What is a Student Visa?
As the name suggests, a student visa is a visa that a person needs when studying (college or school) abroad.
The function is the same as a regular visa, namely a residence permit in a country, not the country of origin. However, it only applies to studying while running a college or school within a certain period. Without this visa, you cannot carry out your studies in the destination country, even though you have been officially accepted at the university.
This visa is specifically for study, so you are not allowed to carry out other activities such as full-time working, opening a business or carrying out official political activities as long as you use this visa. For example, in Australia, you can do part-time work for 20 hours per week.
Because it is only valid during the study period (for example, four or two years of study), you must also go home immediately after your studies are completed. You cannot continue to live there on a study visa.
If you want to continue working or travelling, you must renew your visa by having a graduate visa or extending your student visa.
Every Country Has Different Requirements
The requirements or procedures for applying for a student visa in each country may vary, although generally similar. Some countries require you to have a certificate of being free from certain diseases; some require you to attach a sponsorship letter for financial study support from your parents or family.
In Australia, a student visa applicant must do a medical check-up where you must complete the 501 Medical Examination and 502 Chest X-ray Examination.
Further, you must request this in-person to your education consultant in detail information.
Knowing the Process and Overall Costs
Generally, the registration process can be done through guidance from your study counsellor; only then will you get more details information on whether your application is approved or not by the school.
Is it hard to do a school admission yourself?
It is not as long as you have the correct documents ready. However, we would suggest getting an education consultant to help you because they would give you advice before applying to avoid your application being rejected.
Additionally, there is no additional fee for using an education consultant. For example, when you use IStudentPlus’ services, we would charge nothing and are transparent. We will provide you with the information and invoices for all the costs required for your application. For an application for an Australian student visa, the requirements will be:
- Education cost (enrollment fee, tuition fee and material fee)
- Visa cost (student visa fee)
- Overseas student health cover (OSHC)
Anticipating Failure in Your Student Visa Application
The difficulty in making a student visa is relatively reasonable. If you have fulfilled all the document requirements properly and completed the costs, the process should run smoothly.
However, usually many have problems and even fail because the submission time was tight, and it turned out that there were wrong or lacking documents.
After you know about a study visa, it would be nice if you knew how to get your study visa fully approved. You can see these steps.
1. Check Your Language Certificate
Depending on the language of your course, your country of destination may require you to attach a certificate of results from a language test such as IELTS to apply for a visa. But keep in mind that some language test certificates have a validity period.
For example, IELTS/TOEFL certificates are only valid for two years. When submitting, your test results must still be valid. Otherwise, you will need to retake the test.
Some language tests have different types, so you must take the proper language test. For example, IELTS has two types of tests: Academic and General. For college matters, you must take IELTS Academic.
You will usually need a language certificate to apply for a student visa.
2. Check The Document Requirements
To help complete the documents, you can make a file checklist that includes information on costs, terms and the time needed to obtain these documents. These documents include,
- Valid passport (minimum six months)
- KTP/Family Card/Birth certificate
- Last education certificate
- The results of the English test score or the language of the country of interest
- Letter of Acceptance from the destination college or university
- Evidence of financial guarantees such as scholarships/study sponsors, or if using personal fees, attach proof of the ability of funds to finance the study
- Visa payment confirmation
3. Schedule as early as possible to apply for a study visa
Student visas may take several weeks to process. Therefore, submitting a Visa application as soon as possible will be better than submitting it last minute. You will also be required to do a medical check-up after submitting an Australian student visa; hence, having more time in between study intake and visa application can be a great advantage for the applicant.
4. Translate and Photocopy All Documents
All documents in Indonesian that are part of the Visa requirements need to be translated into English by a translator. Some embassies/consulates have a list of sworn translators you can contact to translate your documents. However, if the translators on the list are busy, you can also look for other certified translator services on the Translator Association website.
This step needs to be done well in advance of your Visa application schedule so that there is time for revision if there is a translation error.
FYI, IStudentPlus team can help you in translating your documents.
So, prepare your study abroad plan carefully, and hopefully, the tips above are helpful for those of you who want to get your study visa approved quickly.
Finding it difficult to apply for a study visa? Don’t worry. IStudentPlus can also help you apply for a study visa until you get it. So what are you waiting for, contact us and everything will be easy.
