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Final update: my two course instructors were gracious enough to mark my exams by the next day, allowing me to submit my thesis proposal ASAP. I received my final (BA thesis) grade on Saturday, 15 August, uploaded my unofficial transcript from my uni's web portal along with my thesis evaluation/grade on Monday, received my unconditional offer from the uni on Tuesday, and received my CAS and made my visa application on Wednesday, 19 August. The process was much quicker than I had anticipated. People have been saying they've waited over a month to receive their CAS due to COVID, but I guess my uni must have caught up on the requests. Also, a few things may have sped up the process in my case: My course director/personal tutor is very responsive and has been communicating with us constantly. He is the one who recommended I submit the unofficial transcripts. I was going to wait for an official certificate from our uni's examination office, and I'm glad I didn't because they're slow af AND the sole person responsible for my entire department decided to go on vacation, after telling me months ago he wouldn't go on vacation in August... I already have a previous bachelor's degree, which they indicated on my CAS as being the basis for my admission. So I don't need to wait for my current (second) bachelor's to make the visa application. Of course, everything is unusual because of COVID. My visa appointment is one week from today: Thursday, 27 August. If I receive my visa within the standard three weeks, I will have it around or just before welcome week, before classes officially begin on Monday, 21 September. With COVID, though, there is not so much pressure about receiving the visa on time and arriving before the course start. I am aiming to arrive at the end of September/early October.

The saga is completed. The reaffirmation agreement was approved within about a week of submission.

Supposedly it's common for "inadvertent overborrowing" to occur. I would always request the maximum amount available every semester and I was under the impression that my school would reject the request if I hit the limit. I saw on some random website this week that sometimes borrowed amounts are reported on a delay and that could have been why my uni allowed me to overborrow at the time. At this point, my future uni has filled out their part of the Reaffirmation Letter so now all that's left is for me to sign it and upload it to the loan servicer's web portal, which I'm about to do. I think it takes 4-6 weeks to process.

8-month update: my institution has finally begun processing US financial aid applications and told me this matter needs attention. ? Apparently I just need a Reaffirmation Letter, which supposedly rolls over/consolidates the excess amount I took above the undergraduate limit (~1,750) into my postgrad loan, if I'm not mistaken. The loan servicer rep was not very helpful, but the uni email made it seem like I just need to obtain this letter, which was easily generated in my loan servicer's web portal. Wish me luck!

Update for anyone in a similar situation: My prospective university in the UK said there is no way around this other than getting a final transcript ASAP (in lieu of the final degree certificate). Next week I will speak to the three professors (thesis advisor and two course instructors) about having everything graded and finalized literally immediately after exams. If that works out, my current uni's examination office said they can issue a final transcript on the spot. I'm not sure how long it will take for the unconditional offer to be sent once I upload the transcript, but apparently many people are in a similar situation around this time, so the actual CAS itself may take "up to 10 working days to process" after the unconditional offer is generated lmaoo

Thanks! I will speak with my current university's examination office and see if I can get some sort of certificate saying I've fulfilled the requirements ASAP.

I am American but I am completing a bachelor's degree in Germany. I need a CAS to get my unconditional offer from the university and apply for my visa. My course begins 14 September. The thing is that my last exams are at the end of July and I will receive my grades sometime in August. I can only submit my bachelor thesis proposal once those final grades are in, and from there I officially have six weeks to submit my thesis. The good news is that I've already coordinated my thesis topic with a professor and can start working on it quite early. I also expect that the instructors for the two courses I need this summer will be able grade my work fairly quick. So in the best case scenario, I can have my degree in mid-August assuming everything runs smoothly and I am able to get my grades in and my thesis approved in record time. That leaves me with just about one month to submit my degree certificate to my uni, get a CAS, then submit my visa application. Has anyone been in a similar situation where the CAS/visa/moving process was extremely tight? Is this normal?

I was enrolled in a BA program from 2009 to 2013 and somehow I have $24,750 in subsidized loans despite the limit being $23,000. Not sure how or why my university allowed that to happen. In total, I borrowed $34,750 so I am still well under the aggregate undergraduate limit. I'm applying for 2020 entry to a grad program and just received my FAFSA student aid report. The following line was casually thrown into an otherwise unassuming block of text: Based upon data provided by the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) and your grade level, we have determined that you may have received a total amount of undergraduate student loans that exceeds the loan limits established for the federal loan programs. I just called them and the lady assured me everything was fine, and that I will in fact still be able to take out subsidized loans for grad school! Until I double checked what she said after we hung up and half of what she told me was flat out wrong. ? Spoiler: you can not take out subsidized loans for graduate programs anymore. But she did refer me to this page, and: $138,500 for graduate or professional students—No more than $65,500 of this amount may be in subsidized loans. The graduate aggregate limit includes all federal loans received for undergraduate study. Effective for periods of enrollment beginning on or after July 1, 2012, graduate and professional students are no longer eligible to receive Direct Subsidized Loans. The $65,500 subsidized aggregate loan limit for graduate or professional students includes subsidized loans that a graduate or professional student may have received for periods of enrollment that began before July 1, 2012, or for prior undergraduate study. but... If the total loan amount you receive over the course of your education reaches the aggregate loan limit, you are not eligible to receive additional loans. However, if you repay some of your loans to bring your outstanding loan debt below the aggregate loan limit, you could then borrow again, up to the amount of your remaining eligibility under the aggregate loan limit. My question is: has anyone been in a similar situation? Will this be a problem? Do I need to pay down the extra ~$2,000 in order to be eligible? I'd like to think that my $24,750 falls within the $65,500 limit including periods of enrollment prior to July 1, 2012, but I just literally cannot afford to wait and find out next year that I'm completely ineligible for loans.