Hi all,
As some of you may know my girlfriend is hoping to be coming to the UK in January to start a postgrad course at a university near London.
The application process is still ongoing but I wondered if anyone might be able to share their experiences or help me put her mind at ease, as with the processes involved with the various universities, the application seems to be very slow and I am worried that it will actually prevent her from having her visa issued in time for the course start date.
I'll try and cut a fairly long story down to a short explanation.
Girlfriend is a US citizen, has a conditional offer from this university. University cannot release CAS until offer is unconditional - to make the offer unconditional they need to see her undergraduate diploma certificate from the degree she just completed at a USA university, but due to uncontrollable delays in getting graduation certificates from her undergrad degree, this is still probably about 4 - 6 weeks away.
Following this, she can obtain her CAS for visa application processes, and also apply for US financial aid, although the university does not begin processing the financial applications until November.
Despite US citizens not having to produce financial support documents at the application stage, she still needs to have the support documents and finance arrangement details on file as the UKBA still reserve the right to request them at any time.
With the university not processing the loan until November, and with the delay on the CAS being released, this will essentially mean she will not be able to apply for her tier 4 visa until the end of November/beginning of December.
Given that the course starts at the very beginning of January, this seems to be cutting it very very fine. Does anyone know have any idea of whether the UKBA can reasonably turn around the visa in this kind of timeframe? Or is it a completely unrealistic prospect?
I appreciate there is variation and no guarantees on the above due to delays as a result of backlogs or high application numbers, but it would be good to hear from someone with any experience or insight on the above, just to manage expectations more than anything.
Thanks in advance!
As some of you may know my girlfriend is hoping to be coming to the UK in January to start a postgrad course at a university near London.
The application process is still ongoing but I wondered if anyone might be able to share their experiences or help me put her mind at ease, as with the processes involved with the various universities, the application seems to be very slow and I am worried that it will actually prevent her from having her visa issued in time for the course start date.
I'll try and cut a fairly long story down to a short explanation.
Girlfriend is a US citizen, has a conditional offer from this university. University cannot release CAS until offer is unconditional - to make the offer unconditional they need to see her undergraduate diploma certificate from the degree she just completed at a USA university, but due to uncontrollable delays in getting graduation certificates from her undergrad degree, this is still probably about 4 - 6 weeks away.
Following this, she can obtain her CAS for visa application processes, and also apply for US financial aid, although the university does not begin processing the financial applications until November.
Despite US citizens not having to produce financial support documents at the application stage, she still needs to have the support documents and finance arrangement details on file as the UKBA still reserve the right to request them at any time.
With the university not processing the loan until November, and with the delay on the CAS being released, this will essentially mean she will not be able to apply for her tier 4 visa until the end of November/beginning of December.
Given that the course starts at the very beginning of January, this seems to be cutting it very very fine. Does anyone know have any idea of whether the UKBA can reasonably turn around the visa in this kind of timeframe? Or is it a completely unrealistic prospect?
I appreciate there is variation and no guarantees on the above due to delays as a result of backlogs or high application numbers, but it would be good to hear from someone with any experience or insight on the above, just to manage expectations more than anything.
Thanks in advance!
