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Sponsoring students under the points-based system for immigration

This page is for United Kingdom education providers who want to apply for a licence under tier 4 to be able to bring international students from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) to their education institutions under the points-based system.

Detailed information about the new system is provided in our Guidance for sponsor applications.

Key elements of the new system

  1. You must have a licence.
  2. You must comply with your sponsorship duties.
  3. From 31 March 2009, you 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.
  4. You will use the sponsorship management system to issue and pay for each confirmation of acceptance for studies, and to fulfil your reporting duties.

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Key dates

We are introducing the new student route of the points-based system in phases after consultation with the sector. The phases are explained in the tier 4 implementation plan.

Date Activity
2 February 2009 Deadline for education providers to apply for a sponsor licence if they wanted to bring in non-EEA students from the end of March 2009
31 March 2009 All students must apply under tier 4 and pass a points-based assessment
Autumn 2009

Sponsors begin using the sponsorship management system to issue confirmations of acceptance for studies for students applying from inside the United Kingdom, in two stages:

  • switching from another tier or route, to extend their stay; and
  • extending their current student visa.
February 2010 Sponsorship management system is fully implemented for the issue of confirmation of acceptance for studies to students applying from both inside and outside the United Kingdom


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The sponsor licence

To get a sponsor licence, you must:

  • be able to show that you 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; and
  • have the appropriate human resource (HR) systems in place to be able to monitor your students' attendance, when the reporting functionality in the sponsorship management system is rolled out for education providers later in 2009.

 

You will be given an A or B rating and added to the tier 4 register of sponsors. Find out more about ratings in How we manage sponsors and ratings.

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Sponsorship duties

Your sponsorship duties include duties to:

  • maintain any appropriate accreditation;
  • keep copies of all students' passports;
  • keep up-to-date contact details for students; and
  • tell us if a student has any unauthorised absences, fails to enrol on their course or stops their studies.

You will use the sponsorship management system to fulfil your reporting duties when the reporting functionality goes live later in 2009.
 
Find a full list of all sponsorship duties.

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The visa letter or confirmation of acceptance for studies

To bring non-EEA students to the United Kingdom on or after 31 March 2009, you must issue students with a visa letter. This is only if you are giving the student an unconditional offer. If they apply successfully, the student's visa will then be linked to your institution. Find out what information the visa letter should contain in the visa letter for general students or visa letter for child students.

From autumn 2009, sponsors will start issuing confirmation of acceptance for studies (which is a unique reference number) instead of visa letters, using the sponsorship management system. Each confirmation of acceptance for studies will cost £10.

Students can have many visa letters or confirmations 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.

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The sponsorship management system

Education providers can currently use the sponsorship management system to update their contact details. In the autumn of 2009, education providers will start using the sponsorship management system to issue confirmation of acceptance for studies and report student activity, before full implementation in February 2010. We are working with key stakeholders on the phased approach. The tier 4 implementation plan explains the phases.

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Bulk data transfer

The bulk data transfer can be used by tier 4 sponsors to migrate some key information from their IT systems directly into the sponsorship management system. See bulk data transfer toolkit to download our frequently asked questions about this function and to access the technical details.

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Key benefits of the new system

  • 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 United Kingdom once they have successfully got their qualification, they may be eligible to switch into the post-study worker category of tier 1.

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