The Procedure to get Tier 4 student Visa to study in UK may look daunting at first but trust me, if you know what you are required to do, it will be easy and you also wont require any agent for it.

The decision for UK Tier 4 Visa mostly relies on your documents and less on your Visa Interview. So take proper time to check all your documents, check them twice, thrice.

I will explain all the steps from getting admission in colleges in UK to applying for Tier 4 visa in detail. I took the admission in Royal Holloway, University of London in 2015, so I will be explaining everything from my own experience.

Steps to get admission in a college in UK:

• Find the website of the college/university you want to study in (Try to get admission in September intake). I would recommend studying in a university rather than college. Also keep in mind your college/university should be in the list of Tier 4 approved Sponsors List. If your college is not in this list, don’t take admission in those college as your Visa application will be rejected.
• Find the page for international students in the website of your desired college. You will find lots of resources and emails of the people to contact from there if you want to inquire anything.
• Check your course and fees for international student. And if your are confused or have any doubts regarding anything, just mail the college, they will be very happy to resolve all your doubts.
• Mostly the requirements for entering that college and the particular course will be mentioned in that page. In most of the cases IELTS score of more than 6 is required for getting admission. IELTS test is not that difficult, browse through youtube for guidance for IELTS, watch them and a bit of practice and you would be good to go. You can book for IELTS from either IDP or British Council, don’t confuse yourself in them, both are just different institutions who can take IELTS test. But check that the centre you select for your test is approved by UKBA in Approved TEST Providers list.
• You would require to sign up at admission portal of your desired college’s website

Documents required for admission:

• Your academic results, transcripts & certificates [10th result, 12th result, your bachelor’s degree certificate, college transcript which you can get from your university in India ]
• Passport
• Birth Certificate (not at colleges who ask you for it)
• 2 References from your college
• IELTS Result
• SOP – Statement of Purpose. It is a piece of document where you need to write down the reasons you want to study at this college and your course and why in UK. Your SOP plays a vital role in admission, so write it perfectly, google for sample SOP and make your SOP as good as possible.

Take the scans of all these documents because you would require to upload them at your desired college’s admission portal. Mostly application for admission at colleges in UK are free.

Once you get an unconditional offer letter from the college you can then confirm your admission with them and pay the deposit fees. Remember you should get an unconditional offer letter, or else if it is conditional you need to meet the conditions stated before your admission gets unconfirmed.

After you accept your offer letter, and pay the deposit fees (if you are required to), you will be issued a CAS ( Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) Statement and will be sent to you by email. Your CAS will have a unique CAS number which will be required by UKBA during your Visa application. A CAS is an electronic document issued to you by the institution (college, school or university) that you have chosen to study at. Your CAS will be valid for use in a Tier 4 application for six months from the date that it was generated by your institution.

Note: You don’t need a physical document for CAS, a CAS email from your institution is enough to apply for TIER 4 Visa.

Funds Required:

You need to show that you have money for your Course Fees (1st year) + Living/Maintenance Cost.

Course Fees:
You must have enough money to pay for the course fees for the first year of your course, or the entire course if it is less than one year long. Your CAS will state the fees that you will be required to pay for the first year of your course, or the entire course if it is less than one year long. The Home Office will use the details in your CAS to confirm how much money you need for your course fees.

Note: If you have paid some of your fees to institute that you can deduct that amount from the amount to be shown. For e.g if you paid ‎£2000 & your fees are ‎£15,500 , then you will need to show ‎£13,500 pounds towards your Course fees in you bank account.

Living Fees Fees:
You must have a fixed amount of money to cover your living costs.

If you will be studying in inner London* you will need £1,020 for each month of your course, up to a maximum of nine months. This means that if you will be studying in inner London for a course that lasts one month only, the minimum amount that you will need is £1,020. If you will be studying in inner London for a course lasting nine months or more, the maximum amount that you will need is £9,180.

Note: if you make your Tier 4 application on or after 12 November 2015 this amount will increase to £1,265 per month. Therefore if your course lasts for nine months or more you will have to show £11,385.

If you will be studying elsewhere in the UK, the monthly amounts are lower: you need to have £820 for each month of your course, up to a maximum of £7,380 for a course lasting nine months or more.

Note: if you make your Tier 4 application on or after 12 November 2015 this amount will increase to £1,015 per month. Therefore if your course lasts for nine months or more you will have to show £9,135.

Link: Visit Your finances at UKCISA website to get the latest news and amount to be shown in total if the rules are changed.

Next Step is applying for Visa. But before that you should check whether you have all the documents for Visa application.

Documents required for TIER 4 Visa:

• Passport
• Printed Copy of your CAS email from your institution
• Bank Certificate or your Bank Pass Book showing that required funds have been in your account since 28 days. But check whether your Bank Statement is accepted or not from Lists of financial institutions whose financial statements are, or are not, accepted.
• Consent letter from your parent if the bank account is in the name of your parent. You dont need any consent letter if the money is in your account.
• TB Certificate from an approved centre in India. Visit Approved centres in India.
• Birth Certificate in English. If it is not in english get it translated from any recognised translators institutions in your locality.
• 2 Passport Size Photographs according to UKBA guidelines. Visit UKBA Passport Size Photograph Guidelines.
• Documents listed in CAS as “Documents used to obtain your CAS” like your Degree certificate or Transcipt, IELTS certificate etc
• Print and fill your details in Application for UK visa under Tier 4 (General): form VAF9 appendix 8

For more and updated info for documents required always check “Guide to supporting documents: Points based system – Tier 4 (General)” in Documents list at UK Government website.

Making an Online TIER 4 Visa Application:

• Read Full Guidance first
• Visit Online Visa application
• Click on Start now
• Click on Register an Account, on next page fill in your details and click on register
• After successful registration, you will get a mail from them. Now Log in to the website with your email id and password. And complete all the fields as shown in the video below and if you have any doubts just comment below and I will be happy to help you.
• After your application is complete you would need to pay for IHS charge first, which would be around Rs. 35,000 or more.
• Then you will be asked to pay Visa Fees
• You will get mails for every payments
• once your appointment is booked, Print your appointment details as you would need to show it at your Visa center

Watch this video for guidance:

And on your Visa Interview day, bring all of your documents and be prepared for your interview where they will ask general question to you as below:

• Why do you want to study in the UK?
• Why did you choose this university/college?
• Why did you choose this course and how does it relate to your previous study?
• What is the relevance of the course to your future career path?
• When will your course start & end
• Where will you live in UK

They will take all the original documents including passport at the visa centre and will send you via courier after a decision has been paid on your visa or you can collect it from the centre itself if you live nearby.

Visa decision mostly takes 10-15 days in India. You will get notified by sms & email once the decision has been paid if you have paid for sms service at VFS Global / Visa centre.

If you choose to get your documents by courier, they will send through bluedart to your nearest Bluedart center. In that case your GWF number which you will get while applying for Visa online, will be your bluedart tracking number.

Important Links:

• TIER 4 Visa : Official Guide
• UK Council for International Students
• Guidance on application for UK visa as Tier 4 student

If you guys have any doubts regarding anything, feel free to write in the comment section below.
All the best for your TIER 4 Visa Applications. 🙂