In short. The UK Child Student visa is the route for a school-age child, roughly 4 to 17, to study at an independent UK boarding school. The school must be a licensed student sponsor. It issues the child a CAS once a place is confirmed. The family then applies online, pays the fee and healthcare surcharge, proves funds, and gives parental consent. A good school guides you through the parts it can, but it gives information, not regulated legal advice.
A message lands from the admissions office. A place has been confirmed, and attached is something called a CAS with a long reference number. It looks official and slightly forbidding, and it raises the obvious question: what now? Who fills in the visa form, who pays for what, and how much of this falls on you?
The honest answer is that the work is shared, and the school carries more of it than most parents expect. Here is how the Child Student visa works, and who does which part.
What is the Child Student visa?
The Child Student visa is the UK immigration route for a school-age child who wants to study at an independent school. It covers children roughly 4 to 17. Once a child turns 16, there is some overlap with the adult Student route, but for boarding pupils the Child Student visa is the usual path.
It is a sponsored visa. That word matters. Your child cannot apply on the strength of talent or fees alone. A school that holds a student sponsor licence from the Home Office has to sponsor the application. No licence, no visa. This is one quiet reason to check a school’s sponsor status early, before you fall for the dining hall and the playing fields.
The visa ties the child to that school. If the family later moves the child to a different school, the new school issues a fresh sponsorship and, in most cases, a new application follows. So the choice of school and the visa are bound together from the start.
What is a CAS, and why does the school issue it?
CAS stands for Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies. It is not a document you fill in. It is a reference number the school generates on the Home Office sponsorship system once your child has a confirmed, unconditional place.
The CAS records the essentials: the child’s details, the course and its dates, the school’s sponsor licence number, and the fees already paid. When you make the visa application, you enter that CAS number, and the Home Office reads it as the school vouching for the pupil.
You cannot apply for the visa without it. This is the single most important handoff in the whole process, and the school owns it. A capable admissions or compliance team issues the CAS promptly and gets every field right, because an error on the CAS can stall or sink the application. A slow or careless one leaves families stranded weeks before term.
One modest signal, not a verdict: the way a school runs its CAS and compliance function tells you a little about how the place is organised. A place that handles hundreds of international pupils well has this down to a calm routine. If the admissions team is vague about sponsor licences, CAS timing, or care arrangements, treat that as information about how the rest of the school is run.
So who does what?
Here is the division of labour, laid out plainly. Use it as a checklist.
The school does this:
– Holds a valid Home Office student sponsor licence, and keeps it current.
– Confirms an unconditional place and the exact course dates.
– Issues the CAS with the correct details once fees and deposits are settled.
– Tells you which documents the visa application will need from its side.
– Confirms the care and guardianship arrangements it requires for a boarding pupil.
– Reports and records the pupil’s enrolment and attendance once term starts, as sponsorship duties require.
– Reissues or corrects the CAS if something changes before you apply.
The family does this:
– Chooses a school that is a licensed sponsor, and checks this before committing.
– Completes the online visa application on the UK government website (gov.uk).
– Pays the visa application fee and the Immigration Health Surcharge.
– Provides evidence of funds for fees and living costs, to the standard the rules require.
– Supplies written parental consent for the child to study and travel to the UK.
– Arranges care and accommodation in the UK, including a guardian where needed.
– Sits a tuberculosis (TB) test if applying from a country where one is required.
– Books and attends the biometrics appointment, giving fingerprints and a photo.
– Gathers supporting documents: passport, birth certificate, and translations where needed.
The pattern is simple. The school vouches. The family applies and evidences. Neither side can complete the visa alone.
One important limit. UK immigration advice is regulated, and most schools deliberately stay on the safe side of that line: they will handle the CAS and share general information, but they are not immigration advisers and will not, and should not, advise on a complicated case. If yours has any complication — a previous visa refusal, sole-parent or custody consent, an overstay, an unusual funding history, or an application from inside the UK — take it to a regulated adviser (in the UK, one registered with the Immigration Advice Authority, formerly OISC) or an immigration solicitor. That is not a sign of a bad school. It is the correct division of labour.
What will you need to evidence?
A few of the family’s tasks deserve a closer look, because they trip people up.
Funds. You will need to show you can pay the school fees and your child’s living costs. The exact figures and the number of months you must evidence change from time to time, so check the current requirement on gov.uk and confirm the fee position with the school. Do not rely on a number a friend quotes from two years ago.
Parental consent and care. For a child, the Home Office wants clear written consent from both parents or the legal guardian, covering study, travel, and living arrangements in the UK. Younger boarders usually need a nominated UK guardian as well. Many schools require this regardless of the visa, and some will only issue the CAS once care arrangements are confirmed. Ask the school what it expects.
TB test. Whether your child needs a tuberculosis test depends on the country you apply from, not the school. There is a list on gov.uk of countries where a test at an approved clinic is required. Check it early, because appointments and certificates take time.
Biometrics. Every applicant attends an appointment to give fingerprints and a photograph, usually at a visa application centre in your country. This is a fixed step. Build it into your timing.
On processing times: they vary by country and season, and priority services sometimes exist for an extra fee. Check the current guidance on gov.uk rather than assuming. The safe habit is to start well before the term you are aiming for.
What should you do next?
Start with two conversations, not two hundred documents.
First, confirm the school is a licensed student sponsor and ask its admissions or compliance team to walk you through their CAS and visa process. A good team will have a written guide, a named contact, and a realistic timeline. That conversation alone tells you a great deal.
Second, open the Child Student visa pages on gov.uk and read the current requirements for funds, fees, the health surcharge, and TB testing for your country. Pair what you read there with what the school tells you, and you will have the accurate, current picture. Requirements shift, so the live page always beats any summary, including this one.
You are not doing this alone, and you are not meant to. The school carries the sponsorship. You carry the application. The families who find it smoothest are simply the ones who ask the school early and keep the gov.uk page open beside them.