UK Student Visa Proof of Funds: How Much You Show and How You Hold It

  • Last Updated on: August 8, 2026 by
  • Shiva Sai Bejawada
UK Student Visa Proof of Funds
UK Student Visa Proof of Funds

UK Student visa proof of funds means showing one year of unpaid tuition plus living costs in an account you can empty today. As of August 2026, GOV.UK sets the living-cost element at GBP 1,529 per month (for up to 9 months) for courses in London in its Student visa: Money you need guidance. Most Indian families already hold that money and get refused on how it was held, not on how much they hold. India is also missing from the GOV.UK list of nationalities that skip financial evidence, so your file carries documents an Emirati classmate never uploads. The amounts come first, then the 28-day clock.

Written by
Shiva Sai Bejawada
Senior Counsellor (British Council Certified) -UK & Ireland
Shiva Sai Bejawada is a British Council Certified overseas-education counsellor at AOEC India who guides Indian students through UK and Ireland university selection, admissions, and student visa documentation.
6 Years, 96% visa approval rate
Reviewed by
Sridhar Kongara
Managing Director
Mr. Kongara Sridhar, Director of AOEC India, has over 12 years of experience in overseas education consulting, admissions, and student visa guidance.
Over 12 years Experience

Key Takeaways

  • London courses need GBP 1,529 a month (approx. INR 1.96 lakh); elsewhere GBP 1,171 (approx. INR 1.50 lakh), for up to 9 months.
  • The 9-month maximums are GBP 13,761 (approx. INR 17.60 lakh) in London and GBP 10,539 (approx. INR 13.48 lakh) outside it.
  • Unpaid tuition for one academic year sits on top, at the CAS figure.
  • The money must sit for at least 28 days in a row, ending within 31 days of your application date.
  • Fixed deposits with a notice period, shares, bonds and overdrafts do not count.
  • A parent’s account works with proof of relationship and a signed consent letter. India is not on the GOV.UK list of nationalities that skip financial evidence.
Table of Contents
How much proof of funds you need for a UK Student visa Scroll here ↓ The 28-day rule and the 31-day window Scroll here ↓ Which money counts as proof of funds, and whose account it can sit in Scroll here ↓ What does not count: overdrafts, shares, and locked deposits Scroll here ↓ Do Indian applicants have to submit financial evidence? Scroll here ↓ Frequently Asked Questions Scroll here ↓ Build your funds file before you request your CAS Scroll here ↓

How much proof of funds you need for a UK Student visa

As of August 2026, a UK Student visa needs GBP 1,171 (approx. INR 1.50 lakh) per month outside London, or GBP 1,529 (approx. INR 1.96 lakh) in London, for up to 9 months, on GOV.UK's Student visa: Money you need page. Unpaid course fees for one academic year sit on top of that.

What you must showIn LondonOutside London
Living costs, per month (max 9 months)GBP 1,529 (approx. INR 1.96 lakh)GBP 1,171 (approx. INR 1.50 lakh)
Living costs, 9-month maximum (monthly rate x 9)GBP 13,761 (approx. INR 17.60 lakh)GBP 10,539 (approx. INR 13.48 lakh)
Unpaid course fees, 1 academic yearAmount printed on your CASAmount printed on your CAS

Read the table as UKVI’s floor, not your budget. GBP 1,171 a month is what UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), the Home Office team deciding visa applications, makes you evidence, while our guide to living costs in the UK builds the real number. A 12-month master’s still covers only 9. Keep threshold and actual spend apart, or you’ll land in Manchester with a budget that ran dry in June.

Two numbers make up UK Student visa proof of funds, and course fees are the second. GOV.UK sets these for 1 academic year (up to 9 months), at the amount printed on your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS). That’s the reference your licensed student sponsor issues once your place is confirmed. Size the balance against that CAS figure, never the advertised fee. The two stop matching the moment you pay a deposit, as our breakdown of UK tuition costs shows.

If an official financial sponsor (a government, university or recognised body) has cut what you owe, the CAS shows the lower figure, and that’s what you show. Most UK scholarships for Indian students are partial and leave a fee balance the CAS still names, so check your award letter before sizing the account.

Two costs sit outside the maintenance figure. As of August 2026, the GOV.UK Student visa: Overview prices the application at GBP 558 from outside the UK. The Immigration Health Surcharge (the upfront NHS charge) runs at GBP 776 per year for students, set out in GOV.UK’s Pay for UK healthcare guidance. You pay both and evidence neither.

The 28-day rule and the 31-day window

Applicants treat the 28-day rule as a countdown to the visa appointment. It is not. UKVI counts backwards from a document, and that document has its own shelf life. Get the order wrong and a fully funded account still produces a refusal.

As of August 2026, GOV.UK’s Student visa: Money you need requires the money to sit there for at least 28 days in a row. That period must end within 31 days of the date you apply.

  1. Fix the date you’ll submit the online application. Nothing is planned forward from a bank transfer.
  2. Date your most recent piece of financial evidence within 31 days before that date (Appendix Finance, FIN 7.1).
  3. Expect UKVI to count from the closing balance on that statement, not from the day you deposited the money.
  4. Hold the full amount for at least 28 days in a row, counting back from that closing balance.

GOV.UK’s own worked example makes the window concrete: apply on 1 January and you can rely on a 28-day period ending as early as 1 December.

The question we field most in visa briefings is whether money can move between a father’s account and the student’s own inside those 28 days. It can, but the clock restarts on the receiving account. That is the real cost of this rule: your funds sit frozen and visible for a full month, so a family consolidating three accounts a fortnight before filing waits another 28 days. Fund the account before you request your CAS. Running the clock while you wait costs nothing; running it afterwards can cost you the September intake.

