The UK Visa for Students

For people from China applying for a student UK visa is not difficult.

You can go to the UK even if you do not have the IELTS requirement of your Masters course. If your English is well below the necessary level you can go to the UK early to study English. You can study English like this within a university or in a specialist language school. For visa purposes there is no limit to the time you can study English, so if your English is poor you can go to the UK 12 months before your degree begins to learn English (as long as you have the funds).

You can only apply 3 months or less before the start of your course in the UK. When you apply you need to have original offer letters, an English certificate and your educational certificates.

The cost of applying is 100GBP. You can apply in one of 12 centres around China. You cannot apply by mail but you can have somebody else submit your application. There is no interview. The decision is made based on the documents you submit. Most decisions take 5 working days.

Despite what you may have heard the UK visa officers are encouraged to accept Chinese student applicants. They want to give you the visa and there are no limits on the number of visas they can issue for China. They will only refuse an application if they think any documents are fake, they do not believe the money really belongs to you family, or your study plan is not believable (e.g. a student with IELTS 4.0 wants to go to the UK for 1 month and then begin a Masters degree; or a Bachelor degree student in China is applying to study another Bachelor degree in the UK).

They key problem for most applicants is proving that the money you have submitted really does belong to your family. Here are the things you should do to overcome this problem:

1. Because most students submit their funds as a recent deposit, you should also include your parent’s daily bank account if it shows their monthly salary.  Even if the saving is not large, it has the advantage of proving their salary is genuine and they have enough money for their daily lives while their child is in the UK.

2. You must show where the money came from. The best scenario is if you can show the savings being made over several years. If this is not possible, you must show where the money came from (e.g. sale of a house, return on an investment etc.).

Note: we use the phrase parents but the sponsor does not need to be the student’s parents, it can be a close family relative.

The documents needed in your application are:

1. Visa application form (original, fully completed) with photo
2. Student questionnaire
3. University/college offer letter
4. Your current educational qualifications
5. English language qualifications
6. Sponsors' employment/income certificates, salary bank books, individual tax certificates (not company tax certificates)
7. Family book
8. Financial documents (deposit slips/bank books) with evidence of the source of the funds

If you are refused but feel it was an unfair decision you can apply again but you must make sure you change the application to address the visa officer’s concerns.

You can find more details at the British Embassy website & check out the articles below, all written by people who have applied for a UK study visa.

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