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Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS)

Last updated: 10/07/2025 14:24

Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) clearance must be obtained in good time by all international students and researchers on applicable programmes regardless of visa category, with only limited exception. This section will help you understand ATAS, who requires it, and the application process.

ATAS applications take 30 days or more as standard with delays during the peak period from July to October. Apply as early as possible to allow additional time for processing. You can apply 6 months before your course start date. There is no process to expedite ATAS applications.

What is ATAS?

The Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) is a security clearance scheme applicable to study and research in certain subject areas. It is required for postgraduate qualifications (taught and research) in certain science, engineering or technological disciplines. It may also be applicable if you are applying for an undergraduate course with an integrated masters.

What this means for students

If the course that you are enrolling on requires ATAS clearance, international students holding any category of immigration leave (visa) will need to have evidence of their clearance before starting the course.

Relevant ATAS courses of less than 6 months also require ATAS clearance before a student may apply for a visa and/or before enrolling on the programme of study. UK immigration law does not allow universities to permit international students to study for an ATAS-applicable course until the student has supplied the university with their ATAS clearance certificate.

If you need a Student Route visa in order to study in the UK, you will need to obtain an ATAS certificate before you can apply for your visa.

Who needs ATAS

All Cardiff University students who require ATAS will be notified in their offer letter. Check your letter for confirmation that ATAS is required and for your CAH3 code.

All subject areas studied at UK Higher Education Institutions are identified by a Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH3) code. You will see the  CAH3 code for your course on your offer letter or can confirm this with your academic school office.

You can consult the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website for a list of courses which are identified as ATAS applicable.

Nationals of EU countries, the European Economic Area (EEA), Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea (South Korea),

Singapore, Switzerland, or the United States of America do not need an ATAS certificate

The requirement for an ATAS certificate applies to all other students.

New students must obtain the ATAS certificate before they apply for their Student Route visa. Apply early.

An ATAS certificate is valid for 6 months from the date it is issued. You need only a conditional offer from Cardiff University to apply for  ATAS clearance. You do not need to wait to receive your CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies).

Continuing the same course

Those already in the UK on a Student Route visa who need to extend their visa to complete the same programme of study need to obtain a new ATAS certificate regardless of length of course extension. We recommend that you apply for your new ATAS 6 months before your current visa expiry date.

Those who will not extend their Student Visa need a new ATAS only where the course end date is delayed by over 3 months or where the area of research has changed substantively.

You can use the same ATAS statement that was in your original offer letter if this information is still applicable and your area of research has not changed. If your research has changed you will need to liaise with your department/supervisor to obtain a new ATAS statement from Cardiff University before you apply for your ATAS certificate.

The ATAS application form does not allow you to put a course start date in the past. Therefore you can enter the next working day on the application. Write clearly in the course description section that you are continuing the same course and include your original start date here.

Starting a new course

If progressing to a new course at Cardiff University having completed the previous programme, follow the advice for new students.

How to apply for ATAS

When you begin your application, select Cardiff University from the drop-down menu. Your ATAS certificate must be linked to the University to be valid.

You will need to select whether you are a student or a researcher. Postgraduate research students, including visiting research students, must all apply for student ATAS clearance.

The ATAS application is free.

You will need to have your University offer letter and the CAH3 code of your course. You will also need the following information:

  • Contact details
  • How you will be funding your studies
  • Passport details
  • Name and nationality of your spouse/partner (if applicable)
  • Details of previous studies
  • Details of previous/current employment (if applicable)
  • Details of the programme of study (including the CAH3 code. Please find this in your offer letter)
  • For a PhD or master's degree by research: your full research proposal, not just the title. Please find this stated in your offer letter as 'ATAS Research Statement of Purpose'. You will enter this in the 'What will you
  • For a taught master's degree: please list the elective/optional modules available to you. If there are no electives please list the core modules. For MEng degrees please list only the final year electives or, if there are none, the core modules.
  • Details of published papers (if applicable)
  • Details of previous ATAS applications (if applicable)
  • The names and contact details of the two referees. You must have known both referees for at least three years and one must be an academic from your country of origin

Check all details carefully before submission. The form cannot be corrected after submission. A new application will need to be made if an error is made or if your course details change and the application processing time will restart.

