UK Student Visa Requirements for Indian Students (2026-27)

  • Last Updated on: September 24, 2026 by
  • Shiva Sai Bejawada
UK Student Visa Requirements
UK Student Visa Requirements

A UK student visa needs four proofs: a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) from a licensed sponsor, money held in a fixed pattern, English at your course level, and a clean history. Nothing in your past can fail the Home Office suitability check. In 2026, the application costs GBP 558 from outside the UK, but from India you are billed in rupees, and the rupee price is higher. The UK student visa requirements for Indian students also run heavier, because India is off the differential evidence list, the short list of nationalities allowed to leave bank statements and marksheets out. Below: what you prove, what it costs, how you file.

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

  • Only two documents are compulsory: a passport and a CAS.
  • Maintenance is GBP 1,529 a month (approx. INR 194,747) in London and GBP 1,171 (approx. INR 149,149) outside it, up to 9 months.
  • The fee from India is INR 74,383, plus GBP 776 (approx. INR 98,838) surcharge a year.
  • Funds sit in your own or a parent’s account with written consent; a loan letter must be dated within six months.
  • India is off the differential evidence list, so evidence goes in at filing.
  • 4.22% of Indian Student applications decided to June 2026 were refused.
  • A refusal spends your CAS, so re-applying needs a new one.
Table of Contents
What you must prove for a UK student visa Scroll here ↓ The money: how much, which account, and the 28-day clock Scroll here ↓ What a UK student visa costs from India Scroll here ↓ Your documents, the filing sequence, and how long each step takes Scroll here ↓ Why UK student visas get refused for Indian applicants Scroll here ↓ Before you file Scroll here ↓ Frequently Asked Questions Scroll here ↓

What you must prove for a UK student visa

The UK student visa requirements for Indian students come down to four proofs, and the CAS and the money settle most outcomes. Only two documents are compulsory for everyone: a current passport and a CAS; everything else depends on circumstances. Your nationality decides how much evidence you send.

In 2026, Chinese and American applicants can leave financial and qualification evidence out entirely; you cannot, because India is not on that list (Appendix Student ST 22.1). Your classmate from Shanghai uploads a CAS and a passport, while you upload bank statements and marksheets too. Course choice and tuition sit in our study in UK guide.

Your CAS gets one use. Your sponsor’s licence must still be valid on the day your application is decided, not the day it was issued (ST 7.1). A CAS used in a granted or refused application is spent (ST 7.2). Ask for it once the file is finished, not the day your offer turns unconditional. Our CAS explainer covers the rest.

English is fixed by your course level, not your nationality: CEFR B2 at degree level and above, B1 below it. CEFR is the European scale your IELTS or PTE result converts to, so B2 names a level, not a score. A university with a track record of compliance, a status shown on the Home Office register of licensed student sponsors, may assess you itself and say so on the CAS (EL 8.1). That is how students skip the test, and our guide to studying in the UK without IELTS shows which universities do it. Miss any condition and you sit a Secure English Language Test (SELT), the four-skill test you book at an approved centre; our PTE breakdown has the score your university wants.

Your situationEnglish evidenceQualification documentsTerm-time workDependantsDo this first
Bachelor’s or master’s at a track-record providerSponsor may assess on the CASNot required20 hours a weekNot permittedRead the English wording on your CAS before you book a test
Degree-level, sponsor without a track recordSELT required at CEFR B2RequiredNo employment permittedNot permittedCheck your sponsor on the Home Office register before you assume either concession
Below degree level, track-record providerSELT required at CEFR B1Required10 hours a weekNot permittedBook a B1 test; the sponsor-assessment route is closed to you
PhD or research degree, 9 months or longerSponsor may assess on the CASNot required20 hours a weekPermitted: GBP 845 a month each in London (INR 107,627), GBP 680 outside (INR 86,611)Add GBP 845 a month per dependant in London, GBP 680 outside, on top of your own funds

Every row needs the same money: GBP 10,539 for nine months outside London, GBP 13,761 in London, plus outstanding CAS fees. Maintenance tracks where you study, not what you study. Each dependant adds GBP 845 a month in London, GBP 680 outside it.

