How do you satisfy financial travel visa requirements when you're a poor college student?

January 13, 2011 3:07 PM

UK Travel VisaFilter: There is a possibility that I might leave the US and attempt to get a post-graduate degree at the University of Edinburgh....

Thankfully, this is just the hypothetical planning stage, but since this qualifies as a Major-Life-Move-Thingy, I like to figure out as much contingency as I can.

I'm a college student with no family support, relying upon federal financial aid and scholarships, and a decent-enough part time job that covers most of the (very modest) bills.

The greatly summarized and condensed plan is thus:

1) Finish undergrad work and maintain honors standing.
2) Apply for the Tier 4 General visa, since I would (hopefully) be staying longer than six months.
3) Go through the awesome (re: hellish) process of finding a residence in a foreign country.
4) Attend University, do well in classes, etc.

Easy right? The snafu is thus: the Tier 4 General visa works on a point system. Assuming things go smoothly and I get the CAS number, how does one satisfy the 10 point financial maintenance requirement without being independently wealthy?

If anyone has had experience with post-grad work abroad, what grants/sponsorships/scholarships did you use? Does the UK government have a financial aid system like the US (admittedly, I have not researched this as much as I probably should)?

tl;dr I want to go to Scotland to study, but I am poor. How do I get the funds necessary for the visa requirement without going crazy?

posted by donquixote to education (8 answers total)

I came to Scotland to study from the US about six years ago. When i came through, there was a small loophole in the financial maintenance requirement - you could work and count your salary towards your maintenance, if your work formed part of your studies. I took a job as a research assistant at the university, and did my Master's degree as part of my work (specifically, I worked at the International Teledemocracy Centre at Napier Uni while doing a Masters in Computer Science). If that loophole still exists, I highly recommend it!

Also, your US student loans will work for UK study - my UK Master's was paid for by a US Stafford Loan. Getting the money to the Uni was another story, however -- I ended up convincing them to cut me a check for $18,000 because they couldn't figure out how to pay otherwise!
posted by ukdanae at 3:19 PM on January 13, 2011

This is almost definitely a bad idea, as the UK are paranoid about student-related immigration issues. (I have an now-expired UK Student Visa, which has raised enormous red flags every single time I've crossed the border into the UK, even before it had expired.)

If you get admitted to the postgraduate program, you'll have a guaranteed student visa. If you tell the immigration officer that you are entering the country with the intent of attending university there, without actually having gained admission or having proved your ability to pay for your course of study, you will almost certainly be put on a plane straight back home.
posted by schmod at 3:20 PM on January 13, 2011

I can only offer general advice. But any financial aid the UK government offers will generally only be available to UK and/or EU citizens.

I work at a Scottish university (not Edinburgh), so feel free to mefi mail me if you have any other questions.
posted by TheOtherGuy at 3:24 PM on January 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh sorry, i didn't realise that you weren't planning to apply under a student visa (which was how I came in, and where that particular loophole for funding exists).
posted by ukdanae at 3:38 PM on January 13, 2011

I hope you know you need to be accepted to the university before you apply for a visa. The Tier 4 requires more prep work than the student visitor visa, which I recently obtained on arrival in the UK (with proof that I'd been accepted to a uni here, of course). The student visitor visa doesn't require you to provide evidence of financial support.

Funding-wise, I'm pretty sure you can use US student loans to pay for study in the UK, and you probably wouldn't be eligible for UK student grants or loans.
posted by MadamM at 3:46 PM on January 13, 2011

how does one satisfy the 10 point financial maintenance requirement without being independently wealthy?

Bluntly, you don't.

Some few universities have scholarships available for non-EU students, but they're very rare. The department at Edinburgh will be able to tell you.
Other than that, you need private funding or a loan, and you'll need the cash before the visa can be issued. The UK Border people, as schmod says, are paranoid about student visas at the moment, and will decline for any reason they can. The universities need the money, and overseas masters students are cash cows keeping many university departments from closure.

I know some American students who have used their US student loan providers; you'll never get a UK bank to loan you any money. In keeping with a lot of advice on the green, I'd never ever recommend a student borrow money to pay for a postgraduate degree in anything, (other than perhaps medicine from an internationally famous university, and maybe not even then).

Sorry to be negative - the UK masters market (used advisedly) is a bad, bad thing right now.
posted by cromagnon at 3:52 PM on January 13, 2011

I did this three years ago and am still here (well, in London). All with US student loans. It was a long process but not really difficult.

Much of it will depend on what degree you are going to get -- mainly because you need to take Stafford and potentially Grad Plus loans.

PM me if you want to bro out about this.
posted by nickrussell at 4:30 PM on January 13, 2011

Thank you for all the informative and helpful replies.

Again, it was on the hypothetical list, and I was aware of all of the basic requirements (like actually being accepted to the college), it just seemed like if it was to be a solid plan, it needed to stand up to some rigor.

Which, unless something unexpected happens, it seems to have crumbled under the weight. Better to find this out now than later. :)

Thanks again.
posted by donquixote at 5:12 PM on January 13, 2011