When all the sections are marked 'complete', submit your application. Check your answers carefully before submission as it is not possible to edit them later.

If the ATAS team need to contact you for further information, then they will do so via email and will ask you to log back into your account to provide further information. If they do so, the processing time restarts from the date you provide this information and resubmit.

Please read our solutions to common problems below before submitting to ensure your application is complete and correct from the outset and  avoid losing time.

You can apply for ATAS 6 months before your start date. Your ATAS certificate will be valid for 6 months from the date of issue for use in a visa application. You do not need to wait for your CAS in order to apply.

The Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) aim to respond to all applications within 30 working days from the date they receive your completed application. If the FCDO need to request any additional details from you, the processing time will restart from the date you provide these details.

Please be aware there are frequent delays beyond the 30 working days during the peak period from July to October.

You will be sent an email once your application has been processed with the result of your application.Check your ‘spam’ or junk mail folders regularly to make sure the message is not filtered out.

If your clearance has been successfully approved, you will receive your ATAS clearance certificate as a PDF attachment.

If your course requires ATAS then you will not be granted your student visa nor be permitted to enrol on your course if ATAS is refused.

Where an application for ATAS is refused, unfortunately, there are limited options. The FCDO will not provide any reasons for the refusal to you or to us, so it's difficult to challenge or address this. You can take the following actions:

  • request a review. Please contact ATAS@fcdo.gov.uk; further information will be included in the refusal notice
  • submit a new application. submit a new application.This is difficult without knowing the reason for refusal and what to address. You are likely to need to defer entry to your programme to the next entry point.
  • consider changing your course of study to one that does not require ATAS

When you have your ATAS certificate, check this carefully to ensure there are no errors.

Where your certificate details are all correct, you can apply for your Student Route visa.

Your ATAS clearance certificate details, including the passport number and course description, must match the details on your official documents. If they do not, then your visa application may be refused, and you will not be able to enrol on your course.

If you find an error, please check your original application to establish if you made the error or if it has been made by the FCDO.

If the error is on your side, you will need to make a new application.

If the error has been made by the FCDO, contact them at ATAS@fcdo.gov.uk as promptly as possible to report

If applying for your visa from the UK, it is extremely important to apply to extend your visa before your current visa expires. Apply for your ATAS clearance at least 6 weeks before your visa expiry date. If you have not received your ATAS certificate by the time you need to extend your visa do not delay submitting your application. Contact us for advice and assistance in this situation.

Common problems and solutions

If you have trouble registering and creating an application:

  • Try using a different web browser. The ATAS website works best in Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
  • Try using a different email login. Use your Cardiff University email address if you already have access to it. The FCDO have reported that students using email servers 126.com, 163.com, sina.cn and qq.com may have difficulty receiving messages from them and recommend the use of Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, or similar commercial email providers.
  • Try using a different computer.

Your CAH3 code will be on your Cardiff University offer letter.

If you are a continuing student and your original offer letter does not have a CAH3 code, contact your school administrator for the CAH3 code required for the ATAS application.

Your ATAS application is linked to your passport. Therefore, if you will need a new passport before applying for your visa, you must obtain this before applying for ATAS clearance. The passport details in the ATAS application cannot be changed after the application has been submitted.

Enter the title only and exactly of your course as stated on your offer letter and CAS here, for example  'MSc Advanced Mechanical Engineering' or 'Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering)'.

This is provided to you on your offer letter under the title 'ATAS Research Statement of Purpose'. It should be at least 5 lines in length and agreed with your PhD supervisor in writing.