The money: how much, which account, and the 28-day clock

In 2026, a Student visa applicant must evidence GBP 1,529 a month (approx. INR 194,747) for a course in London, or GBP 1,171 (approx. INR 149,149) outside London. Outstanding course fees sit on top, and the ceiling is nine months (Home Office, Student visa: money you need). A two-year course still evidences only nine months.

You’ll only ever evidence the fees still outstanding on your CAS, and these amounts apply to applications made since 11 November 2025 (UKCISA). Parents, this is the number your lender sizes the loan against, not what your child spends. A deposit paid to the university for accommodation it arranges comes off the total, capped at GBP 1,529 (ST 12.4); a private landlord’s does not.

Three funding routes count, no fourth (FIN 8.3):

  • a qualifying account you can draw on
  • an official financial sponsor
  • a student loan, on a letter dated within six months of applying (FIN 9.2)

A parent’s or legal guardian’s account works, but it needs their written consent and proof of the relationship (FIN 5.3). Indian applicants default to an affidavit, and an affidavit is the wrong document: it proves somebody swore a statement, not the relationship. Send the birth certificate.

Timing is where files die. The money must sit for 28 days in a row, ending within 31 days of the day you apply. It’s a diary exercise, not a balance check. Don’t shift money into a fresh account to tidy the paperwork: the clock restarts and costs a month. Which instruments qualify is in our proof of funds guide.

What a UK student visa costs from India

In September 2026, a Student visa application filed from India costs INR 74,383, charged in rupees rather than converted from pounds. The Immigration Health Surcharge is separate and, on any course longer than twelve months, the larger of the two.

ChargeAmount (GBP)Amount (INR)When it falls due
TB test, approved Hyderabad clinicNot charged in GBPINR 2,200 to 2,800Before filing
Student visa application feeNot charged in GBPINR 74,383At filing
Immigration Health SurchargeGBP 776 a yearINR 98,838 a yearBefore the decision
Priority service, optionalGBP 500INR 63,685At filing
Super priority, optionalGBP 1,000INR 127,369At filing

The published fee of GBP 558 converts to about INR 71,072 today, roughly INR 3,311 below what you are charged. Budget the rupee figure, not the conversion.

At GBP 776 for every year of permission, the surcharge is billed on your permission, not your course, and falls due before the decision. Degree-level permission runs up to 5 years at 18 or over, so multiply GBP 776 by the years granted.

The TB fee is set by the clinic, not by the Home Office. Hyderabad’s three approved clinics charge INR 2,200 to 2,800, in the 11-and-above age band that every student applicant falls into. Tuition and living costs sit in our cost of studying in the UK guide.

Your documents, the filing sequence, and how long each step takes

Beyond the passport and the CAS, every document is conditional, which is why forum checklists run longer than the official one. Yours adds financial evidence, a tuberculosis (TB) certificate, an Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate where the course code needs it, and parental consent if the funds sit in a parent’s account. Qualification documents come too, unless your course is degree level or above with a track-record sponsor (ST 20.1). A cover letter is on neither list, as our cover letter guide explains.

Three clocks run backwards from filing day:

  1. TB certificate: valid 6 months from the date of the x-ray, not the date you collect the report.
  2. ATAS certificate: free, but at least 30 working days to issue, then valid 6 months.
  3. Funds: 28 consecutive days, counted back from the closing balance on your latest statement (FIN 7.2).

With the CAS and funds ready, filing runs in a fixed order:

  1. Apply online and pay the application fee.
  2. Pay the Immigration Health Surcharge in the same session.
  3. Book a VFS Global appointment at your nearest visa application centre.
  4. Give biometrics: your fingerprints and a photograph.
  5. Hand over your passport and supporting documents there.
  6. Collect the passport; the grant itself appears as an eVisa in your UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account.

