Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

In this policy, "F2S International", "we", "us" and "our" mean F2S International, an education and migration consultancy that advises students and families on study, work and relocation abroad. We operate from offices in Ireland, the United Kingdom and India, and our website is f2sinternational.com.

For the personal data described here, F2S International acts as the data controller — meaning we decide what data is collected and why. Our Irish office is the point of contact for all privacy questions and data-subject requests:

• Post: F2S International, Block B1, The Quarter, Citywest Avenue, Citywest, Co. Dublin, D24 V4PV, Ireland
• Email: info@f2sinternational.com
• Phone: +353 89 499 4406

This policy applies to our website, our enquiry forms, our WhatsApp and email correspondence, and the consultancy services we provide to you as a result. It sits alongside our Terms of Service, which set out what our consultancy service does and does not cover.

Giving us your data is voluntary. But where information is needed for an application — a passport copy, a transcript, evidence of funds — we cannot prepare or submit that application without it, and the institution or immigration authority will not accept it either.

2. What personal data we collect

We only ask for what an application actually requires. Depending on how far your case progresses, that may include:

Enquiry and contact details

• Your name, email address and phone or WhatsApp number
• Your country of residence and preferred destination country
• The message you send us and any follow-up correspondence

Profile and eligibility information

• Date of birth and nationality
• Education history — qualifications, transcripts, grades and awarding institutions
• English-language test results (IELTS, PTE, Duolingo or equivalent)
• Employment history and CV, where relevant to your application
• Your intended course, intake and budget

Application and immigration documentation

• Passport details and passport copies
• Previous visa history, refusals and immigration permissions
• Financial evidence such as bank statements, sponsor letters and loan approvals
• Proof of accommodation, medical insurance and tuition payment
• Marriage and birth certificates where you are applying with a spouse or children (dependant applications)

Technical data

• Standard web-server information such as IP address, browser type and the pages you visited, which is generated automatically whenever a website is loaded

Some of the above — for example medical insurance details or documentation supporting a dependant application — can amount to special category data under the GDPR. Where that is the case, we handle it only with your explicit consent and only because it is necessary for the visa or admission application you have asked us to make.

3. How we collect it

• Website enquiry forms. Submissions from our contact form are delivered to us through Formspree, a third-party form-processing service that transmits the message to our inbox.
• WhatsApp. If you message us on WhatsApp, the conversation and any files you send are held in that chat. WhatsApp is operated by Meta and is governed by its own privacy policy.
• Email and phone. Directly from you during consultation.
• In person. At our offices, at counselling sessions and at education fairs.
• Advertising platforms. If you submit your details through a Google or Meta advertising campaign, those platforms collect data under their own policies before passing your enquiry to us. Once the enquiry reaches us, this policy governs it.

4. Why we use it, and our lawful basis

Under the GDPR we must have a lawful basis for every use of your data. Ours are set out below.

We do not use your data for automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal effects. Every recommendation we make about your case is made by a person.

5. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not rent or trade it for marketing purposes. We share it only where it is needed to deliver the service you have asked for, or where the law requires it.

• Universities, colleges and their admissions representatives — to submit and progress your application. Each institution becomes an independent controller of the data it receives.
• Immigration and visa authorities — including the Irish Immigration Service Delivery and Department of Justice, UK Visas and Immigration, IRCC in Canada, and the relevant embassies, consulates and outsourced visa application centres for the country you are applying to.
• Service providers who work on our behalf — website hosting, email hosting, form processing (Formspree), and document storage. They act on our instructions and may only use the data to provide their service to us.
• Partner offices and associates — where a colleague in another F2S office or a trusted partner is handling part of your case.
• Professional advisers — accountants and lawyers, where necessary.
• Authorities and regulators — where we are legally required to disclose information, or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

6. International transfers

Applying abroad means your data crosses borders — that is inherent to the service. Depending on your case, we may transfer your data outside the European Economic Area, for example to a university in the United Kingdom or Canada, to a visa application centre in India, or to a service provider that hosts data elsewhere.

