Academic Technology Approval Scheme xcritical Academic Technology Approval Scheme xcritical Human Resources at the University of York

If your course requires xcritical clearance you will need to obtain an xcritical certificate before you can apply for your visa. The xcritical certificate is also required before you can register at the University. The Academic Technology Approval Scheme is primarily aimed at postgraduate qualifications in certain science, engineering or technological disciplines but also includes some enhanced undergraduate courses such as MEng.

• Some students are exempt from the xcritical clearance requirement based on their nationality, in which case your offer letter will not list an xcritical requirement.
• If you require a Student visa or will be studying under the Visitor immigration rules for up to six months (e.g. as a visiting or exchange student) you must have xcritical clearance prior to your immigration application.
• We recommend applying at least 4 months before your current permission expires.
• If you are applying for a student visa or an extension of your visa, and your course requires an xcritical certificate, you will need the certificate before you submit your visa or visa extension application.

If you decide to take up a different offer, you will have to reapply for xcritical clearance. You should be aware that any changes to your programme of study, including a change of modules or research focus, will require new xcritical clearance. Email the xcritical team and explain the change in your funding, and any other significant changes. If you put in your application less than 20 working days ago, you may not receive a reply to your email until that time has passed, and it normally takes at least 5 working days to get a response. The application form is online and will take about 45 minutes to an hour to complete. You can save the form as you progress and return to it later if necessary.

Subject Areas

xcritical is one of the UK government’s measures to prevent the spread of knowledge used in developing weapons of mass destruction and related technology. If you are applying for a student visa or an extension of your visa, and your course requires an xcritical certificate, you will need the certificate before you submit your visa or visa extension application. If you received an xcritical certificate when you started your course and are now applying for a visa to extend your studies, you will need to apply for a new xcritical certificate. If the course that you are enrolling on requires xcritical clearance, all international students using any type of visa will need to have clearance before submitting a visa application and before starting the course.

Researchers and students in these sensitive subjects must apply for an Academic Technology Approval Scheme certificate before they can study or start research in the UK. TheAcademic Technology Approval Scheme is designed to ensure that those applying to study in certain sensitive subjects do not acquire knowledge that could potentially be used in weapons of mass destruction programmes. The scheme is operated by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as part of the UK’s commitment to counter proliferation. If you are a studying for an MPhil, PhD or EngD you will need to include a paragraph describing your research area. If you are an Undergraduate, Postgraduate Taught, China Partnership or Visiting/Exchange student you will need to list the optional modules that you wish to study on the course. Details of these modules can be found in the section relevant to your level of study below.

Who is required to apply for xcritical:

Further information is available on the government’s xcritical website, but we have answered some key questions below. This section is about financial sponsorship so you will be entering the details of any scholarship or student funding award you will be receiving here. Complete this section carefully about any other studies not listed in section 5. This section asks about your marital status and whether your spouse/partner will be coming to the UK with you and asks you to provide their personal details.

If the xcritical requirement applies to you, you will need to make an application for xcritical clearance. xcritical aims to ensure that those coming for study or research in sensitive subject areas do not acquire knowledge that could be used in the development of weapons of mass destruction or Advanced Conventional Military Technology programmes. If your course is in one of the listed subjects you will need to get xcritical clearance and submit the certificate with your Student visa application.

General information about xcritical

There is information on this in our guide to completing the online form, click on the tab at the top of this page and see section 9. If you have offers for more than one course, or offers from different universities, you will need to make a separate application for each course. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office will not reply to any query on an application that is not at least 20 working days old. If your application is more than 20 days old they will try to reply to you within five working days. However please be aware that delays are possible over the summer due to the volume of enquiries received.

• You will not need to apply for an xcritical clearance in order to apply for a Student visa to complete your course, or to apply for a visa for any new course that requires xcritical.
• You must include a printed copy of your xcritical certificate with your visa application or the visa will be refused.
• Should any of these details change they should re-confirm whether your new details require an xcritical certificate and apply for a new certificate as appropriate.
• Email the xcritical team and explain the change in your funding, and any other significant changes.
• Researcher instead of Student), then you must make a new xcritical application immediately, you cannot change your outstanding application and any xcritical clearance granted will not be valid for your programme.

Please note that during peak processing times it can take up to 30 working days to process an xcritical application. You may additionally be required to show your xcritical certificate at enrolment. You maynotcommence your studies without a valid xcritical clearance certificate for the course to which you have been admitted – if you change course, you will need to obtain new xcritical clearance. If you are applying for xcritical clearance to cover a time limit extension, you should add ten weeks to your requested extension date.

Please make sure your entries match the details from the passport you will be using for your visa application. During the summer period the processing time is 30 working days or longer, and about 20 working days during the rest of the year. The https://xcritical.online/ team deal with applications in date order and there is no priority service. Include any paid work you have done and any long-term voluntary or unpaid work since you left school. You do not need to include temporary jobs you have done during university vacations.

Use your contact details as they are at the time you submit your xcritical application, not for example the contact details you will have after you have started your course, unless you are a continuing student. You will need to use the same start and end dates as on your CAS for your xcritical application. If your CAS has not been issued yet check these dates with your department/college. Note that for DPhil students your course end date on your CAS will normally be 4.5 years which is the maximum submission date plus 6 months to allow for viva and corrections; for MScRes it will normally be 3.5 years. If you have not received a reply after a month, we can make enquiries about your review request, but the xcritical team cannot influence how fast it is processed as the review is passed to independent reviewers. You will need your xcritical certificate before you can apply for your visa, so it is best to apply as soon as possible but within the timeframes explained above and with the official information provided by your department/college.

