What requirements does a Tier 4 student need to meet if his or her college loses its sponsor licence whilst they wait for a decision on an application to extend their stay? In this case, the student received a letter telling him that the Home Office had suspended a decision on his application for 60 days and offering him an opportunity “to obtain a new CAS for a course of study at a fully licensed Tier 4 educational sponsor and then submit an application to vary the grounds of your original application.”

This he did, and he submitted exactly such an application. It was refused by the Home Office because it was said that the student now, at the date of application, failed to meet the maintenance requirements of the Immigration Rules. Was this refusal lawful? The First-tier and Upper Tribunal thought not, but the Court of Appeal disagrees and upholds the Home Office position:

The issue before the court is whether, in Mr Khan’s circumstances, all he was required to do was, as the tribunals decided, to submit a further application with a new CAS from a fully licensed sponsor and that it sufficed that the other mandatory requirements of a Tier 4 (General Student) application in particular the ability to show proof of sufficient funds to maintain himself during the course, were satisfied at the time of the original application. It is submitted on behalf of the Secretary of State that, when he submitted his application in October 2012, he also had to fulfil those other mandatory requirements. For the reasons given at [38] – [50] below I accept the Secretary of State’s submission and would allow her appeal.

Source: Secretary of State for the Home Department v Khan [2016] EWCA Civ 137 (08 March 2016)