UK Student Visa Financial Evidence: What Counts, How Long Funds Must Be Held, and What Triggers a Refusal

What financial evidence must show

The official starting point is the GOV.UK page Student visa: Money you need. It states that an applicant must have enough money both to pay for the course and to support themselves in the UK. The cited rules identify two separate financial amounts.

First, the course fee for one academic year, described by GOV.UK as up to 9 months, must be paid. The amount is not a standard nationwide figure: the official amount you need to pay will be on your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS).

Second, unless an exemption applies, you must meet the financial requirement for maintenance. GOV.UK publishes two monthly rates, each for a course lasting up to 9 months:

• £1,529 per month for courses in London.
• £1,171 per month for courses outside London.

For this rule, GOV.UK defines London as the City of London and the 32 London boroughs. The location of the course therefore determines which published maintenance rate applies. The cited page does not provide a combined course-and-maintenance total, so this article does not calculate one. To verify the course amount, read the course-fee section and check the figure on your own CAS.

The evidence described by GOV.UK is more limited than a complete document checklist. Its worked example says that funds must be in “your bank account” for the required period. It also says that an applicant with a student loan or financial sponsorship must provide evidence from the relevant loan or sponsorship company. However, the cited material does not reproduce the full list of accepted financial assets or the detailed rules for each type of account or evidence.

How the 28-day and 31-day rules work

GOV.UK states that the required money must have been available for at least 28 days in a row. It adds a timing condition: the end date of that 28-day period must be within 31 days of the date you apply for your visa.

The official example on the Student visa: Money you need page is:

If you submit your application on 1 January, you'd have to show that the funds were in your bank account for at least the 28-day period ending on 1 January.

The supplied source does not calculate or name the opening date of that period, and this article does not add one.

There are two separate ways the stated timing rule may not be met. First, the 28 days must be consecutive: a break means the period is no longer 28 days in a row. Second, the end of that period must fall within 31 days of the application date. A period that meets the 28-day length but does not meet the GOV.UK timing condition does not satisfy both parts of the rule.

The two numbers are not alternatives: GOV.UK requires both a qualifying 28-day period and an end date within the stated 31-day window.

Routes that change what you must prove

Dependants

GOV.UK says you must prove you have extra money for each family member you bring with you as a dependant. The supplied page excerpt does not publish a separate dependant amount, so it would be unsafe to infer one or to assume that it is identical to the applicant’s rate. The current dependant section of Student visa: Money you need is the official place to check the applicable figure.

Student loans and financial sponsorship

If an applicant has a student loan or financial sponsorship, GOV.UK says they must provide evidence of this from the loan or sponsorship company. This is a specific evidential instruction tied to those arrangements. The supplied excerpt does not give a separate loan or sponsorship amount, nor does it set out a separate holding period for either route. It therefore supports only the requirement to obtain evidence from the company, not further assumptions about how the money is treated.

At least 12 months in the UK on a valid visa

The GOV.UK maintenance section says an applicant does not need to prove the financial requirement for supporting themselves if they have been living in the UK with a visa for at least 12 months before the date of the Student visa application.

This exemption is stated for the money used to support yourself. The cited material does not say that it removes the separate requirement to pay the course fee shown on the CAS. The overview also expresses the position as not needing to prove that maintenance money when the applicant has been in the UK with a valid visa for at least 12 months.

Student union sabbatical officer

Under the heading When you do not need to prove you have money to support yourself, GOV.UK also includes applicants who are applying as a student union sabbatical officer. The supplied page does not give a different sabbatical-officer rate or additional qualification detail, so the published exemption should be checked on the official page rather than expanded here.

Differential evidence requirement countries

GOV.UK says a British national overseas, or an applicant from a country listed under “differential evidence requirement”, does not need to prove that they have enough money to support themselves. The countries and territories listed on the cited page are:

Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, the Republic of Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.

The differential-evidence rule concerns the maintenance financial requirement. GOV.UK expressly warns that an applicant using this route might still be asked to provide the evidence before receiving a decision. If UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) decides that evidence is needed, the official page says it will contact the applicant after the application has been submitted.

What can trigger a financial-evidence refusal

The cited pages do not reproduce UKVI’s formal refusal-reason codes or the full wording used in decision letters. They do, however, identify the financial requirements that an application relying on available funds must satisfy. Failure to meet those requirements can leave the application without the financial evidence needed to pass this part of the Student visa rules.

The financial-evidence failures to check are:

• Less than the CAS course fee: GOV.UK says the course amount for one academic year, up to 9 months, will be on the CAS. Evidence showing less than that applicable amount does not meet the stated course-fee requirement.
• Less than the applicable maintenance amount: where the maintenance requirement applies, the available amount must satisfy £1,529 per month in London or £1,171 per month outside London, for up to 9 months.
• A broken 28-day period: GOV.UK requires the money to have been available for at least 28 days in a row. A break means the stated period has not been met.
• A 28-day period outside the timing rule: even a consecutive 28-day period is insufficient if its end date does not fall within 31 days of the application date.
• Money not shown as the applicant’s own and without the required company evidence: the GOV.UK example refers to funds in “your bank account”, while the student-loan and sponsorship rule requires evidence from the relevant company. The supplied material does not provide a fuller third-party-funding or ownership test.
• Using the wrong maintenance figure for boarding: GOV.UK says that an applicant boarding at a residential independent school must pay boarding fees instead of the standard maintenance rate. The amount to pay will be on the CAS. In that case, the £1,529 or £1,171 monthly maintenance figures are not the amounts that replace the boarding-fee requirement.

What the cited pages do not settle

The GOV.UK money page links to separate guidance on finances for student applications. The accepted-asset list and formal refusal-reason wording are in detailed guidance that is not part of the sources cited for this article. It would therefore be misleading to enumerate document types, describe assets as accepted or unacceptable, or quote refusal codes here.

To verify the rules, open the GOV.UK page Student visa: Money you need and check the sections Course fee, Money to support yourself, the worked Example, When you do not need to prove you have money to support yourself, and If you’re from a country listed under the ‘differential evidence requirement’. The page Student visa: documents you’ll need to apply also confirms that applicants must have enough money to support themselves and pay for their course, with the amount varying according to their circumstances. Those are the official starting points; the linked financial guidance is needed for the complete evidential test.