You'll need to show you can cover:
- Your tuition fee
- Your living costs.
Tuition fee
You will need to show your whole tuition fee for one year or the remainder of the fee if you have paid part of it.
If you have paid your fee in full, no money needs to be shown for your tuition fee.
Living costs
In addition to your tuition fee, you must be able to show you have enough money for your living costs.
The UK Home Office requires you to have £1,023 per month for up to a maximum of nine months.
This means if you are studying an undergraduate or postgraduate level degree course of 12 months or longer, you will need to show £9,207 (£1,023 x 9) to cover your living expenses.
If you will be studying a course shorter than nine months then you will only be required to show £1,023 for each month of your course, or for each additional month required to complete your course.
The total amount of finances (your remaining tuition fee plus your living costs) must have been available to you for 28 days. It must be in cash funds, it can not be held in stocks/shares/investments.
The balance in your bank account must never fall below the required amount during the whole 28 day period. The last transaction date on the bank statement of that 28 day period must not be more than one month before the date of your application. This means that your bank statement cannot be more than one month old when you submit your visa application.
If it is below the required amount for any one of these 28 days, your application will be refused.
If you are staying in University of Liverpool accommodation and have made payments to the University toward your accommodation costs, you can deduct a maximum of £1,334 of this payment from the amount that you need to show for your living costs.
Example: if you have paid £2,000 to the University toward your University accommodation, then you will be able to deduct £1,334 from the amount that you need to show for your living costs leaving £7,873 (£9,207 - £1,334) to show for your application).
You do not need to prove the financial requirement if you’ve had a UK visa for 12 months prior to the date of your Student visa application - you must currently be in the UK.
Low-risk students under the differentiation arrangement
A low-risk student is a student that the UK Home Office considers to be from a country that has always had a very low refusal rate in relation to visa applications.
If you are considered to be a low-risk student you are not required to submit evidence of your maintenance with your visa application.
However, the Home Office reserves the right to request this documentation from you by a specific date whilst the visa application is being processed. Therefore, we advise all students to prepare financial documentation for a visa application whether they are required to submit it or not.
For more information and to find a list of nationalities that are deemed to be low risk and can apply under the differentiation arrangement see paragraph ST 22.1 of the immigration rules.
Self-funding
Self-funding means that you have provided the money yourself or a member of your family has provided it.
If you are self-funded the money must be held in either your personal bank account or your parent's personal bank account. It cannot be held in anyone else's name, be it either a relative or a friend. It can not be held in a company/business bank account, even if your parents name is also on it.
You must ensure that your funds are held in an institution that the UK Home Office is able to verify, for details see appendix finance of the UK immigration rules.
The bank statement that you provide should show the following:
- Your name or your parent's name(s)
- The account number
- The date of the statement
- The financial institution's name and logo
- The amount of money available for 28 days in the transaction list.
You must ensure that the date of the closing balance on the statement is no more than 31 days before you submit your visa application.
We recommend that you maintain the required level of funds in one bank account.
If the money is being held in a currency other than UK pound sterling, you must ensure it never drops below the required amount due to the exchange rates. Use the converter the UK Home Office use to check.
View an example of an Bank statement.
View a Bank of China Chinese Certificate of Deposit example.
If you are submitting your parents' accounts you must also include your original birth certificate and a signed letter from your parents.
View an example parent's letter that your parents can copy.
Financial sponsorship
If you are being fully supported (both student fees and living expenses) by a government or scholarship agency, you will not need to show the amount in your bank account. Instead, you will need to obtain a letter from your financial sponsor confirming how they are supporting you.
The letter must be recently dated, on official letter-headed paper and must contain:
- Your name
- The name of your official financial sponsor
- The contact details of your official financial sponsor
- The length of financial sponsorship
- A statement that your financial sponsor will cover all fees and living costs.
However, if your financial sponsor is only paying tuition fees, you will still need a letter confirming the above (excluding the part about living costs in the last point) but you will need to show the amount for living expenses is held in your account and has been for 28 days before the application date.
View an example of an example financial sponsorship letter.
Academic or educational loan
If you are being loaned money by a recognised financial institution and the money from the loan is not yet in your account, proof of this loan is enough.
If the loan makes up only part of the required finance, the remainder will have to be in your bank account, so that there is evidence of enough funds for both the tuition fee and living costs for the visa application to be processed.
The evidence of the loan must be a letter from the institution making the loan, less than six months old, and this letter should contain the following:
- Your name
- The date of the letter
- The financial institution’s name and logo
- The money (or funds) available as a loan.
In addition to this, if you wish to use a loan letter as evidence of your funds, the letter must confirm that the loan is provided by the national government, the state or regional government or a government-sponsored student loan company or is part of an academic or educational loans scheme.
If you have obtained a loan from a different source, for example, from a bank then you must transfer the funds into your own bank account (or that of your parents or legal guardian) and wait 28 days before using one of the other forms of evidence listed above.
If evidence of the loan cannot be obtained, then the full amount will need to be shown in your bank account.
Applications made in the UK
If you are applying from within the UK and have been here legally for 12 months or more you are exempt from showing maintenance, this means that you do not need to show any evidence of the money available to you in your visa application, however you must ensure that you are able to financial support yourself in the UK for the duration of your programme.
Further help and advice
If you still have any questions about your financial evidence after reading over the information on our website then please contact International Advice and Guidance by email at iagteam@liverpool.ac.uk.
Speak to a International Advice and Guidance advisor
If you are unable to find an answer to your query on our web pages email iagteam@liverpool.ac.uk or book an online confidential one-one appointment.