CAS For Continuing Students

Extending Your Student Route Visa

Overview and initial CAS assessment eligibility

This page has information on the CAS application process for Swansea University students who may need to make a further Student Route visa application in order to complete, or return to complete, a course in the UK.

This could be for one of the following reasons:

returning from a period of authorised suspension
repeating or resitting previously failed modules
course end date moved on due to an academic outcome
transferring programme to an integrated degree programme
PhD extension due to extension of candidature / prepare for and undertake a viva voce examination / complete corrections (3, 6, 12 months) / re-submit thesis
transferring to another degree programme that requires further leave

Before you submit a CAS application to extend your Student Route (previously Tier 4) visa, please check that the points below have been completed. If any of these points are outstanding, please note that your CAS application cannot be processed:

The course end date in your student record must have been moved on to reflect that you have been granted more time to complete your course. You can check this in your intranet account. If the course end date has not been moved on, contact your Faculty’s Support Team for further information and advice as to expected timings.
You must have received the outcome of any outstanding appeals and your student record must have been updated to reflect the appeal outcome. You can check this in your intranet account. If the appeal outcome is still pending, contact the Assessment and Awards team for further information and advice as to expected timings.
You must have cleared any outstanding tuition fees. Please see the University information on How to pay your fees or, if you have specific questions about your fees contact the University’s Finance team at income.tuition@swansea.ac.uk

Please note that upon submission of your CAS application, and providing that the above points have been completed, an assessment of your application will be made in line with our Policy governing the Student Visa sponsorship of current students.

It is worth noting that a CAS statement cannot legally be issued for a student to purely wait in the UK for results, for the outcome of any University administrative processes (e.g. Appeals; Academic Misconduct/Integrity Cases; Complaints) or just to enable a student to meet future Graduate Route eligibility.

A CAS can also not be issued for students who have External status or who only have online resit/resubmission (or similar) and where there is deemed to be no further academic necessity to be in the UK.

In addition, a Student Route visa application cannot be made for a course that has already finished. So, if you have a new course end date you must ensure that you both apply for a new CAS and make your visa application before the new course end date has passed. Please see the VISA Advice web page on making a UKVI application to extend your student visa for specific guidance around the visa application process.

If you think you fall into any of the categories which prevent CAS issuance above, please get in touch with the University's VISA Advice team for further guidance about your immigration status- as it is likely you will need to leave the UK before your current visa expires to prevent yourself becoming a UK overstayer.

The team cannot be held responsible for late applications made without sufficient time for the process to be fulfilled, for applications that are made before assessment conditions are met or that fall for refusal based on UKVI and/or University CAS Issuing requirements.

When should I apply for a new CAS statement?

Students who are applying for a CAS statement to resume studies after a period of suspension should start the CAS application process a minimum of 3-4 months before their intended resumption date. As this application will usually be made from overseas, it is important that enough time is allowed for all relevant processes and travel. A CAS may not be issued if it is deemed to be too late for you to safely apply for a visa for resumption of studies at the next readmission point and you may be offered a CAS for a future readmission point instead.

Students who are applying for a CAS statement to make an in UK application as they have resits, repeats or an extension to their course end date due to academic process should make their CAS application as soon as their new course end date is updated on the University system. However, they may be advised that the VISA Compliance team need to wait for any additional results or key factors to be clear before the application can be fully processed. In those cases the VISA Compliance team will provide additional direct information to the applicant.

Students who need to apply for a CAS due to a change to their existing course (e.g. the addition of a placement year or a change from BEng to MEng) would usually receive direct advice regarding timings from the VISA Compliance team. As a general rule, where a course level is changed the application must be made prior to the new course being started. An additional year for a placement would usually be applied for either before the start of the placement year or for the final year of study.

What documents will I need to provide?

All applicants should expect to submit the following documents along with their completed CAS Application Form

A copy of your current passport
A copy of your current immigration status (i.e. e-Visa share code)
A copy of any previous UK study visas (inc. Entry Clearance Vignettes)

For students who are returning from suspension, you should also expect to provide:

Proof of Exit from the UK (i.e. boarding pass/flight details/re-entry stamp from home country).
Proof of Finances- especially if you have any previous instances of debt with the University and/or are applying from outside the UK

Support for completing the CAS Application Form

Please see our handy video for more information on how to complete your CAS Application: CAS Application Support

CAS application process, decision and CAS issuance

1	Student fully completes the CAS Application Form and sends this with the relevant documents outlined in the What documents will I need to provide section above to the University’s VISA Compliance team visa.compliance@swansea.ac.uk
2	Received CAS application is checked for assessment eligibility and will undertake any liaison with the student as to missing information or documents. If an application is immediately evident as not eligible for CAS issuance/assessment the student would be informed at this point.
3	Once an eligible CAS application (including all documents) is received in full, the VISA Compliance team will assess the application making reference to both the Policy governing the Student Visa sponsorship of current students and the UKVI Student Sponsor Guidance. Complex or non-straightforward cases may be referred to Senior VISA Compliance staff for checking or final decision
4	Once assessment has taken place, the final decision will be provided via email to the student.
5	Provided a CAS can be issued, the VISA Compliance team will seek to issue the CAS as quickly as possible via the UKVI SMS system. The student will receive an email confirming the new CAS number, which can then be added to the Student Route visa application prior to submitting.

*The CAS issuance processing time can be extended when handling complex cases that require further inquiries or delays with collation of key documentation.

Appeals process

If an applicant believes an incorrect CAS refusal decision has been made they may make an appeal for a second assessment from a Senior Compliance Officer. This appeal and supporting evidence must be submitted in writing to the Visa.compliance@swansea.ac.uk within 5 working days of the CAS decision.

When responding to an appeal, the VISA Compliance team may also provide additional rationale/detail as to why a CAS was initially refused. For example; if a CAS has been refused primarily for lack of academic necessity but there were in fact additional reasons which also supported the initial/ongoing refusal- these will be detailed more fully.

It is important to note that for an appeal to be considered as valid, an applicant must make reference to both the Policy governing the Student Visa sponsorship of current students and the UKVI Student Sponsor Guidance when evidencing why they believe a mistake has been made.

Appeals which are not directly related to the above guidance or which do not have additional evidence would not usually be able to be overturned. For example; an appeal based purely on a student wanting to stay in the UK for employment or other reasons would not normally be accepted- as it does not directly relate to either the Policy governing the Student Visa sponsorship of current students or the UKVI Student Sponsor Guidance.

Visa decisions that include CAS refusal wholly or partially due a period of student UK immigration overstay (which is a criminal offence) would be expected to include evidence of exceptional and compelling circumstances which prevented the student from leaving the UK. An valid example could be where a student was hospitalised.

In cases where a CAS decision includes evidence of a student choosing to ignore previous immigration advice provided by the University, the VISA Compliance team reserves the right to not issue CAS to protect the wider institutional Sponsor Licence. An example of this could be where a student has failed to leave the UK as advised and has instead made a risky non Student Route ‘stop gap’ application (e.g. Fee Waiver, FLR(HR), Asylum) in the UK to try and circumvent the need to wait for results or academic decision from overseas and is now looking to the University to ‘regulate’ their immigration status through issuing a CAS.