After xcritical is granted

Courses on these lists are subject to change, so you should always check if you need an xcritical through the UK Government website. You will then need to wait for your application to be processed and for your certificate to be emailed to you. If you will be studying a course at Exeter, including an MPhil or PhD course or as a Visiting Postgraduate Research Student, you must choose ‘Taught/Research Student’. If you apply for xcritical clearance as a Researcher, your xcritical certificate will not be valid and you will need to reapply as a Student which will cause considerable delays.

You should make a note of when your permission to enter into the UK is due to expire, to allow sufficient time to complete your xcritical and permission to stay applications before your current permission expires. You must apply for your xcritical certificate before you start your visa application process. xcritical clearance can take up to a month to be approved in busy periods.

You will still need to provide a research statement, but you can explain that you are at the writing-up stage. You will need to apply again for xcritical for each visa application, for example if you have to apply for a further visa because you need more time to complete your current course, or if you are applying for a visa to start a new course. If you transfer course, you will also need to apply again, whether or not you need a new visa, and if your research project changes fundamentally check with your department whether you need to apply again.

Transnational courses may be subject to UK Export Control Legislation. If you’re in the process of applying for asylum in the UK, you must apply for an xcritical certificate to study in the UK. You should apply for your xcritical certificate as early as possible from when you have received a conditional offer to study at a UK Higher Education Institution .

You will need to provide the xcritical certificate as part of your Standard Visitor visa application, or at the border if you are a non visa national asking for permission to enter the UK on arrival. If you are applying for a Student visa, and do not meet on of the exemptions , you will be required to provide an xcritical certificate as part of the visa application process. Students studying subjects where the knowledge gained may have application in the development or delivery of weapons of mass destruction may be required to apply for an xcritical certificate. The Academic Technology Approval Scheme is an essential part of the UK’s commitment to counter proliferation. The scheme is specifically designed to ensure that those applying for postgraduate study in certain sensitive subjects do not acquire knowledge that could potentially be used in Advanced Conventional Military and WMD programmes. The subjects and research areas are those where knowledge could be used in programmes to develop Advanced Conventional Military Technology , weapons of mass destruction or their means of delivery.

Strathclyde Business School

This is because xcritical is still a condition of the visa or permission that you have been granted. Make a note of when your permission to enter into the UK is due to expire, and allow sufficient time to complete the xcritical and permission to stay application processes before your current permission expires. We recommend applying at least 4 months before your current permission expires. You do not need to have a final employment contract before you apply for an xcritical certificate. Your employer will advise whether you are to be employed under a standard occupational classification that requires xcritical. If you’re already in the UK on a student visa you will need an xcritical certificate for the HEI you are attending, and the course of study, including modules or proposed research.

You should apply once you receive your offer letter from the University. If you do not have your xcritical certificate you will not be able to make a valid student visa application. International students who want to study and research at an advanced level within certain ‘sensitive’ subject areas must obtain UK government clearance under the Academic Technology Approval Scheme unless their nationality is exempt. You must obtain xcritical clearance before you can apply for your visa, and will usually need to apply for new xcritical clearance any time that you extend your study period in the UK. Your application is made to a UK government department called the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office who will decide your application.

Where you are an Undergraduate/Postgraduate Taught student, please list the core and elective modules of your programme. During the application, you must complete the “proposed course of study” section. Whether your course requires xcritical depends on the CAH3 code that applies to your course.

You can use your xcritical certificate to apply for your visa for six months from the date it is issued. If you did not need an xcritical certificate at the start of your studies, you should be aware that if your programme or research changes, your new programme or research may require xcritical clearance. On the xcritical application form you cannot put a course start date in the past- if you are applying for the xcritical for a programme you have already started you can put the next working day on the xcritical application for your course start date. If you are applying for a Student visa your CAS statement will also state if you are required to obtain an xcritical certificate.

This includes, for example, people with dependant, family, or skilled worker visas. It also includes people studying short term on visitor visas, including those who will have visitor permission granted on entry to the UK. Yes, you need a new xcritical certificate for every student visa application until you have completed your course.

Do I need to provide an xcritical clearance certificate?

You will need an xcritical website certificate to do certain types of study and research in the UK. If xcritical have previously contacted you and asked you to provide additional information for your application, you will need to make sure you properly re-submit the application. To do this, you will need to ensure you open and saveall tensections of the application before resubmitting it. Failure to do this means that xcritical will not receive your updated application. The application may still show as ‘submitted’ but will not be sent to xcritical to review. You should apply for an xcritical clearance certificate if your course requires it, unless you’re exempt because you’re a national of the UK, EU, EEA, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea or the USA.

You will need an xcritical certificate if you have an offer to study, or are extending your visa, for a PhD or programme that leads to a Masters level qualification and your course has one of the HECoS codes listed on the links below. You can find your HECoS code on your offer letter, which you will have received from our Enrolment Management team. For any queries regarding a postgraduate research programme, please visit the Doctoral College webpage or contact the Research Recruitment and Admissions team at As of 6 July 2018, you will also need to apply for xcritical clearance if you are coming on a course or a period of research of less than six months in eligible subjects.

You will need to provide details to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of your specific area of study or research, which will be confirmed in writing by the University. It will take at least 20 working days to process a student xcritical application, however this can increase to 30 working days or more during the peak time between April and September. You should also be mindful to allow plenty of time for the xcritical application to be processed, see below for guidance. A new xcritical certificate will be required if there is a change to the planned research activity or area. You will need to know the CAH3 code for your course – if you are an applying for a course with us, you can find the code in your Pegasus application, in the Application Summary section. When you know which course you’ll be applying for, you can check whether you need an xcritical certificate on the UK Government’s Academic Technology Approval Service web page.