My girlfriend, who is a non-EU/EEA citizen, would like to apply for the Short-Term Student visa (11 months English language route). The studies would take more than 6 months (hence the 11 month visa). I would provide full sponsorship of the studies. She currently has a valid Standard visitor visa (6 months). At the moment, she has a job in her home country and we are aware that she has to apply outside the UK.
Looking at the case worker documentation (Short-Term Students Guidance by HO), the requirements seem to be quite straightforward, but we would like to get some opinions on these questions:
- In a case of visitor visa, there is a requirement for strong evidence of ties to the home country. I cannot find any of this in the STS guidance, but do we need to provide any evidence demonstrating her intent to return to the home country after the studies?
- How would the financial requirements be calculated in this case? Would the requirements be more like for the Tier 4 visas or more like for Standard visitor visa, where enough convincing evidence (more arbitrary) and a cover letter from the sponsor would do?
- Are there any catches we need to know before applying for the 11 month visa? Does anybody have experience of successfully applying for it?
