Walkthrough of the VISA application

This post aims to try and help any of you who might be struggling with some of the awkward terms and jargon that the VISA4UK website uses. I hope that this helps to minimize the “WTF” moments that many of your seniors had whilst applying. Please note that you can only apply AT MOST 3 MONTHS BEFORE YOU ARE DUE TO ARRIVE IN THE UK.

I AM ASSUMING YOU ALREADY HAVE YOUR CAS.

If not, go onto e:Vision and request a CAS. You will need a valid passport and a scanned copy of that passport.

FIRST PAGE

The first page should be quite straightforward. Fill in all your personal details, and fill in your name as in the name on your passport. Once you have filled in all the mandatory fields, you will need to select your visa type.

~Reason for visit: Study

~Visa type: PBS Tier 4 Student

~Visa sub-type: Tier 4 (General) Student [unless you are a special case/have received instructions to do otherwise]

Just create a new application form once you have filled in everything.

YOU WILL NOW BE DIRECTED TO YOUR NEWLY CREATED VISA APPLICATION FORM

Your visa application form should have 6 categories in the sidebar.

PASSPORT AND TRAVEL INFORMATION

Everything here should be idiot-proof. Under ‘Issuing Authority’, you probably won’t be able to key in ‘Ministry of Home Affairs’, so use your discretion. I personally keyed in ‘Ministry of Home Aff’ and still got through so yeah.

Under travel information: If your parents are travelling with you, FOR GOODNESS SAKE PLEASE DON’T DECLARE THAT. At immigration, they will get their passport stamped with a visitor’s visa, just like any ordinary tourist that enters any ordinary country. Unless the person(s) travelling with you GENUINELY hold a UK visa, just click ‘no’. Or if you damn kiasu, you can declare, and then select the ‘Not Required’ option under ‘Valid UK visa’.

PERSONAL DETAILS AND TRAVEL HISTORY

Key in your address like you normally would. This form is a little bit stupid because (if I remember correctly) you can’t key in the “#” key. So if you stay in HDB or condo or whatever, just use ‘unit no.’ or something similar. Just declare how long you’ve been living at that address, yada yada.

The next section might seem a bit daunting, but trust me, it becomes really irrelevant if you are SANE AND PEACEFUL. Most of your answers to the questions under Travel History should be a ‘NO’, but if yes then just enter the relevant details. The section gets more and more hilarious, but you should take it very seriously. You need to declare if you have been convicted for any criminal offences. It is rare that they will deny you entry to the UK for something like petty theft, but it’s better to be honest. You shouldn’t be applying to study in the UK if you are a terrorist or some Neo-Nazi. No. Get lost.

FAMILY DETAILS

If you haven’t already told your family that you are coming to the UK, perhaps now would be a good time to let them know. Ease into it. It’s just like cutting onions. Cut it slowly, don’t expose too much flesh and you won’t cry so much in the process. Fill in this section appropriately, please. If you have a partner, you should declare that. Declare your father and mother’s information (if applicable). If you have kids that depend on you for money and food and shelter, you will need to declare that under ‘dependent children’. If not, just click ‘NO’.

MEDICAL TREATMENT

I’m here to help you sort out what is relevant and what is not. Medical treatment does not count doctor consultations and general GP flu jab/prescription medication stuff if you accidentally fell sick whilst travelling in the UK. Medical treatment means if Singapore doesn’t have an expert in some rare genetic disease like Iamadumbtard-niosis and you needed to go to the UK to receive specialized audio-radio-symbionononono-tic-slap-to-the-face semi-conductor-radiation treatment. Other than that, NO.

TIER 4 STUDENT

This is probably the most complicated/confusing section. I’ll take it step by step, so follow me as I fill in my form.

Your Tier 4 Sponsor is the University of York. If you are not coming to UoY to study, then key in your own appropriate university. The Sponsor Licence number for UoY is MKPTG0EMX. The University’s postcode is YO10 5DD. Yes, different parts of the uni have different postcodes. The University’s primary contact number is +44 (0) 1904 320 000 (but actually, this number is just at the bottom of the school’s website. This number doesn’t really matter).

Under the next section, you should just be copying and pasting the information from your CAS. Your CAS number is unique to you so you need to make sure you key that in. You should know the course you are doing, otherwise I will be very worried. The Level of the course and qualification, if you didn’t already know, is a Bachelor of Arts/Science. Start/End date is on the CAS. Everything should be quite straightforward. You are here to study, not to take up a post as a postgrad or Sabatical officer. Scroll down to the bottom of your CAS to see how you meet the English Language Requirements. It is highly probable that you will tick the “Your sponsor is a Higher Education Institution (HEI), and has made its own assessment of your English language ability” option.

If you are doing a Science course, you might require an ATAS. You will need to check your CAS to see if you require one.

The next section should be quite straightforward I think. Fill it in honestly. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t paid your school fees. You will pay them soon. You probably don’t have an established presence in the UK. Your primary site of study is outside the London Boroughs, unless you think York is in London. If you haven’t paid for accommodation or school fees, then just declare. Don’t panic if you can’t fill in many of the blanks, or have loads of ‘no’s. I had plenty of them and I’m here in York typing this blog post. Just be honest. Fill in those with red asterisks. If they don’t have red asterisks, they aren’t compulsory and you can skip them.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Err… This is open-ended. Unless you have something very outstanding that you wish to declare, just leave it blank.

NEXT STEPS

As of April 2015, all international students applying for a UK visa after the 6th of April must pay the healthcare surcharge. Students from Singapore are required to pay this surcharge and you will be contacted by UK Visas and Immigration if you do not pay for this as part of your application. More information can be found here.

After checking that everything you have keyed in is correct and that you have not purposefully tried to hide any relevant information, just submit and pay for the application. The application costs a BOMB, so be prepared to wipe the tears off your wallet’s face. You will now need to book an appointment to go down and take your biometrics. Go check out my FAQs for advice.

Hopefully this post has helped you fill in the rather long and tedious form. Once again, if you have any questions or you think I missed out something, drop me an email or leave a comment and I will try to reply as soon as I can.

~:Denise

EDIT (16/6/2015): Paragraph on healthcare surcharge was added. Many thanks to Connie, the International Officer in charge of Southeast Asia at UoY, for the info! There probably will be a post on how to apply for this, but I’m in the midst of packing, so I’ll need to hold that off for now.