Tier 4 Student Visa (General) is an immigration visa for non-EU/EEA students coming to study in the UK.

The Tier 4 student visa replaced the previous Tier 1 (Post Study Work) and Tier 2 (Skilled Migration) visa routes， which were mainly used by highly skilled migrants who wanted to work or do research in universities after finishing their courses of studies at British Universities / Colleges etc. The main difference between these two visas is that while post study work route was very difficult to obtain， a Tier 2 general skills migrant had to meet certain requirements before being allowed to apply for this type of visa. In addition， it requires a high salary level as well as point based system score which depends on your experience， qualification and English language test results等等， so the process usually takes more than one year. Therefore many people choose to come with a Tier 4 General Student Route instead of applying through such complicated migration processes. For more details about the different types of Tiers， please go here： Tier 1，Tier 2 ，Tier 4，Tier 5 & Tier 6. And if you already have another tier status and want to know how to extend your stay valid， click here： What are the various ways I can extend my current leave？

On September 3rd ，the Home Office announced a new Immigration Rules regarding Tier 4 Student Visas， including： changes to the age limit from 16 up to 30 years old; removal of annual quota placed upon the number of Tier 4 students admitted per