SCIMS UKBA processes

Transcription

1 SCIMS UKBA processes

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3 Using SCIMS to obtain CAS numbers from UKBA Overseas applicants accepted by UK universities now need proof of Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) before they can apply for a visa. They will be given a CAS number by their licensed sponsor (the university); they cannot make an application for a visa without a CAS number. The university obtains the CAS number from the UK Border Agency (UKBA), and to do this has to supply data about the applicant, and pay a fee. The data required is defined by UKBA, as is the format in which it must be supplied. The data is all held in SCIMS, and a SCIMS process is able to extract and format the data as required by UKBA. We are not required to actually prove that a student is bona fide, just to gather and forward the required data to UKBA who will carry out their own additional checks, such as looking for forged documents. The CAS number is issued by UKBA if they are satisfied with the data we send them, and have no other reason to refuse, but the issuing of a CAS number still does not guarantee that the applicant will be granted a visa. UKBA makes a final decision when they receive the actual visa request from the applicant. The CAS number is sent to the university, not to the applicant; the university has to inform the applicant of it so that they can submit their visa application to UKBA. If UKBA decline to issue a CAS number, the university has to inform the applicant that their application cannot proceed. Because the submission of applications for CAS numbers involves considerable effort, and a fee, it is done only for applicants who have received an unconditional offer and who have given a firm response SCIMS decision/response code UF. The application for a CAS number or, more likely, a batch of CAS numbers, is made by an authorised member of staff, who will be able to log into the UKBA web site, where they pay the fees and submit the required file of data. This file will have been created by SCIMS and this document explains how to create such files. Before a CAS application can be included in the submitted file, it has to pass validation checks, which SCIMS carries out. This ensures that the application will not be rejected because data required by UKBA is missing or is not in the required form. The data required by UKBA is extracted from a range of different records and assembled in one SCIMS table, from which the CAS request file sent to UKBA is produced. The table that holds the assembled data is called VCR (Visa CAS Request) and there will be one VCR record for each applicant. Most of the data for the VCR record will be extracted from other existing records, but there are two essential items that are not used for other purposes and must be specifically set up for extraction into VCR: the applicant s passport number, and the nomination of which of the applicant s qualifications are to be used to support their CAS request. The passport number must be present in a SCIMS table called PPT, and the nomination of qualifications is done in the SQE table. PPT Passport Details Passport details are not collected from overseas applicants when they apply, as they are needed only if the applicant is successful and gives a firm acceptance to an unconditional offer. The PPT record, which holds details of a student s passport, therefore, need not be set up until the applicant has accepted, and has at the same time provided at 1

4 least their passport number. The passport number is an essential data item, required by UKBA, so the PPT record must have been set up for the applicant and their passport number stored there before the CAS request can be generated. To set up a PPT record, use the STU or QSV screen to retrieve the applicant or continuing student, then use the Other menu and choose Passport details. This will open a partially populated PPT screen. Enter at least the passport number, in the Passport number field, and store. Other details can be added if and when available, but the student code and passport number are all that are required for a CAS request. Note that it is possible for an applicant to hold, and provide details of, more than one passport. If this is the case, you can store a PPT record for each, but ensure that only one record has the In-use? field ticked this is the one that will be used to supply the passport number for the VCR record. SQE Student Qualification on Entry Applicants will typically have a number of previously obtained qualifications to support their application. UKBA wants details of these, but only the ones, or the one, on which Keele has relied to justify offering the applicant a place. Each qualification is stored in an SQE record, and to ensure that only the relevant qualifications are forwarded to UKBA, the UKBA evidence? box on the appropriate SQE record or records should be ticked (see highlighted area in the illustration). Click in this box and store the record. SQE records that are not related to a CAS request should not be ticked to remove an incorrect tick, click in the box again and store the record. For postgraduate applicants, the Note field will be used for the extraction of relevant details, so you should ensure that a suitable description is held there see example above. Creating VCR records VCR records are created through a process screen called XVCR. The XVCR screen is also used to create the files you send to UKBA and for processing the files UKBA produce when they issue the CAS numbers. Generating VCR records is done in the top part of the screen, shown here, but even then you have three choices in the drop-down menu at the top; The two main choices are to base the VCR on the applicant s CAP (Course Application) record (as in ACD) or on their SCE record. You would choose SCE if you were applying for a CAS number for an existing student who needed to extend their visa. For new applicants you would always choose CAP. 2

