UK IMMIGRATION NEWS

Sponsoring students under the points-based system for immigration

Friday, 23 January 2009

Education providers who want to bring non-EEA students must have a licence and comply with their sponsorship duties under the Tier 4 category of the points-based system.

By 2 February 2009 all education providers must have applied to become licensed sponsors if they want to bring in non-EEA students from the end of March 2009. Applications will be accepted after this date, but the UK Border Agency cannot guarantee that a licence will be issued by the time tier 4 applications open at the end of March 2009.

To get a sponsor licence, education providers must:

• Be able to show that they are inspected, audited or accredited by one of the UK Border Agency's approved bodies;
• Allocate a number of key roles to staff using the sponsorship management system;
• Be able to comply with your sponsorship duties;
• Have the appropriate HR systems in place to be able to monitor your student's attendance, when the reporting functionality in the sponsorship management system is rolled out for education providers later in 2009.

From the end of March 2009, education providers must issue a visa letter to each non-EEA student to enable them to apply for a new visa or extension. This will be replaced by a confirmation of acceptance for studies when sponsors start using the sponsorship management system to issue confirmation of acceptance for studies later in 2009.

Sponsors will use the sponsorship management system to issue and pay for each confirmation of acceptance for studies, and to fulfill their reporting duties.

Sponsorship duties include the following:

• Maintaining any appropriate accreditation;
• Keeping copies of all students' passports;
• Keeping up-to-date contact details for students;
• Reporting any unauthorized absences, failure to enroll or termination of their studies to the UK Border Agency

Students can have as many visa letters or confirmation of acceptance for studies from institutions they have applied to, but can use only one visa letter (or confirmation of acceptance for studies) to apply. Students will be awarded 30 points for a visa letter or confirmation of acceptance for studies, and must score 10 points for maintenance (fees and living expenses) to pass the points-based assessment, and be able to apply.

Key benefits of the new system are:

• The sponsor licence ensures all colleges are genuine and eliminates bogus institutions;
• Sponsors are responsible for assessing whether a student meets the academic requirements for the course;
• The student's visa is linked to the institution;
• Depending on what has been studied, if students want to stay on in the UK once they have successfully got their qualification, they may be eligible to switch into the post-study worker category of tier 1.

If you are interested in UK Visas, contact Migration Expert for information and advice on which visa is best suited to you. You can also try our visa eligibility assessment to see if you are eligible to apply for a visa to the UK.