Student Sponsor Licence | UK Visa Specialists

A Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies is a very important document which you must assign and issue to each international student you wish to enrol and sponsor within your institution. It is an electronic or virtual document containing important information about the international students personal, financial and course details.

Once you have formally accepted an overseas individual for study at your institution, you must complete the process to draft, assign and generate the unique CAS document. Once issued, the CAS, which is also a digital document, links with UKVIs digital database.

Once the CAS document is generated, it confirms that:

You wish to sponsor the named overseas student for study in the UK at your chosen institution or campus
The student satisfies the requirements for a CAS to be issued and they will be able to make a successful visa application
You accept the responsibility to report to the UKVI any changes and progress to the individual’s study with your institution

You must provide a copy of the unique CAS document to the correct student so that they may check it for any mistakes and if correct then apply for the correct type of student visa online.

Without a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies, an overseas student cannot submit a valid student visa application. Any application submitted without the CAS digital reference number will be rejected as invalid and not considered by the UKVI.

With the Student Sponsor Licence application, you must estimate and provide the number of CAS required in the first year of your licence. This will include any new students that you wish to sponsor and any existing students (already in the UK) who you wish to apply for an extension visa. The limit of CAS you can request for the first year is 50% of your current UK National students, and this request must be supported with evidence.

Licence fee and consideration

The fee for a Student Sponsor Licence is £536.00.

When you have submitted the application, supporting documents and a signed submission sheet, your application will take up to 4 weeks to be decided. You will be notified by email reply when UKVI have reached a decision.

In considering your application, the UKVI may decide to visit your institution at the address stated online or that confirmed in your application. During these visits, UKVI will check that all your sites meet the education standards in the UK.

You must:

Have achieved the required rating at a ‘student educational oversight inspection’; whereby a student educational oversight body will make this assessment in respect of all sites included in your student sponsor licence application;
Have undergone a ‘statutory education inspection’; with all courses that you will be offering to international students having been considered as part of the inspection; or
Be recognised as an overseas Higher Education Institution (publicly funded colleges and independent schools)

For the first 12 months after your licence is approved, you will have a probationary licence, in this time you must demonstrate further to UKVI that you can fulfil all the responsibilities and duties as a Student Sponsor Licence holder.

Upon completing the initial 12-month probationary period you must apply for compliance assessment to confirm that you meet the core requirements to remain a Student Sponsor. To learn more about the annual Basic Compliance Assessment, please contact our team and ask to speak with someone in the student sponsor (corporate) team.

Requirements to sponsor international students under the Student or Child Student routes

In considering your application, the UKVI will consider several factors including your history as an education provider, and the suitability of each person nominated for the roles stated above and involved in the day-to-day running of your organisation.

As stated above, you must ensure prior to applying that you have been inspected and approved by the relevant educational oversight body. Most, if not all educational oversight inspections include the following requirements:

Quality assurance, including academic governance; and
Financial sustainability, management and governance

Each provider must achieve and maintain the required rating when inspected by its educational oversight body, for the entire duration that it holds student sponsor status.

For every successful student sponsor licence application, it is important to provide honest and credible information which can also be supported by evidence. This assesses your ability to act faithfully and ensures you fulfil the sponsorship duties.

Sponsorship duties and compliance are based on two important principles:

Sponsorship is a privilege and not a right so those who obtain a student sponsor licence must help UKVI to prevent the system from being misused; and
Student applicants must be eligible and have a reputable education provider who is able to assess this.

The types of documents that can be useful are your policies and processes, especially how student attendance is monitored. You must always have these on hand because the UKVI can visit you before deciding and if there are still any doubts it may refuse your application.

Table of Contents

Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS)

Licence fee and consideration

Requirements to sponsor international students under the Student or Child Student routes

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