You can apply up to 6 months before your course starts, and a decision usually lands within 3 weeks. On a course over 6 months you can enter up to 1 month early. Work backwards from arrival and you get the day the money must be sitting there. Book the x-ray before the VFS Global slot: students we sit with in Hyderabad leave it last, and the certificate ages from the x-ray date.

The Graduate route then gives 2 years if you apply on or before 31 December 2026, and 18 months from 1 January 2027. It keys to your application date (GR 8.1), so a December finisher filing on 3 January loses six months. Eligibility is in our post study work visa guide.

Why UK student visas get refused for Indian applicants

The money was there and the CAS was valid. The 28 days just had not finished on the day they pressed send, so the visa was refused. That file reaches us more often than a weak one.

Calculated from the Home Office’s published entry clearance visa outcomes dataset, 4.22% of Indian Student-route applications decided in the year ending June 2026 were refused: main applicants only, the Student subgroup, entry clearance, withdrawn cases excluded from the denominator.

India sits just under the 4.62% all-nationality average and far below Pakistan’s 18.91%, and its rate is up from 2.96% a year earlier. No published source explains the rise, so read it as a trend, not a judgment on your file.

Mostly it is dates. Your latest financial evidence must be dated within 31 days of applying (FIN 7.1), and the 28 days count back from its closing balance, so one stale statement breaks both. The rules also test access: shares, bonds, credit cards and undrawable pensions are excluded, because the account must let you withdraw immediately (FIN 8.1, 8.2). A locked fixed deposit fails, however full.

From our counselling desk: what sinks a file at our Hyderabad office is rarely the amount. It's the dates. Ranked by how often we send files back: a closing balance already too old, 28 days incomplete on filing day, money in an account belonging to neither student nor parent (FIN 5.1).

You must also be a genuine student (ST 5.1), so a caseworker weighs your study gap and course choice. Under caseworker guidance version 14.0, nobody may refuse you on genuineness grounds without an interview. Two exceptions: you were refused before on the same grounds with nothing new in your file, or yours sits in a sampled batch of identical applications. So an interview is a step, not a verdict.

One rule should decide who you let file your application: you can be refused where a third party gave false information, “whether or not to the applicant’s knowledge” (SUI 10.1). Established deception makes refusal mandatory and adds a 10-year ban (SUI 9.1, 12.1).

If refused, most students ask about Administrative Review first. The urgent question is your CAS: it is spent. Ask your university for a new one the week the refusal lands.

Before you file

Ardent Overseas counsels students from Hyderabad and Tirupati. On a visa file we build the funds timeline backwards from your CAS date, check the closing balance and the 31-day window, and read each document against its governing rule. The Home Office decides the outcome, not us.

Get in Touch

Frequently Asked Questions

Living costs of GBP 1,529 a month (approx. INR 194,747) in London or GBP 1,171 (approx. INR 149,149) outside it, capped at nine months. That is GBP 13,761 (approx. INR 1,752,726) or GBP 10,539 (approx. INR 1,342,343), plus outstanding CAS fees.

No. The rules set a level, not a test: CEFR B2 at degree level and above, B1 below it. A track-record university can assess your English itself. Where a test is needed, five providers are approved and the result stays valid two years.

It’s spent, so a refusal means asking your university for a fresh one. Request it in the same week, because your sponsor’s licence must still be valid when the new application is decided, and a replacement CAS restarts your filing timetable.

INR 74,383 for the application, plus the surcharge at GBP 776 for each year of permission. Two years means GBP 1,552 (approx. INR 197,677) on top, payable before the decision. Priority processing, if you buy it, adds GBP 500 (INR 63,685).

Only if all three are true: your UK stay is 6 months or more, you have lived in a listed country for 6 months or more, and you were living in one within the last 6 months. India is listed, so if you left over six months ago and have been somewhere unlisted since, you skip the test.

Sources

Every figure here is 2026-27 entry, checked against the Immigration Rules in September 2026. Official sources first, then reputable third-party.

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