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Financial documents

Financial requirements refer to the need to show that you have enough money to pay for your course fees and your living costs.

For student permission applications made in the UK, you will be exempt from meeting the financial requirements if you have been living in the UK for 12 months or more with permission at the time of your application. There must not be a break between the 12 months spent in the UK and the date of the application, for example, you cannot rely on 12 months prior residence. Holidays and short absences from the UK do not break the 12 month period. However, if you haven’t been based in the UK for a significant part of the 12 months, for example for at least 3 months, you will not meet the exemption and would need to provide financial documentation with your student visa application.

If you are applying from outside the UK or if you have been living in the UK with student immigration permission for less than 12 months, you must meet the financial requirements for showing funds for course fees and living costs.

All money that you use as evidence when making your visa application should be available to you for the purposes of tuition fee payment and living costs during your studies. Using money that you will not have access to after your visa application has been processed is not acceptable.

Course fees

You must have enough money to pay for the course fees for the first year of your course, or the entire course if it is less than one year long. If your CAS has been issued for further study on a course that you are already partway through, the 'first year of study' means the first year of this new period of study. The Home Office will use the details in your CAS to confirm how much money you need for your course fees.

If you have already paid all your course fees, your CAS will confirm this.

 

Living costs

The Home Office uses fixed amounts, which may or may not reflect your actual living costs.

For study at 51Âþ»­, the monthly amount required by the UKVI is £1,023 for each month of your course, up to £9,207 for a course lasting nine months or more.

Use the course start and end dates on your CAS to calculate the length of your course and therefore how many months' maintenance you will need. If the length of your course includes a part of a month, round it up to a full month.  For example, if your course dates are 30 May until 1 October, this is four months and two days so you would need to show five months of funds.

Deductions

You cannot deduct any advance payment for any other type of housing, nor can you adjust the amounts if you will have no housing costs (for example if you will be living with a relative free of charge).

Your CAS may include details of any money paid to your institution. If not, you will need to provide a paper receipt confirming how much you have paid towards your course fees. Low-risk applicants who have a receipt do not need to include it with the application.

Differential Evidence Requirement

If you are from , you should still obtain the evidence of your money in the format explained here, but you do not need to include it with your initial application. All other applicants must include this evidence with their application.

Evidence of your money must meet specific requirements. If it does not, your immigration application is likely to be refused.

Acceptable financial evidence

As evidence of your money, you can use any one or more of these forms of evidence:

  • personal bank statements
  • certificate(s) of deposit
  • letter from your bank, or a regulated financial institution
  • letter from an official financial sponsor
  • letter from a regulated financial institution confirming that you have a loan from the national government, the state or regional government, or a government-sponsored student loan company
  • letter from a regulated financial institution confirming that you have a loan that is part of an academic or educational loans scheme
  • statements of a passbook from a building society

Money in other currencies

If your money is held in a foreign currency this will be converted into pound sterling (£) using the  for the date of the application. You must ensure you check this conversion rate on the date of application.

Personal bank statements

You must show the funds have been held for 28 consecutive days. The bank statement(s) or evidence you use to show funds have been held for 28 days must be from the 31 days before you submit your application. The 28 days is calculated by counting back from the date of the closing balance on the most recent financial evidence.

The bank statement should:

  • be on official stationery or an electronic record
  • be printed or electronic (not hand-written)
  • include the account holder or holders names
  • include the account number
  • include the date of the statement
  • include information about the bank, such as contact details or a branch code
  • show transactions and amount held over time (although this is not the norm in all countries)

Certificate of deposit

This is a certificate issued by a bank to confirm that the named person has deposited or invested a specific amount of money. This must meet the following requirements:

  • the certificate of deposit must have been issued by a bank that confirms that an individual has deposited or invested a sum of money
  • the funds have been held for the required 28 day period
  • the applicant can access the funds at any time
  • confirms date of issue
  • confirms contact details for the bank
  • provides name of account holder
  • provides account number

Loans

If you are applying for your visa from overseas the loan must be available to you before you travel to the UK, unless it is a loan from your country's national government in which case it must be made available to you before you begin your course. Alternatively, the funds must be paid directly to your Student sponsor before you travel to the UK. In this case, the living costs part of the loan, must be made available to you by the time you arrive in the UK.

