Immigration advice
The Royal Academy of Music is a UK Border Agency Highly Trusted Sponsor. The main contact for advice about your immigration status is the Admissions Officer (Mr Edward Kemp-Luck, admissions@ram.ac.uk) in the Registry, who can offer Level 1 advice (under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999), this means basic immigration advice and assistance with applications for entry clearance and leave to remain, for example issuing CAS sponsorship numbers and assisting with checking a visa application form.
General information is also available from UKCISA (UK Council for International Student Affairs), and they have an advice phone line if you have any specific questions not covered in their website.
These are authorised contact points for advice and there is no fee involved. You should not need to pay any fees for immigration advice, and do not seek advice from unauthorised sources; please direct your enquiries to the Academy or UKCISA, or consult the UK Government websites listed below.
You will need to have proof of the following information when you make your application for your student visa:
a) You are Sponsored by the Academy (this means we have given you a CAS Number - “confirmation of acceptance for study” - see below for details of this),
b) You have enough money to pay for your studies and living costs for the first year of study after the visa application
c) You have gained the right matriculation qualification (for example, a Bachelor Degree if you are joining the Masters degree programme)
Your passport must normally be valid for the duration of your study programme in the United Kingdom. Keep a photocopy of it, and a photocopy of your current UK visa or UK Biometric Residence Permit in case of loss or theft. You will need to bring your passport if you wish to open a bank account in the UK (European identity cards are not accepted by UK banks).
This information is currently correct - however the UK Border Agency frequently changes the rules so we advise that you check the UK Border Agency website and also read the relevant Guidance Sheet (pdf below).
If you are applying for a new visa to join the Academy, you cannot apply earlier than three months before the commencement date of your study programme (we use the first day of our Acclimatisation Week, Tuesday 4th September 2012). Do not begin a visa application until you have received your CAS number from the Academy (see below).
If you apply earlier than three months before start of your studies, your sponsorship number {CAS} will be invalid, you will get 0 points for it and your application will be rejected. You will have to make a new application and pay the UKBA fee again, you will also need to request a new CAS from the Academy and that will cost you £13.
To apply in your home country for a new visa or to extend an existing Student Visa, visit the UK Border Agency website. You should apply online or use the VAF9 form (PBS Migrant) and you will need to complete the Appendix 8 (Student) form. The application fee is currently £289 sterling.
To apply within the UK to extend an existing student visa, visit the UK Border Agency website. You should apply online or use the Tier 4 (G) form. The fee is currently £394 (postal application) or £716 (application made in person). We recommend you use Postal Orders or a bank cheque to avoid possible problems with credit/debit card payments - if the card expires before the application is processed or if the UKBA accidentally enters a wrong number and the transaction fails, your visa application will be rejected.
You will need three things to support your visa application: a CAS sponsorship number, proof that you can afford your study programme, and proof that you are academically qualified to be on the study programme:
New students: the Admissions Officer will allocate you a CAS Number through the UKBA Student Management System after receiving:
The Conditions of Entry will not be relaxed just to allow a visa to be granted.
Current Academy students who will be joining a new study programme, or whose visa will expire before the end of their current programme, must also use the Request Form to be allocated a CAS number.
After you have requested the CAS, you will be sent an email showing the details about you which are in the UKBA database. When you have confirmed that the details are correct, we will allocate your CAS number. Then we will email you the CAS Number and our Sponsor Licence Number which you will need to put in the visa application.
Visa Sponsorship Tier 4 Request Form
You will need to prove that you are able to pay for your studies and your living costs without being employed in the UK or claiming social benefit money from the UK government. The Academy will tell the UKBA how much you have paid towards your tuition fee and you will need to show that you have enough money to pay for your remaining costs for the 2012/13 academic year.
*Please consult http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/studyingintheuk/
Normally you will need to have the money in your own bank account. The account can be in your own country, it does not have to be in the UK.
If the money is in your parent’s account, you will need to provide documents to prove your relationship to your parent and to prove that they will let you have the money towards your study costs.
