UK tightens student visa rules for Kenya

The UK has tightened visa conditions for foreign students seeking to study in its universities, stepping up the fight against illegal immigration that has caused a political storm for Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government ahead of May elections.

Beginning February 22, all applicants for clearance to study in the UK will be required to have a special virtual number known as the Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) from their prospective sponsors.

That number will be obtained from the central admissions teams that issue students with unconditional offers to study in their respective colleges confirming that they qualify to pursue the specified course.

Once a student accepts such an offer, she will be contacted to ascertain the veracity of information provided during the application, paving the way for her to be issued with a special CAS from the university in which they wish to study and provide all information needed to apply for a visa such as the start and end dates for academic course, fees and documents used to assess their eligibility.

The information will be uploaded on the UK government’s electronic data management system where it will be shared among the various departments, including the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to help track the immigrants.

The data will also be useful for security agencies that will use it to track the aliens’ activities while they are in the UK.

On Monday, the UK Home Office said the CAS virtual number and will replace the visa letter that is currently used to support applications to enter the UK for studies or in the case of visa extensions, to continue their studies in the UK.

The UK is a major recipient of academic tourists from Kenya with estimates from the British Council in Nairobi estimating that close to 5,000 Kenyan students join UK universities each year while an estimated 200,000 Kenyans live there legally.

Majority of them pursue undergraduate courses in business and finance related fields.

Medicine, information technology (IT), engineering, humanities and law are also popular with Kenyan students.

According to the new rules, students will not be able to apply for a visa or visa extension without a CAS number.

The unique attachment of the CAS reference number to specific sponsoring institution and programme of study also means that it will not be possible for a student to move to another provider unless they re-apply and pay the application costs afresh.

“Under the new system, a student’s visa will be ‘locked’ to the sponsor that issued them with the CAS used for their visa application. We will expect education providers, as the immigration sponsors of their students, to report where the student fails to enroll or stops attending. This reporting will be part of an education provider’s sponsor duties and will be mandatory,” the UKBA said.

Failure to comply with these conditions will expose the education provider to the risk of losing their licence or a ban from recruiting international students.

Should a student attempt to leave for another provider once they have arrived in the UK, they will be in breach of their visa conditions offering good grounds for the sponsor to report them to the UKBA,