Student visa information

Please do not phone the visa office regarding your CAS number. If you have received an unconditional offer and you have paid your deposit, your CAS will be sent to you via the international admissions team. For general information about studying at St Mary's please contact the International Team.

As part of the student visa application, you will need to achieve 70 points to be successful. You will be sent a CAS once your offer has been made unconditional. This will happen once your application has been approved and screened by the Admissions Team:

• paid your deposit (please log into your applicant portal and click on deposit button)
• completed the CAS application on Enroly
• requested your CAS statement.

When completing the visa application form please ensure that you match all the information with what is provided with your CAS. UKVI will reject any incomplete or incorrect visa applications. This will also cause a delay in the visa processing. 

Please note that we will not issue you a CAS if there will not be enough time for you to make the Student visa application. You must ensure that you meet the conditions of your offer and prepare the documents in time.

You will not need to submit a hard copy of the CAS with your application as UKVI will be able to view this electronically. 

All the information regarding your course will be entered onto the CAS. These will be things such as the course start dates, academic course level and all the qualifications we would have used as the basis of your offer.

You must ensure that you submit all the original documentation listed on the CAS when you apply for the visa application. Sending photocopies or non-certified documents may result in getting a visa refusal.

A CAS expires if it is not used within six months of being issued. A CAS can be used with a student visa application up to six months before the course start date.

Please use the checklist for assistance with the documents you are required to submit with your application if you are applying from overseas.

• Applying for a student visa from overseas
• Preparing your student visa application
• Where, when and how to apply 
• Bringing your dependants to the UK 
  If you are eligible, you may be able to bring your family to the UK. They will need to apply for a dependant visa.
• What to do when your student visa has been granted
• What if your student visa application is refused?
  Please contact the Fees Office at feesoffice@stmarys.ac.uk to have your deposit refunded (if eligible). You must inform the CAS team and send your refusal paperwork to studentvisas@stmarys.ac.uk.
• Collecting your BRP when you have arrived in the UK 
  We strongly recommend that you use the St Mary’s address to have your BRP delivered to. When your BRP has arrived, you will be contacted by the UKVI Compliance and Immigration team to arrange collection at a suitable time. In order to have your BRP sent to the University when completing the visa application form, you will need to enter our Alternative Collection Code (ACL) which will be given to you when you are issued with a CAS.

Please use the checklist for assistance with the documents you are required to submit with your application if you are applying inside the UK.

• Applying for a student visa from inside the UK
• Where, when and how to apply
• Application checklist
  
• If your visa is refused
  You must inform the CAS team and send your refusal paperwork to studentvisas@stmarys.ac.uk.

Collecting your BRP

We strongly recommend that you use the St Mary’s address to have your BRP delivered to. When your BRP has arrived, you will be contacted by the UKVI Compliance and Immigration team to arrange collection at a suitable time. For more information please email studentvisas@stmarys.ac.uk. If you have received or collected your BRP from another UK address or a post office, please bring your BRP to Registry Services (1^st Floor of J Block) so we can retain a copy as proof of your right to study. This is a mandatory task and your enrolment status cannot be completed until we have your BRP on file.

Once you have been given a CAS you will need to ensure that you prepare the following documentation:

• Academic qualification. It is important that your documents match your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) information. For example, you may have many academic qualifications. Please ensure that you read the Evidence used to obtain offer section on your CAS and submit he correct qualification as stated on your CAS. 
• English proficiency test results. You do not have to submit any English proficiency documents if your CAS states 'HEI sponsor has made the assessment'.
• Bank statements to show your maintenance requirements. The funds must be held in the account for 28 consecutive days before making the visa application.
• Birth certificate – only if you are under 18 or use your parents bank statements.
• A financial consent letter from your parents or legal guardians (this is only if you are planning to use your parents or legal guardians’ bank statements).
• A valid passport. Please submit the same passport as the one mentioned on your CAS. If you have renewed your passport, please inform admissions to make an amendment on your CAS to reflect the new passport information.
• Sponsorship letter (if you are being sponsored).
• Tuberculosis test (if you are from a country that requires you to take the test).
• Under 18 consent letter from parents or legal guardian (if you are under 18 years old).
• Documents that are not in English: if you planning to submit any documents that are not in English you must ensure that the document is translated by a certified translator.

Helpful links

• Guidance for those from Oman
• Guidance for those from countries not listed in section 3A

UKVI sometimes can invite you to do a credibility interview as part of the application process. This can be inside the UK or outside the UK. This interview will be designed to ensure that you are a genuine student and that your English Language is up to the required level to do the course.

If you are invited to attend an interview this may be because the caseworker requires further information from you in order to process and/or make a decision on your visa application.

