Money
UK student visa maintenance funds, and the 28-day rule
In short
You must show course fees for one academic year plus living costs of £1,529 a month in London or £1,171 outside London, for up to nine months. For applications made on or after 30 November 2026 those monthly figures become £1,570 and £1,203. The money must sit in the account for 28 consecutive days, ending within 31 days of the application date.
The UK requirement is unusually precise about how long money has to sit still, and that precision is where most refusals come from. The total is rarely the problem.
The figures below are changing within weeks of publication, so the date you apply decides which set applies to you.
The current and coming figures
The maintenance requirement is a monthly figure multiplied by the length of your course, capped at nine months. It sits on top of the course fees for your first academic year.
The change is in the Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules HC 584, laid on 3 September 2026. Three paragraphs do the work, quoted from the statement: "In ST 12.3(a), for £1529, substitute £1570"; "In ST 12.3(b), for £1171, substitute £1203"; and "In ST 12.4, for £1529, substitute £1570". The statement says those paragraphs "shall take effect on 30 November 2026", and that an application "made before 30 November 2026" will be "decided in accordance with the Immigration Rules in force on 29 November 2026". The explanatory memorandum gives the reason: the figure is aligned with the maintenance loans available to home students for 2026/27, and the annual uplift was agreed in May 2024.
| Where you study | Applications before 30 Nov 2026 | From 30 Nov 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| In London | £1,529 per month | £1,570 per month |
| Outside London | £1,171 per month | £1,203 per month |
| Maximum months | 9 | 9 |
| Accommodation deposit that can be offset (ST 12.4) | up to £1,529 | up to £1,570 |
| Dependant partner or child (ST 33.2, ST 37.2) | £845 London / £680 outside | unchanged by HC 584 |
The 28-day rule, precisely
GOV.UK states the rule in two sentences: "You must have this money for at least 28 days in a row" and "The end date of the 28-day period must be within 31 days of the date you apply for your visa." In Appendix Student that is ST 12.6, the requirement to have "held the required level of funds for a 28-day period". The Home Office counts the 28 days backwards from the closing balance on the most recent evidence you submit.
That is why a balance that dips below the required amount on day 19, even for a day, restarts the clock. It is also why an account statement dated six weeks before you apply is not evidence of anything useful.
Credit cards, overdrafts and pending transfers do not count. What counts is money held and shown in an acceptable form over a continuous period.
Dependants, and who can still bring them
Dependant maintenance is charged separately at lower monthly rates. Eligibility to bring a partner or child at all is now narrow: broadly, government-sponsored students on courses longer than six months, and students on postgraduate courses of nine months or more where, for courses starting on or after 1 January 2024, the course is a PhD, other doctorate or research-based higher degree.
A taught master's starting after that date does not carry dependant rights. We set out the exact wording in the dependants rule, because this is the single most misquoted rule in UK study advice.
Where the money comes from matters too
Meeting the figure is necessary, not sufficient. Funds that arrive as a lump sum days before the 28-day window opens invite a question about their source, and a sponsor who appears in the bank statement but nowhere in the explanation is an unexplained fact in an application designed to be read sceptically.
If an education loan is funding the course, the sanction letter does most of this work. Our piece on education loans for studying abroad covers what lenders and visa officers each want to see.
Who does not have to show the money
GOV.UK lists three exemptions. You do not need to prove funds if "you’ve been living in the UK with a visa for at least 12 months prior to the date of your Student visa application" (ST 12.1), if you are applying as a student union sabbatical officer (ST 12.2), or if you are a national of a country on the differential evidence list, in which case you can still be asked for the evidence after you apply. Indian nationals are not on that list, so an applicant from Kerala shows the full amount every time. Course fees already paid to the university are deducted from what you must show, provided you have "a receipt issued by the student sponsor confirming the amount of fees paid" (ST 12.5).
Sources
Quoted from the primary sources on 27 October 2026. The November figures are law once the statement takes effect; read the live pages for the date you apply.
Related questions
Does the 28 days have to end right before I apply?
The end of the 28-day period must be within 31 days of your application date. The Home Office counts the 28 days backwards from the closing balance on your most recent evidence.
What if my course is six months long?
You show the monthly figure for the length of the course, up to a maximum of nine months. A six-month course means six times the monthly amount, plus the course fees for that period.
Which figures apply if I apply in late November 2026?
Applications made before 30 November 2026 are decided under the figures in force on 29 November 2026, which are £1,529 and £1,171. From 30 November the higher figures apply.