The maintenance funds you are expected to have are calculated at £1000 per month for the duration of your first year of study (9 months; the summer holiday is not counted, so you need £9000).
If you have already been studying in the UK on a student visa and are still on your course, or completed your previous course less than four months before this visa application, you only need to show that you have two months’ worth of maintenance funding (£2000) in your account.
You must have this money (£9000 or £2000, PLUS any remaining balance of your tuition fee) in a bank account for a consecutive 28 day period. On the date of the closing balance (or the bank statement date), the amount must be at least the amount of maintenance and remaining tuition, and the document must be dated no more than one month before your application.
• We strongly recommend that you keep enough money in your bank account continuously until your visa has been granted: if your application is rejected for any reason you will need to reapply and provide new bank statements which meet the rules.
• If you are a U.S. citizen getting Federal or private loans, you should apply as a self-funding student. For Federal loans, you will need to include proof of the loan amounts from the U.S. Department of Education: this will be a printed letter which the Academy Registry will send to you, in a format agreed with the UK Border Agency and the US Department of Education.
For private loans, you should include a loan confirmation letter from your lender which they should issue on request after the loan has been certified. Because emails are not accepted by the UKBA, to ensure you get a hard-copy letter we suggest you do not agree to receive any communications electronically from your lender.
If you are a new student at the Academy, or are beginning a new programme, you will need to show original documentation to prove you can join your study programme.
Because the Academy must tell the UKBA which document you will include with your visa application, and we can only sponsor your visa application after we have received proof that you can matriculate, you will need to send the Academy a photocopy or JPEG scan of your document (school graduation certificate, proof of Bachelor degree, etc). The Academy will put the details of that document into the UKBA database. You must retain the original document to include with your visa application.
Translations: If your document is not in English, you must provide an official translation into English BOTH for the Academy AND for the Entry Clearance Officer.
If you are already on your programme and are extending a visa which was granted for that programme, the Academy simply confirms your progress to the UK Border Agency and you do not need to show matriculation documents.
Advice for students who need their firstTier 4 UK visa
Advice for students who already hold an Academy-sponsored Tier 4 UK visa
Advice for students who already hold a UK visa
The UKBA online application system will ask you to register for a customer account, you can complete the application screens in any order by selecting the appropriate tab and you can save the application for a limited time so you can return to it if you need to go away to confirm some details. You can also print the application at any time before submitting it. The UKBA system does not tell you if you have entered an incorrect CAS number, so please be very careful when you enter this number. You cannot change any application details after you have completed the ‘declaration’ page and pressed ‘next’ and you will not be able to print your application after you have submitted it.
When you have finished the application, you will get a Summary page which lists all the documents you must submit: you must print the Summary and include it with the documents.
If you are applying in your home country, the UK Border Agency website has a guide to visa processing times.
If you are applying in the UK, you should allow up to six months for your application to be processed, though most applications are completed within about one month.
The entry clearance category you are given may be printed on a sticker which will be put into your passport, or you will get a separate ID card with your immigration details on it: you will need to show the ID card with your passport at immigration.
Your visa should be granted for the following periods:
The visa should be valid for some extra time after your studies have finished, so you can spend leisure time in the UK and arrange your return home.
If your studies will last longer, for example if you change from MA to MMus, you can apply for a visa extension near the time when your visa is going to run out (expire).
If you use deception to get your visa [for example by showing false documents about your financial situation], or if you break the conditions of the visa [for example by working illegally in the UK, or by staying here after the visa has expired], you may be deported from the UK, your visa may be cancelled, and you may be forbidden from coming to the UK for up to ten years.
If you are refused a visa, we recommend that you contact the Admissions Officer at the Academy as soon as possible, with full details of the reasons for refusal – these should be in a letter you will receive from the Entry Clearance Officer and you might need to send a copy of this letter to the Admissions Officer.
There is no right of appeal; you will need to make another application (and pay the fee again) and make certain that you have solved the problems which led to your first application being refused. You will also need to pay £10 to the Academy because we will have to allocate you another CAS Number.
If you are certain that your initial application was fine and the UKBA has made an administrative error, you can apply for an Administrative Review.
