Section 5: VISA Team’s Top Advice
• Do include original documents with your visa
application.
• Do apply for your visa in your home country. Many
students wish to travel to mainland Europe or the UK
before starting their course. However, if you travel
to Europe before you get your Tier 4 visa, you will
have to return to your home country, or country of
normal residence to make your Tier 4 application
before returning to enrol on your course. There are no
exceptions.
• Do apply for your visa if you meet the points
requirement. If you do not have the correct points your
visa will be refused. You will lose the application fee and
have a visa refusal on your record. You also risk delaying
your arrival to the UK, and in some cases this could
mean that you will not arrive in time to start your course.
• Do keep copies of every document that you send with
your application, including the application form. This will
be useful if there is any problem with your application,
or in case any of your documents are lost. Take these
copies to the UK with you in your hand luggage.
• Do contact us immediately if your visa is refused. We
will be able to advise on where you went wrong, or help
to correct it if it was a mistake on the part of UK Visas
and Immigration. You should send scanned copies of all
of your documents, including the refusal notice.
• Do keep your passport and travel documents in a safe
place at all times.
Visa and Immigration Student Journey
• Don’t leave it too late to apply.
• Don’t use the same CAS twice. A CAS can only be used
for one visa application. If your visa application is refused
and you want to make a new application, you must get a
new CAS.
• Don’t travel to the UK via the Republic of Ireland. If you
do, you may not meet with UK immigration officials on
arrival. This means that you will not be granted ‘leave to
enter’ and your permission to study in the UK could be in
doubt. You may not be able to enrol at the university. If
you wish to transit through the Republic of Ireland, check
with your airline to make sure that you will meet UK
immigration control.
• Don’t travel to the UK before you get your visa. If you
do, you will not have correct immigration permission to
study, and you will be unable to enrol at the university.
You must present your Tier 4 (General) Student visa
or Short-Term Study visa to an Immigration Officer on
arrival to the UK. Check the ‘valid from’ date on your visa,
and do not travel to the UK before that date - you may
be refused entry to the UK and may have to return home.
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Our experience can help you to successfully apply for your visa to study at GCU, we are
here to guide you and support you through this journey, please follow our top advice.
Do Don’t