Immigration and visa enquiries

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). The FCDO is a ministerial department who are responsible for foreign travel advice, consular help abroad and document legislation. They are also responsible for issuing ATAS certificates.

All international students and researchers (apart from exempt nationalities) who are subject to UK immigration control and are intending to study or research at postgraduate level in certain sensitive subjects.

Students and researchers who are nationals of EU countries, the European Economic Area (EEA), Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland or the United States of America do not need an ATAS certificate.

Six months before the course start date. Applicants/students should apply for an ATAS certificate as early as possible. Please note that UoY offer holders will not be issued with a CAS until they have their ATAS certificate which is why it is important for them to apply for their ATAS as early as possible.

ATAS applications take at least 30 working days (6 full weeks) to process. If the student/applicant has not received a decision within this timeframe it is important that they do not submit a new application without first contacting the International Student Support team.

No. Applications are processed by the FCDO in order of receipt. This is to ensure fairness and consistency. 

An ATAS certificate is valid for six months from the date it is issued. This should enable applicants time to apply for their visa. Note that an ATAS certificate must not expire before an applicant/student applies for their visa.

If an applicant/student changes their research project after an ATAS certificate has been issued they will need to make a new ATAS application and include the new research proposal. 

Where the applicant has been advised of their right of appeal and has received an application form to request a review of the refusal decision, if they wish to pursue an appeal, they must complete and return the form, with any additional information they believe will help the reviewer, within 30 calendar days of receiving the refusal notification. Reviews can take at least 15 working days to complete.

Information relating to delays with ATAS applications are often published on Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) website. We also often get notified by Russell Group, UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA), British Universities' International Liaison Association (BUILA) and Immigration Compliance Network (ICN) mailing lists.

As part of the programme set-up process each new course is allocated a CAH3 code using Government guidance and based on the module content of the course. The CAH3 code allocated is what determines whether ATAS clearance is needed or not. As ATAS is linked to national security, the Foreign, the Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) does not share information about how these codes are determined.

Trusted Research is a UK government initiative aimed at protecting UK researchers and sensitive research information in the context of international collaboration.
ATAS is one of the measures that supports this initiative.  

For more information please see the government's Trusted Research Guidance for Academia or contact policy-integrity-performance@york.ac.uk

Further information about ATAS can be found via the government website.