Which money counts as proof of funds, and whose account it can sit in

Two tests decide whether a balance counts: can the money be withdrawn today, and is the account in a name UKVI accepts. Both live in Appendix Finance, the Immigration Rules section covering how money is evidenced.

Counts towards the financial requirementDoes not count
Current, savings, deposit or investment accounts with immediate withdrawalOverdrafts, whatever the sanctioned limit
Regulated institutions using electronic record keepingShares, bonds and pensions you cannot withdraw immediately, regardless of notice period
Your own account, held alone or jointlyA promise of future support from a relative
A parent’s or guardian’s account, with consent and proof of relationshipAn account the holder does not control

Accounts UKVI accepts, and the one test they all have to pass

In the Immigration Rules as updated in August 2026, Immigration Rules Appendix Finance allows funds in any personal bank or building society account, including current, deposit, savings and investment accounts. The account must allow the funds to be accessed immediately. Immediately accessible funds is the whole test. The same rules exclude institutions that are unregulated or that do not use electronic record keeping.

A joint account is therefore safe: you’re a named holder and you can withdraw today.

Using your parents’ account: consent, relationship, and control

For UK Student visa proof of funds, Appendix Finance lets a Student route applicant rely on a parent’s or legal guardian’s account. Two documents travel with it: proof of that relationship, and written consent to use the funds. The holder must also control the money, which rules out a balance held on somebody else’s behalf.

A letter of consent is not a promise to help, and the Rules reject promises of future third-party support outright. An uncle who will transfer money later proves nothing. Name the account number, the balance and the relationship in the letter, and keep every figure consistent with your UK Student visa cover letter.

A partner or child adds GBP 845 a month in London, GBP 680 outside it, per dependant, for up to 9 months, under GOV.UK’s Student visa: Your partner and children guidance.

What does not count: overdrafts, shares, and locked deposits

Appendix Finance refuses funds held in shares, bonds, credit cards and pensions from which the money cannot be withdrawn immediately, regardless of notice period. That last clause is what kills a fixed deposit. A seven-day notice period is still a notice period, so a large FD proves nothing while a smaller savings balance covers the full amount. Overdrafts are excluded too, whatever the sanctioned limit.

From our counselling desk: across the UK funds files we prepared for the September 2026 intake, the fixed deposit was the single commonest reason a family had to restart the 28-day clock. Parents park education savings in an FD because it earns more, and the notice period makes it unusable. Second commonest: a consent letter naming the student but never the account.

Do Indian applicants have to submit financial evidence?

India is not on the GOV.UK list of nationalities that can skip proving they have enough money. As of August 2026, that list on Student visa: Money you need names more than 60 countries and territories, including China, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States. Indian applicants therefore file bank evidence with the application itself.

That single line is the differential evidence requirement, the rule letting some nationalities file without financial documents, and it shapes your whole timeline. Because your evidence goes in up front, there is no quiet window to top up a short balance after submission. Treat the bank statement as a dated document with a deadline. Funds planning belongs at the front of a UK application, beside course choice, which is where our overview of studying in the UK puts it.

GOV.UK names two exemptions from the financial requirement itself:

  • You have been living in the UK with a visa for at least 12 months before the date of your Student visa application.
  • You are applying as a student union sabbatical officer.

Neither helps a first-time applicant filing from India. The 12-month exemption belongs to someone already in the UK, typically a student extending after a foundation year, so plan on showing funds for your first application and every dependant on it.

Get in Touch

Frequently Asked Questions

Not while it is locked. Appendix Finance excludes accounts from which money cannot be withdrawn immediately, regardless of notice period, so even a short-notice fixed deposit fails. Break the deposit into a savings or current account first. Your 28 days start the day the money lands there.

Yes. A parent or legal guardian may hold the funds. They must sign written consent for you to use them, and you must provide proof of that relationship. The parent must also control the money, so a balance held on someone else’s behalf does not qualify.

GOV.UK requires the amount to be held for at least 28 days in a row. UKVI counts back from the closing balance on your most recent statement, so if the balance dropped, you count back from a later closing balance instead. The 28 days restart.

Yes. A tuition deposit reduces the course-fee element only, and your CAS shows what you still owe for one academic year. It doesn’t touch the living-cost element, which is set per month by course location and runs for up to 9 months.

No. Both are payments you make, not funds you evidence, and neither counts towards the maintenance amount. They are charged separately during the application, so adding them to your bank balance does not strengthen the file. Budget for them on top of the funds you show.

Build your funds file before you request your CAS

Three decisions carry your UK Student visa proof of funds file, in this order.

  1. Fix the application date, then count 28 days plus a buffer backwards from it.
  2. Move the full amount into one immediately accessible account, and leave it alone.
  3. Settle whose name the account sits in, and prepare the consent letter and relationship proof before the statement is printed.

Ardent Overseas runs counselling desks in Hyderabad and Tirupati. Our advisers read UK Student route funds files line by line before submission: the CAS fee figure, the closing balance date, the consent letter, the proof of relationship. That review is where most 28-day clocks get corrected, rather than argued about after a refusal.

Sources

Official sources first, newest dated source first.

Everything you need to study abroad, in one place.

Explore articles and guides that help you prepare with confidence, covering scholarship applications, financial planning, and tips for adapting to a new culture. We have built comprehensive resources to get you ready for your educational adventure.

See other Study guides
Study Law in UK

Study Law in UK

Study Law in UK for Indian Students: 2026 Fees and SQE Pathway Searching for clear answers on how to study