Hello hello hello! I'm back with another video! My name is Pearl. I'm studying the Masters
in Gender, Development and Globalisation here at the London School of Economics
and today I just wanted to make a quick video with five tips for the visa application process
for coming to London and the UK.
While I'm hopeful that my advice will be helpful for you, I also am just one person
and I'm speaking from my experience so if you have any questions please please please reach out
to the Student Advice and Engagement team at the London School of Economics. They're super helpful
and know a ton and so they're definitely the people to reach out to with any questions.
And then, second of all, as I said, I'm speaking from my experience and that experience took
place in summer 2021 which means that there was a lot still up in the air in terms of restrictions
and kind of the visa process to some extent. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic there were stressers
that I dealt with that you all hopefully will not have to deal with just because of the time
in history I guess that I was applying.
Before I get into the tips, I do really want to quickly acknowledge that I'm from the U.S so
my experience was specifically as an American citizen applying for a visa in the United Kingdom
so it might differ. I tried really hard in making this video not to be super specific so that the
advice does work for people who are coming from different locations. But also I'm not an expert
in this. I'm only speaking from my experience so please definitely check the LSE resources that
are out there and then also just check resources that are out there both from your country and then
also from the UK, whether that's the UK embassy in your country or just the UK immigration website.
Tip number one is to plan ahead. You might still be waiting for your Confirmation of Acceptance of
Studies or some other documents to come through before you can really fully like submit your
visa application and I definitely remember sitting there being like "well I can't really do anything
yet because I haven't gotten that Confirmation of Acceptance of Studies yet or the CAS," but you can
think through the questions that you're going to be asked. I know I was asked about a lot of
my travel history, some of which I didn't expect to be asked about, and had to think back and
remember exact dates, and think through like what you need to apply, anything that might be relevant
for applying. Also, it's not free to apply to a visa so think through the costs, whether that's
the cost you pay for the NHS when you apply for your visa, just the visa application cost,
all of that is good to think through and make sure you're prepared for even if you're not really
starting your visa application process yet because you're still waiting on a couple of things.
Tip number two is to check the documents that you need. I just mentioned the Confirmation of
Acceptance of Studies but there are a number of documents that you'll need to have in order to
apply for the visa and it's really important that you know what those are because the worst thing
that happens, or the most annoying thing not the worst thing, but the most annoying thing is that
you think you're ready to apply and you sit down to do the whole application process and
you realize that there's a document that you needed that you don't have so definitely check
on that before you really start the process so that you're not surprised when you're filling
out the form or when you go in for a meeting or whatever about something that you need.
Tip number three goes off of that, check your passport! I have a couple of friends who had
issues because they didn't have a ton of pages left so they didn't have a blank page left in
their passport for the visa stamp to go in so check your passport. Check the requirements for
your passport so that you have that all set before you need to send it in to get the visa inserted.
Tip number four: submit your application earlier than you think. For me, I thought
I was just going to submit my visa application and then I'd be fine and dandy, good to go,
but I actually had to then go get my fingerprints taken. Make sure you take some time to think
through the timeline and once you get your CAS, do you send in the application because it's better to
have your visa with tons of time to spare than to be hoping that you'll get it before your flight.
And then finally tip number five is to take a breath.
I know visa stuff is really stressful and there's a lot of questions and unknowns going into it,
but there are a ton of resources out there both from the UK government, from LSE,
and just looking into things. There are a lot of students who go from probably your home country
to the United Kingdom to study and so there is information out there and you can definitely
ask questions. I had friends whose visas were delayed, they still made it to LSE, they still
had a great year. So it will all work out. So I think my last tip is to just take a breath
and you'll figure it out. You'll get your visa and everything will be great and you'll be in London!
Those are my five tips! Thank you so much for watching. If you have a question about visas,
I would definitely reach out to the LSE office that works with international students
or look for that answer online from the UK government, et cetera.
There are a lot of resources out there. I believe in you. You'll figure it out and good luck!