5 The third choice is for reporting applicants who received a CAS number but did not arrive to enroll on the course. This is not yet in use, and is unlikely to be required before Below this drop-down box is a default profile which will be used for selecting the applicants (or existing students) to be processed. For applicants, the default is the current application year, that the student has one of the overseas codes (O *) and has firmly accepted an unconditional offer ( *UF *). There is a different profile for existing students. In both cases you can refine the selection criteria. You could, for example, choose to process just the applicants for a single course, by adding the appropriate code, and you can remove or replace the default criteria. If necessary you can deal with just one individual by entering just their student number, which is what you would do if you were dealing with an existing student seeking an extension. You cannot, in this screen, make selections based on the prior existence or current status of VCR records, but clicking the green Run extract arrow does not in fact run the extract process; it simply starts the process by taking you to a control screen, which is where you can select or deselect applicants to be processed further. This screen displays all the applicants who match the profile you used, and for whom you could create VCR records, or, if they already have one, update them. Normally you would let the process run to create or update all possible VCR records, but if you wanted to be selective for some reason you could use the Drop all records with... drop-down menu at the top left if you want to avoid, say updating any records. Alternatively, if you wanted to be very selective, you could click on the Invert extract action button, and all the actions would change to No action. You could then click on the blue drop-down arrow to the right of the action box for those you wanted to process and select Create VCR or Update VCR. 3

6 When you are satisfied with your selection, click on the green arrow to create/update the VCRs. The boxes in the View column at the right will then show VCR, and you can view the individual VCR records by clicking on the boxes. You can, of course, also retrieve VCR records in the normal way, by opening the VCR screen and entering selection criteria. The VCR records are validated as they are produced, and fields that cause validation errors are highlighted. Reasons for the failures are given in the drop-down list Error Reports (top right). The record shown here has the Validation status (top right) of Invalid. The fields that have caused the validation failure, highlighted in red, are the Passport number and Evidence used... fields. These are both required fields, and in this case they are both empty. To fix this, you would have to ensure that a valid passport number was correctly stored in a PPT record for this applicant, and that one or more of 4

7 the applicant s SQE records had the UKBA evidence? box ticked see page 2. You would then need to update the VCR record by using XVCR again. Do not attempt to edit VCR records directly. You should review all newly created or updated VCR records so that invalid or missing data that would prevent submission van be corrected. When a record becomes valid you should click the button labelled Mark VCRs as Ready and store the record. The Request status box (top right) will then show Ready to send. The record will then be included in the next batch of requests that is generated for submission to UKBA. Generating the file of CAS requests for submission to UKBA Section 2 of the XVCR screen allows you to do this. The drop-down menu will also allow you to create a file of non-enrollments when this becomes a requirement, but the default is to create a file of CAS requests. Buttons allow you to restrict the requests to, for example, just applicants for a particular course (a menu appears if you click the Range of VCRs button) or to regenerate a previous batch if that is ever necessary, but normally you will use the default All unexported button. The file location will be set within SCIMS to a secure network drive (not yet set up when the above illustration was generated, so the box is blank). When you click the green arrow, all VCR records showing a Ready status (the ones in which you clicked the Mark VCRs as Ready button) will be exported to a file in this location. The file name will include your user name, the date, and a sequence number; the sequence number is incremented by one every time a file is exported. The Request status of all VCR records so exported will change to Sent to UKBA although they will not actually have been sent until you log into the UKBA site and submit this file. Processing the UKBA responses UKBA will issue responses to requests for CAS numbers in the form of a file that can be imported into SCIMS. The file will have to be copied from the UKBA web site into a location accessible to SCIMS presumably a folder on the secure web server. The file s contents are then processed through section 3 of the XVCR screen. The VCR records of the applicants who have been processed will be updated. The section labelled UKBA data (see illustration on page 4 ) will be populated, with the CAS number now in the top field, and the field below, CAS status, set to Assigned or, if a number has been refused Cancelled. The Request status will change to Acknowledged by UKBA. An to the applicants whose VCR records have been updated will be sent automatically, informing them of their CAS number, or of UKBA s refusal to issue one. You do not have to take any action, other than processing the file from UKBA, to generate these s, but you can view what 5

8 was sent by retrieving applicants in the ACD screen (SCE for current students) and using the Current menu View GSL records. Reports There will be a SCIMS report to enable you to see which applicants who have a UF decision/response status have not yet had CAS number requests submitted, which are awaiting responses, which have received their numbers, and which have been refused. st David Sherwood Feb 2010 (1 revision) 6