General Student Visa

You must meet strict criteria about how much money you have. When you submit the application, you need to have £800 per each month of your study on your bank account. For example, if you intend to come for 8 months, you need to have £6400 on your bank account. However, if you want to come and study for more than nine months with us, it is enough that you have £7200 for the living costs. Please notice that you need to have this money in addition to (any outstanding) course fees.
You must already have attained (at least) B1 level of English, which is upper intermediate level, and you must be able to prove this with an official test certificate. The language skills requirement applies to all components of the test (i.e. reading, writng, speaking and listening), and not to an overall test result. For example, if you have achieved B1 level in three components out of the four but have a lower degree in, for instance, writing, you will not qualify for a General Student Visa.

However, there are several advantages of this kind of visa:

You can extend your visa without having to return to your country
You can bring dependants and family members

To apply for this kind of visa you need to register and pay for a course, and then we will send you a "CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) number" and a "CAS statement". You can use these to support your application for a general student visa.

For more information about this please email our compliance administrator, pauliina.ketola@a2z-english.com or visit the UK Border Agency official web page.