The CAS and the 28-day rule are one problem.
Most refused UK applications in an agency's file are not refused on substance. They are refused on the order two clocks were started in.
Visatory · · updated · 4 min read
A Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies is not a document in the way a letter of acceptance is a document. It is a record the sponsoring institution creates on the Home Office system, and what the student holds is a reference number and the details behind it. That distinction matters because a CAS has a life: it is issued for one application, it expires, and it can be withdrawn by the sponsor if the underlying facts change.
Separately, an applicant who is required to show maintenance must hold the money for 28 consecutive days, and the closing balance of that period must be recent when the application is made. Two clocks, started by two different parties, and the application has to land inside both windows.
The rule, stated plainly.
Where the applicant must evidence funds, the money has to sit in an acceptable account for 28 consecutive days without dropping below the required level at any point during that period, and the statement's closing date must fall within a short window before the application date. The amount depends on course length and whether the institution is inside or outside London, and it covers course fees not yet paid plus living costs for a capped number of months.
The figures are published and are revised. Take them from the current official guidance on the day you advise, not from a training deck. Record the date you checked and the amount you quoted in the student's file — if the family later says they were given the wrong number, that record is the whole conversation.
Where the sequencing goes wrong.
The money moves during the 28 days.
A parent transfers the balance between their own accounts, or pays the deposit out of the same account, and the balance dips below the threshold on day nineteen. The clock restarts. Families do this because nobody told them not to, so tell them: once the 28 days begin, that account does not move, in either direction, for any reason.
The CAS arrives before the money has seasoned.
A sponsor issues the CAS promptly, the student wants to apply immediately, and the funds have been in place for eleven days. Applying now means a refusal on maintenance. Waiting means burning most of the CAS's life. The way out is to start the 28 days at the same time you start chasing the CAS, not after it lands.
The statement is stale by the time the file is complete.
The 28-day period completed six weeks ago, and now the closing balance is older than the permitted window. This is the most avoidable of the three, and it is entirely a file-management failure: someone had the statement and did not notice it ageing.
A workable order of operations.
- Confirm at counselling whether the applicant is exempt from evidencing maintenance, because a large share are and the whole timing problem disappears for them.
- Agree the account the funds will sit in, in one name, and confirm the account type is acceptable under the current guidance.
- Start the 28 days as early as the family can afford to, and log day one and day twenty-eight as dated steps.
- Chase the unconditional offer and the deposit in parallel, since the sponsor will not assign a CAS until its own conditions are met.
- When the CAS is assigned, check every field against the student's passport and qualifications the same day. A misspelled name or a wrong course start date is fixed cheaply now and expensively later.
- Order the bank statement so its closing date sits comfortably inside the permitted window ahead of the intended submission date.
- Submit, then keep the CAS reference, the statement and the fee receipts in the student's file rather than in an inbox.
What to check on the CAS itself.
Read it as though you were the caseworker. Name and date of birth exactly as they appear in the passport. Course title, level, start and end dates. The fees stated and any deposit already paid, because that figure feeds the maintenance calculation. Whether the sponsor has recorded that qualifications were assessed, and which ones. If a document listed on the CAS is not in your file, get it before submission, not after a request for further information.
Why this belongs in the system and not in someone's head.
The knowledge above lives, in most agencies, with one or two senior counsellors. When they are on leave in the week a CAS lands, the file waits. Encoding the UK route as an ordered set of dated milestones with owners means the sequence survives staff turnover, and it means a manager can see at a glance which files are inside both windows and which are about to fall out of one.
None of this replaces the current Home Office guidance. Read it, check it before each intake, and note the date you checked.
Filed under
Immigration and institutional requirements change between intakes. Check the current official guidance for the destination before advising a family, and note the date you checked.
