Financial evidence for your application

How much money do you need to have?

If your course is more than 9 months:

  • Tuition fees for the academic year (minus fees you have already paid) + £9,207 for living costs (If you apply for your visa after 2 January 2025, the living costs you need to show are £10,224).
  • For example, if your tuition fees for a 1 year course are £14,880 and you have paid £1,000 deposit, you would need to show £14,880 - £1,000 + £9,207 = £23,087. If you apply for your visa after 2 January 2025 this amount will be £24,104.

If your course is less than 9 months:

  • Tuition fees for the course (minus any fees you have paid) + £1,023 for living costs for each month of the course. If you apply for your visa on or after 2 January 2025, you’ll need to show £1,136 each month of the course. 

We also recommend having an additional £500 to take into account currency fluctuations. 

Please note

  • If you have paid Oxford Brookes money for accommodation, you can subtract £1,334 from your living costs. You will need to provide proof of what you have paid.
  • You must use the OANDA currency converter used by the UKVI when converting your currency to British Pounds (GBP). However, if you want to use the Syrian Pound or the Iranian Rial to meet the financial requirement, you need to use the FCDO Consular Exchange Rate (CER), not OANDA. Please contact ISAT if you are using the Syrian Pound or Iranian Rial to meet the financial requirement.
  • All students will need to prepare financial evidence as detailed below.
  • Students who are applying for permission to stay in the UK, and have been in the UK for at least 12 months with valid permission on the date of application do not need to show financial evidence to get their CAS or for their visa application.
  • If you are one of the countries listed under the differential evidence requirement, you do not need to provide proof you have the funds with your visa application. However, you must ensure you have the funds in place and your documents meet the UKVI requirements as the UKVI might still ask you to provide the evidence before you get your visa decision. If you cannot provide them, then your application will be refused. (In the link above, go to the section called Eligibility Requirements for a Student' and then to 'Differential Evidence Requirement' to check if your country is listed here.) 

What evidence do you need to provide?

Below you will see what type of financial evidence you need to provide. If you do not have enough funds in one type of account, you are able to use a combination of different financial evidence.

Also see Other important requirements for financial evidence below for more information on what types of accounts you can use, translating documents into English, and what additional evidence you need to provide if using a parent's account.

1. Personal bank account: Bank statement or bank letter

Have you checked what type of account you can or can’t use? See the section below: What types of account can you use?

Your financial documents must show that the full amount of money you need to have has been in the account for 28 consecutive days up to the date of the closing balance. This account must not have dropped below the amount that you need to show at any time during the 28 day period.

The final date of the 28 day period must not be more than 31 days old on the date that you submit your application.

In addition to the financial evidence, we highly recommend providing the contact details of your bank's Head Office in a separate document and attach this to your visa application as the UKVI may try to contact your bank for verification of your financial documents. In the attachment it would be useful to include: the address of the bank's Head Office, the telephone number and email address. It is important to check with the bank that they are contactable using the contact details you are providing the UKVI.

2. Official financial sponsorship

You can only receive official financial sponsorship from:

  • your national government
  • an international organisation with offices in more than one country
  • one of the UK government’s sponsored programmes
  • the British Council
  • a university
  • a UK independent school.

If your financial sponsor is only covering some of your course fees or living costs, you must show that you have the rest of the money needed.

If you were previously sponsored 

If you have, in the last 12 months before the date of application, completed a course of studies in the UK for which you have been awarded a scholarship or sponsorship by a Government or international scholarship agency covering both fees and living costs for study in the UK, you must provide written consent in relation to the application from that Government or agency which confirms they have no objection to you continuing your studies in the UK.

3. Student loans

The loan is provided by:

  • your national government
  • a government sponsored student loan company
  • or is part of an academic or educational loan scheme which is provided by a financial institution regulated for the purpose of issuing student loans by either the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or, in the case of an overseas loan, the official regulatory body for purpose of issuing student loans in the country in which the financial institution is located and where the money is held.

If your loan is only covering some of your course fees or living costs, you must show that you have the rest of the money needed.

The following guidelines are for educational loan schemes, however if you have received a student loan from the government, please contact us so we can advise on what should be included in the letter.

Other important requirements for financial evidence