Where we transfer personal data outside the EEA, we rely on one of the following safeguards:

• An adequacy decision from the European Commission covering the destination country (this currently includes the United Kingdom and Canada for commercial organisations)
• Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission, in our contracts with service providers
• Your explicit consent, or the fact that the transfer is necessary to perform the contract you have entered into with us — for example, sending your documents to the university or embassy you have asked us to apply to

7. How long we keep it

We do not keep personal data indefinitely. Our retention periods are:

• Enquiries that do not proceed — up to 24 months from your last contact with us, after which the record is deleted. Students often return a year or two later, and this lets us pick up where we left off.
• Active applications — for the duration of the application and your subsequent studies or permission, while we may still need to support you.
• Completed application files — up to 7 years after the file closes, so that we can answer later queries from you or from an immigration authority, and to meet our accounting and legal obligations.
• Marketing contact details — until you unsubscribe or withdraw consent, after which we keep only a minimal suppression record so that we do not contact you again in error.
• Financial and tax records — for the period required by Irish and other applicable tax law.

If you ask us to delete your data earlier, we will do so unless we are legally required to retain it.

8. How we protect it

We apply technical and organisational measures appropriate to the sensitivity of the documents we handle: access to files is limited to the staff working on your case, our website is served over HTTPS, accounts are password-protected, and we ask you to send sensitive documents only through the channels we nominate.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. If a personal data breach occurs that is likely to result in a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify the Data Protection Commission without undue delay and, where feasible, within 72 hours of becoming aware of it, and we will inform you directly where the law requires it.

9. Cookies and analytics

Our website is a static site and does not set advertising or profiling cookies of its own. We do not currently run a third-party analytics or tracking script on this site. Your browser may still store standard, non-identifying items such as font caching, and our hosting provider keeps routine server logs that include IP addresses for security and diagnostics.

Some elements loaded on our pages come from third parties, which means those parties receive your IP address when the page loads:

• Google Fonts — for the typefaces used across the site
• Formspree — when you submit the contact form
• WhatsApp — only if you click through to start a chat

If we introduce analytics or advertising cookies in the future, we will ask for your consent first and update this page before doing so. You can block or delete cookies at any time through your browser settings.

10. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the following rights over the personal data we hold about you:

• Access — obtain confirmation that we hold your data, and a copy of it.
• Rectification — have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected. This matters particularly for application files, where a wrong date or spelling can cause a refusal.
• Erasure — ask us to delete your data where we no longer need it, where you withdraw consent, or where we have no other lawful basis to keep it.
• Restriction — ask us to pause processing while a dispute about accuracy or lawfulness is resolved.
• Portability — receive the data you gave us in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format, or have it sent to another provider where technically feasible.
• Objection — object to processing based on our legitimate interests, and object at any time to the use of your data for direct marketing.
• Withdraw consent — where we rely on consent, withdraw it at any time. This does not affect processing carried out before you withdrew it.

To exercise any of these rights, email info@f2sinternational.com or write to our Dublin office. We will respond within one month. There is no charge, though we may ask you to verify your identity before we release documents, and we may extend the deadline by two further months for unusually complex requests.

Complaints

If you are not satisfied with how we have handled your data or your request, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. In Ireland this is the Data Protection Commission, 21 Fitzwilliam Square South, Dublin 2, D02 RD28 — dataprotection.ie. If you are in the UK you may instead contact the Information Commissioner's Office. We would appreciate the chance to resolve the issue with you first.

11. Children and young applicants

Our services are aimed at people aged 18 and over. Where we advise on an application involving a minor — most commonly a child included on a dependant visa application — we collect that child's details from the parent or guardian, use them only for that application, and hold them under the same terms as the rest of the file. If you believe we hold a child's data without an appropriate basis, contact us and we will remove it.

12. Links to other websites

Our website and articles link to university pages, government immigration pages and other external resources. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. Read their policies before submitting information to them.

13. Changes to this policy

We update this policy when our practices, tools or legal obligations change. The "last updated" date at the top of this page always reflects the current version. Where a change materially affects how we use data you have already given us, we will tell you directly.

14. Contact us

For any question about this policy, your data, or a request to exercise your rights:

• Email: info@f2sinternational.com
• Phone: +353 89 499 4406
• Ireland (data protection contact): Block B1, The Quarter, Citywest Avenue, Citywest, Co. Dublin, D24 V4PV, Ireland
• United Kingdom: 156 Bow Common Lane, Mile End, London E3 4HH
• India: 5th Mile, Panamaram, Wayanad, Kerala 670645 · +91 9562 606 010

Last updated: 7 August 2026