24 September 2026 Student visas

The UK Student visa document checklist, and what actually counts as proof of funds

A Student visa application needs a passport and a CAS, and usually a lot more besides. The financial evidence is where most confusion sits: GOV.UK requires funds held for 28 days in a row, ending within 31 days of your application, in an account that meets a specific, published test — and an ATM mini-statement is explicitly not good enough.

A Student visa application lives or dies on two things: the CAS your course provider issues, and the paperwork proving you can pay for the course and support yourself. The second part is where most confusion sits — not because the rules are secret, but because they are precise, and a document that looks perfectly fine to you can fail a specific, published test. This page sets out what GOV.UK and the Immigration Rules actually require, document by document.

What you must provide, and what you may also need

GOV.UK splits the checklist in two. You must always provide a current passport or other valid travel document, and your CAS reference. Beyond that, you may also need:

• Proof you have enough money to pay for your course and support yourself — the subject of most of this page.
• A valid ATAS certificate, if your course and nationality require one.
• Your tuberculosis (TB) test results.
• Written consent from your financial sponsor, if you have received sponsorship for your course fees and living costs in the last 12 months.
• If you are under 18: written consent from both parents or legal guardians (or one, if they have sole responsibility), and proof of your relationship to them.

The money itself: course fee and living costs

You need enough for your course fee for one academic year, up to 9 months — the exact figure is on your CAS. On top of that, you need money to support yourself, unless you are boarding at a residential independent school, in which case the boarding fee on your CAS replaces this figure:

You do not need to prove any of this if you have held a valid UK visa for at least 12 months before the date of your application, or if you are applying as a student union sabbatical officer. You also do not need to prove it if you are a British national overseas, or hold the nationality of one of the countries GOV.UK lists under its "differential evidence requirement" — though UKVI can still ask for the evidence after you apply, so it is worth having it ready regardless.

The 28-day rule, precisely

You must hold the required funds for at least 28 days in a row, and the most recently dated piece of evidence must be dated within 31 days of your application. The Home Office's own worked example: apply on 1 January, and the 28-day period must end no earlier than 1 December. The way to check your own dates is to count backwards 28 days from the closing balance on your newest statement — and the evidence must cover that whole 28-day stretch continuously, with no gaps.

What actually counts as a bank statement

Funds can be held in any personal bank or building society account — current, deposit, savings, a pension you can withdraw from, or an investment account — provided the money is accessible immediately. Contrary to a common assumption, electronic bank statements do not need to be stamped on every page or accompanied by a covering letter. What the Home Office does expect: the record is on official stationery or is a genuine electronic record, it is printed or electronic rather than hand-written, and nothing on it has been amended by hand.

Whose name the account can be in

Normally the account must be in your own name, alone or jointly. Three situations let you rely on someone else's account instead: your partner's, if you are applying together; a parent's or legal guardian's, if you are applying as a Student, Child Student, or Short-Term Student (English language); or a close relative's or approved private foster carer's, for a Child Student in a specific care arrangement. In every one of these cases the account holder must control the funds, and if you are relying on a parent or guardian's account you must also provide proof of the relationship and their written consent to use the money.

You can also combine evidence from two accounts, in one of two ways: add both closing balances together, provided both fall within the 31-day window and both amounts were held for the full 28 days; or rely on whichever account's closing balance favours you most, and use the second account only as supporting evidence available at some point during that same 28-day period.

Sponsors and student loans

Instead of personal savings, you can meet the requirement through an official financial sponsor — which must be His Majesty's Government, your own national government, the British Council, or an international organisation, international company, university or independent school. Evidence is either your CAS stating the sponsor is providing the funds, or a letter from the sponsor confirming you are the recipient and either the amount, or that they are covering all your course and living costs.

A student loan counts if it comes from a government, a government-sponsored student loan company, or an academic loan scheme regulated by the FCA or PRA (or the equivalent regulator, for an overseas loan). The loan letter itself must be dated no more than 6 months before your application, and must confirm: it is a student loan from one of those providers; there are no conditions on releasing the funds beyond a successful UK study application; the loan amount; that the loan is made to you; and when the funds will actually be available — before you travel, paid to your provider before you travel with any living-cost portion reaching you by the time you arrive, or before your course starts if the loan is from your national government.

Checked against the official sources below on 24 September 2026.

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