What type of questions might I be asked at the interview?

If you are asked to attend an interview you must make sure that you can understand and answer the questions being asked honestly and clearly. The questions that you may be asked will cover the following areas:

Your intention to study in the UK

You should be able to answer questions regarding your course and explain how you made the decision to study the course at St Mary’s University. Before attending the interview please ensure that you know why you have chosen the specific course. Be prepared to answer why you could not do study this course in your home country. You may also be asked questions about the content and structure of the course.

Your previous education history

Here you may be asked about what you have been studying previously or whether the course you are looking to study meets your career aspirations in the future. If there are gaps between your periods of study, you should be able to explain this clearly.

Whether you know the progression routes of the course you intend to study

You need to think about what you intend to do once you have completed the course at St Mary’s University and how the course may support your future career plans. You will need to explain this properly.

Your financial circumstances/documents that you submitted

Studying in the UK is costly, therefore, you may be asked why you have decided to study in London in comparison to your home country. Although you would have supplied financial information/documents in your visa application, you may still have to justify how you intend to financially support yourself for the duration of your studies.

The interviewer will also be checking your ability to converse in English, regardless of the qualifications that you may hold.

Please note you will not be allowed to use an interpreter.

If you are studying a full-time research-based higher degree or a PhD course which started on or after 01 January 2024, you are allowed to sponsor your partner and/or children as your Student dependants. This option is not available for those studying taught postgraduate and undergraduate courses which started on or after 01 January 2024. Please see the UK government’s guidance and the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) website for more information.

If your are studying a postgraduate programme of 9 months or longer which started before 01 January 2024, your partner and/or children may be able to travel to the UK with you on dependent visas. However, if you are studying at undergraduate degree level, you are usually not permitted to bring dependents to the UK. 

Students applying at the same time as their dependents are required to submit one set of financial documentation. Your financial evidence must show that you have enough money to meet the student visa requirements and include additional money for your dependents.

Each of your dependents must display £845 per month (up to 9 months = £7,605) to meet UKVI requirements.

For example, if you’re studying a 12-month Master’s course and wish to bring 1 dependant, the amount of money you need to show is:

Please use OANDA to calculate if you hold the required amount if your money is not held in GBP. The Home Office will refer to the exchange rate of the day when you submitted the visa application. To avoid falling short of the required amount due to currency fluctuations, you could consider placing additional money in the account.

Please see the Gov.uk website and the UKCISA website for more information on bringing dependants to the UK.

Healthcare inside the UK

You are entitled to free healthcare whilst you study on your student visa. 

The UK's National Health Service is often referred to as the NHS. The NHS provides treatment through a range of services from Accident and Emergency centres to Local GP (General Practitioner) doctor's surgeries. Some services are free and some are paid for.

If you are studying with St Mary's University on a student visa on a full-time course that is longer than 6 months, you will be asked to pay the immigration health surcharge. Paying this surcharge will qualify you to receive NHS treatment from the beginning of your stay on the same basis as anyone who is ordinarily resident in the UK.

Hospitals are responsible for checking who should pay for NHS hospital treatment.

The hospital will also ask you for evidence to prove that you’re legally entitled to live in the UK, such as:

• your British passport, or
• permission from the Home Office.

Accessing Healthcare

Your General Practitioner, or GP, is your primary doctor. When you arrive in the UK, you should register with a GP surgery (for example, a doctor's office) as soon as possible. The York Medical Practice and Cross Deep Surgery are the two closest surgeries to the St Mary's campus. If you are living elsewhere in London, you can find a local doctor on the NHS website.

The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS)

As part of the cost if making a visa application you are required to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge. This covers emergency treatment if required. 

Immigration Health Surcharge Refund

Overcharge

If you paid more than the required amount of surcharge, you are entitled to an automatic partial refund.

The overcharge is usually caused by:

• Erroneous calculation;
• Leave granted being shorter than the period originally applied for;
• Unsuccessful dependants’ applications.

Overlapping payments

If you have extended your visa from inside the UK and paid twice for a period of leave over 6 months, any overlapping payments should be reimbursed automatically when the new leave is granted.

Refusal, rejection and withdrawal

• If your visa application is refused, rejected or withdrawn, the surcharge should be reimbursed.
• If you don’t challenge a refusal decision, the surcharge will be refunded once the deadline for applying administrative review has passed.
• If you submit administrative review for a refusal decision, the surcharge will be retained by the Home Office until the review is completed and unsuccessful, or withdrawn.

Unused leave

The surcharge remains non-refundable in instances where the permission is unused, curtailed, or cancelled. It also applies if you leave the UK prematurely or have not accessed the National Health Service.