An ATAS certificate is issued for a specific programme with a named university. You need to apply for new ATAS clearance if:

  • you need to extend your Student visa for any length of time to allow additional time to write up your thesis/for your VIVA/due to resits/any other reason
  • your course details change, including the course length by more than 3 months or your area of research. You must apply for a new ATAS certificate within 28 days of the change to your programme irrespective of whether you need to apply for a new visa or not
  • you move to another institution.

In the 'Undergraduate / Postgraduate studies' section, enter details of university level courses that have been completed. You are not required to provide information about your high school education.

If you are applying for an extension for the same course, do not include the ongoing course here. State that you are continuing the same course and include your original start date in the course description section.

You are required to provide details of employment since you left school including any paid work and any long-term voluntary (i.e. unpaid) work. You do not need to provide information about temporary jobs you have done during university vacations. If you have not undertaken any employment as mentioned above, select 'No' in this section.

The ATAS guidance requires you provide the 'full names and contact details of 2 referees (First name(s) and Family name). You must have known each of your referees for at least 3 years. At least one must also be an academic from your country of origin.' The FCDO does not require that your referees are able to speak English.

If you are unable to provide referees from your home country because you have completed your education in another country, provide two referees from your most recent studies.

This section is about financial sponsorship that you have for your studies and living costs. This may be an organisation or the name of a person. If you are self-funded for your studies, write your own name and address in the sponsor section.

The form asks if there are any 'conditions of your offer' for financial sponsorship. An example of a condition is a requirement to return overseas after completing your course, or to provide regular reports about your progress. Include any conditions your financial sponsor has imposed here.

If you have more than one financial sponsor, include them all in this section.

You will need to submit a new application.

If your application exceeds t30 working days, first contact the FCDO at ATAS@fcdo.gov.uk informing them of the delay. Make sure that you include your application reference number. Please allow a minimum of 10 working days for a response.

If you do not hear from the FCDO, contact Cardiff University Student Visa Support through Student Connect with the following information:

  • student/applicant number
  • ATAS reference number
  • expected decision date (this will be stated on your online ATAS application)
  • the date you emailed the FCDO

We will follow this up with the ATAS team. Unfortunately there can be lengthy delays in contacting ATAS during the peak period and we are extremely limited in what we can do. Early application is very important in order to get your clearance in time.

If you are applying overseas and are a new student

You must have your ATAS clearance certificate before you apply for your student visa. If the ATAS delay prevents you from applying for your visa in good time, you may need to defer the start date of your course.

If you are applying within the UK for a new course

You will not be able to enrol on your course until the ATAS clearance certificate is issued. Therefore, you need to have received your ATAS clearance and have applied for your student visa online by your latest enrolment date as stated on the CAS. Please contact your school to discuss your options if you are unable to do so: it may be viable to extend this date or you may need to defer your studies. Please contact us through the student connect system for support with your visa application while you await the ATAS. Do not wait until your ATAS clearance is issued to contact us as it may then be too late for us to assist.

If you are applying within the UK to continue the same course

You can continue studying while the ATAS application is being processed. You will need to make sure that you submit your Student visa application before your existing visa expires. If your visa expiry date is approaching and you have still not heard from the FCDO, please contact us via the student connect system for support with making your visa application in time. It will be important to ensure that you are aware of all timeframes and risks in submitting an extension application prior to the issuance of new ATAS clearance. Please contact us well in advance to ensure we are able to respond in time.

We advise submitting your ATAS application early and advise the above only when absolutely necessary.

Further information

Further information regarding the ATAS application process and requirements can be found on the official web pages here:

Contact us

For support with ATAS and/or your Student Route visa application contact Student Visa Support. Our response time is 5 working days as standard, increasing to 10 during peak periods. Allow yourself enough time to receive a response.

Possession of an ATAS certificate does not guarantee your visa application will be successful. However, your application will automatically be refused if you need an ATAS certificate but cannot provide one.

Student Visa Support enquiries