Any other type of loan will not meet the Student route requirements.  If you wish to use money from any other type of loan, you need to transfer the funds to a bank or building society account in your name (or a parent's name) and use one of the other forms of evidence listed above.

Loan letter checklist:

  • must be provided by a government or a government sponsored student loan company or an academic or educational loans scheme
  • must be dated no more than 6 months before the date of application
  • confirm the loan is a student loan provided to the applicant by either the relevant government or a government sponsored student loan company or an academic or educational loans scheme
  • confirm there are no conditions on release of the loan funds other than a successful application to study in the UK as a Student or Child Student
  • confirm the amount of the loan
  • confirm the loan is to the applicant
  • confirm the funds will be available to the applicant before they travel to the UK; or paid directly to the student sponsor before the applicant travels to the UK, with any living cost portion of the loan being made available to the applicant by the time they arrive in the UK, or available before the applicant begins their course if the loan is provided by the applicant’s national government

 

Parents funds

You can only use money (funds) held in either of your parent’s accounts, you cannot use funds in other family member’s or friend’s bank accounts.

Business accounts are not acceptable because the Immigration Rules specify that accounts must be personal.

If you wish to use a personal bank account in your parent's or guardian's name (or names), you must also include evidence of their relationship to you. (If you are a 'low-risk' applicant you should obtain this evidence, but you do not need to include it with your application.) This evidence of your relationship with your parent(s) or legal guardian(s) can be:

  • your birth certificate, or a copy, showing the name of your parent(s) whose bank account you are using for your immigration application
  • if you are adopted, the certificate of adoption, or a copy, showing your name and the name of your parent(s) whose bank account you are using for your immigration application
  • if you have a legal guardian, a court document, or copy, which shows the name of your guardian(s) whose bank account you are using for your immigration application
  • If you do not have any of the above, but you have a government-issued household register showing your name and your parent or parents' name(s), this is also acceptable evidence of your relationship, though this option is not listed on the application form.

You must also provide a signed letter from your parent(s) or legal guardian(s), confirming the relationship between you, and confirming that they consent to the funds being available to you for study in the UK.

Partners funds

A ‘partner’ means either:

  • your spouse;
  • civil partner; or
  • unmarried partner provided that you have lived together in a relationship similar to a marriage or civil partnership for at least two years.

 

If your partner is applying for immigration permission at the same time as you, the evidence of the funds used in your Student application can be in your partner’s sole name. This applies regardless of whether or not you and your partner are making entry clearance or permission to stay applications.

Alternatively, the evidence of funds used in your Student application can be in your partner’s name only, if your partner already has some form of immigration permission.

Together with the financial document in your partner’s name, you will be required to submit evidence to confirm the proof of your relationship with your partner. This will mean either a marriage/civil partnership certificate or proof of cohabitation (utility bills in joint names for example) to prove you and your partner have lived together for two years when it comes to an unmarried partner.

 

This means that financial documents can only be held by the following people in order to make an application under the Student route:

• Solely by you;

• In joint names with you and with someone else;

• In the name of your partner solely (if your partner is applying at the same time as you); or

• In the name of your partner solely if your partner has some form of immigration permission 

Financial sponsorship

Official financial sponsors are defined as:

  • Her Majesty’s Government
  • the applicant’s national government
  • the British Council or any international organisation
  • international company
  • university
  • independent school.

You’ll need to show a letter of confirmation from the official financial sponsor. If you are not sure ask your financial sponsor. The letter must show:

  • the date
  • the name of the financial sponsor
  • contact details of the financial sponsor
  • how long the sponsorship will last
  • the amount of money that is being given or confirmation that all of your fees and living costs will be covered

If your official financial sponsor is not covering all of your course fees and maintenance, you must show that you have the rest of the money required.  You can use any combination of the forms of evidence mentioned here.

In addition, if you have been financially sponsored in the past 12 months, then you will also need a letter of consent from your previous financial sponsor for you to make a further Student visa application.

Unacceptable forms of financial evidence

The following are not accepted as evidence to show you have the required amount of money:

  • overdrafts
  • bitcoin savings
  • stocks and shares
  • pensions
  • bank accounts that are not regulated by the financial regulatory body in the country you’re applying from
  • bank accounts that don’t use electronic record keeping