Getting a UK Student visa

1. The CAS comes first, and it comes from the university

A CAS is a reference number. Your university sends it once you have a place, and you enter it on the visa application. You must apply for the visa within six months of receiving it.

The university decides when. Every university we read for our guide to what happens after an offer, where it states its conditions, issues the CAS only once the offer is unconditional and accepted. Some also wait for a deposit, a passport copy or a confirmation of your details. Several will not issue one more than six months before the course starts. Durham issues it up to five months before; Manchester says to expect it three to four months before.

Allow days, not hours. Durham says a CAS usually follows two to three working days after you confirm your details. Cardiff asks you to allow at least five working days, and Edinburgh says a draft follows within five to seven. In August, all of them warn that it can take longer.

2. You must hold the money for 28 days in a row

The Home Office requires you to show that you can pay your course fees for one academic year, as stated on your CAS, plus living costs for up to nine months.

The money must be held for at least 28 days in a row. The last day of those 28 days must be within 31 days of the date you apply. A balance that arrives the week before you apply does not count.

It can be in a parent's account. The parent must provide a letter agreeing that you can use it, and universities' visa guidance also asks for proof of the relationship, such as a birth certificate. A student loan or an official financial sponsor counts too, with a letter from the lender or sponsor.

The living-cost figure rises on 30 November 2026. Every student starting in September 2027 will apply after that date.

Added to the first-year fee, it is a large sum. We added the living-cost figure to the published first-year fee for every course in our catalogue where the university priced that course itself.

3. Some nationalities do not have to submit the evidence

The Home Office keeps a list of nationalities who do not have to send financial evidence with the application. It includes, among others, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the United States. India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia are not on it.

Being on the list does not remove the requirement. You must still have the money. GOV.UK says that you might be asked for the evidence before a decision is made, so it should be ready either way.

4. You pay a visa fee and a health surcharge when you apply

The visa fee is £558, from outside the UK, since 8 April 2026.

The immigration health surcharge is £776 for each year of the visa for students. It is paid when you apply, and it is charged on the length of the visa, not the course.

The visa is longer than the course. For a course of 12 months or more, the visa runs from up to one month before the course starts to four months after it ends. Home Office guidance for its staff says the surcharge is then charged in six-month periods, with any part period rounded up.

Neither is the whole cost. The fee for an English test, a TB test and travel come on top, and their prices are set by the providers, not the Home Office.

5. The English level for the visa is B2, and your university may test it itself

For a degree, the Home Office requires English at level B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference. You can show it with a Secure English Language Test, certain UK qualifications, or a degree taught in English.

Your university may assess it itself. A university teaching at degree level can assess your English itself, to the same B2 standard. It may ask for a different test from the one you planned. Citizens of a listed group of countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States, do not have to prove their English for the visa.

The university's own requirement is separate, and usually higher. Meeting B2 for the visa does not mean meeting the English condition in your offer.

6. A TB test or an ATAS certificate may be needed

A tuberculosis test is needed if you are coming for six months or more and have lived in a listed country for six months or more, and were living there within the last six months. GOV.UK lists 72 countries and territories with approved clinics, including Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Nigeria and Pakistan, and a further group whose residents must take the test in another country. The test is a chest x-ray at a Home Office approved clinic, and the certificate is valid for six months.

An ATAS certificate is needed for some subjects, for students who are not nationals of an exempt country. It is mainly for master's and doctoral study, but GOV.UK notes that an integrated master's year can bring an undergraduate course into scope. Our catalogue holds 1,843 MEng, MSci, MPhys and MChem courses. Whether one needs ATAS depends on its subject code, which the university can give you from your offer.

ATAS takes at least 30 working days, longer between April and August, and the certificate must be in hand before you apply for the visa. It costs nothing to apply for.

7. The visa lets you work part-time, and the Graduate visa after it is now 18 months

During term, a degree student may work up to 20 hours a week, provided the university is a higher education provider with a track record of compliance. Full-time work is allowed in vacations, including before the course starts. A Student visa holder cannot be self-employed.

Most undergraduates cannot bring dependants. Only government-sponsored students and students on postgraduate research courses can bring a partner or children.

The Graduate visa lets you stay and work after the degree, without a sponsor. It is 18 months for applications made on or after 1 January 2027. A student starting in 2027 would apply after that date. It costs £937, plus the health surcharge at the full rate of £1,035 a year, and it cannot be extended.

What people get wrong

"Living costs are £1,171 a month outside London." That is the figure on GOV.UK's Student visa pages as we read them. From 30 November 2026 it is £1,203, and £1,570 in London rather than £1,529. Anyone starting in September 2027 applies after the change.

"The Graduate visa is two years." It was, and most pages still say so. From 1 January 2027 it is 18 months.

"My country is on the list, so I do not need the money." You do not need to submit the evidence. You still need the money, and you can be asked for it.

Our advice

Plan for a CAS in August if your offer depends on results, and have everything else ready before then: the money held for 28 days, the English result, the TB certificate and any ATAS certificate.

Start the 28 days early. Money moved into an account late in July may not have been there for 28 days by results day.

Check whether your course needs ATAS as soon as you hold the offer. Thirty working days does not fit between results day and a September start.

Ask your university how any deposit you have paid will appear on your CAS. It changes the sum you must show.

Check every figure against GOV.UK before you apply — the Home Office changes them, and the next change is on 30 November 2026.

The not so fine print: what was excluded in this report

• Applications made from inside the UK, which have their own fee and timing
• Students under 18, who need their parents' consent and face extra conditions
• Dependants, who can only come with government-sponsored students or postgraduate research students
• Credibility interviews, which some universities hold before issuing a CAS and which our guides for individual countries cover
• The price of English tests, TB tests and priority services, which are set by the providers
• Visa refusal and appeal

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