidance.

• Official financial sponsorship letter - If you are sponsored by your government or another Official Sponsor, you are required to submit a letter from the scholarship body confirming your financial support and sponsorship, unless your sponsor is the University, in which case your sponsorship will be confirmed on your CAS.

• Consent of current or previous official financial sponsor - If you have received a full scholarship (covering both tuition fees and living costs) from a government or an international scholarship agency within the last 12 months, and you have completed that programme of study, you must provide a letter of unconditional written consent from your scholarship provider confirming that they consent to your visa extension application.

Confirmation of Acceptance of Studies (CAS)

This is the electronic document that you will receive from the university via email, which is essential to making your Student Visa application. You should note that as the CAS is electronic, you only need to provide the CAS reference number in your visa application form and there is no requirement to provide a paper copy.

Information about getting your CAS for a new programme of study

Information about getting your CAS for extending your visa (continuing on the same programme of study with an extension.)

Differentiation arrangements

If you are a national of a country listed under the differential evidence requirement, you do not need to provide qualifications or finance evidence with your visa application.

However, you may still need to have these documents available, because UKVI reserves the right to ask you to send them the documentary evidence during the processing of the visa application. If you are asked to provide the documents and cannot do so within a specified time, it is likely that your visa application will be refused.

Whether you fall under the differentiation arrangements or not depends on your nationality.  You can find a list of nationalities that fall under the differentiation arrangements in the gov.uk webpages about information on financial evidence for a Student Visa application.

Further advice

If you need advice regarding your visa application or the documents, you can contact the International Student Advice Service.