How Much Bank Statement Is Needed for a UK Student Visa From Pakistan? (2026)

How much money do you actually need to show?

The Home Office calls this the financial requirement, and the rate went up for 2026. On the current GOV.UK Student visa guidance the maintenance figures are £1,529 a month for courses inside London and £1,171 a month for courses anywhere else in the UK. You count one month for every month of your course, capped at nine months, no matter how long the degree runs.

So a one year master’s in Manchester needs 9 × £1,171, which is £10,539. The same degree in a university inside the City of London or one of the 32 London boroughs needs 9 × £1,529, which is £13,761. A student on a three month pre-sessional English course only counts three months.

One detail catches people out. London means the City of London and the 32 boroughs, not “near London”. A campus in Reading, Luton or Brighton falls under the lower rate even though students often assume otherwise. Check the postcode of the teaching site written on your CAS rather than the university’s head office.

Do you have to show tuition fees as well?

Yes. The maintenance figure covers living costs only. Separately you need the tuition fee for one academic year, up to nine months of teaching, as printed on your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies. If you have already paid a deposit, that amount is deducted, and the university records the paid figure on the CAS itself.

This is why paying an early deposit is often the smartest money move available to a Pakistani applicant. A student holding an offer at £16,000 a year outside London would otherwise need £16,000 plus £10,539, roughly £26,539. Pay a £6,000 deposit and the requirement drops to £10,000 plus £10,539. The total you must prove falls by the exact amount you paid. Our explainer on what a CAS letter is and how Pakistani students get one covers how the deposit is recorded.

What is the 28 day rule and why does it fail people?

The funds must be held for at least 28 consecutive days, and the balance must never drop below the required total on any single day inside that window. Not on average. Not on most days. Every day.

The second half of the rule is the closing balance date. The end of your 28 day period has to fall within 31 days of the date you submit the online application. GOV.UK gives the example that if you apply on 1 January, the 28 day period must end within the previous month. Statements that are two months old get refused even when the money was genuinely there.

• Deposit the full amount, then leave it completely untouched for a clear 28 days.
• Ask your bank for a statement or letter showing the account holder name, account number, date, currency and the daily or closing balance.
• Apply within 31 days of that closing balance, not later.
• Convert PKR to GBP at the rate published by OANDA for the closing balance date, which is the rate UKVI uses.
• Add a buffer of five to ten percent so a currency swing does not push you below the line.

Which bank accounts and whose money does UKVI accept?

The money can be in your own name, in a parent’s or legal guardian’s name, or held jointly with either of them. A brother, uncle, cousin or family friend does not qualify. If the account belongs to a parent you also submit proof of the relationship, usually a birth certificate or Form B, plus a signed letter from that parent giving consent for you to use the funds.

The account must allow you to withdraw the money immediately. Cash held in a Behbood certificate, a defence savings certificate, a locked-in term deposit or a prize bond generally does not satisfy this because the funds are not instantly accessible. Ordinary current and savings accounts at a regulated Pakistani bank are the safe choice. Islamic banking accounts are fine.

Loan sanction letters from a bank are accepted if the loan is from a financial institution regulated by the State Bank of Pakistan and the funds are, or will be, available to you before travel. Our guide on education loans for Pakistani students walks through which lenders issue letters in the right format.

London versus outside London: a worked comparison

Take two students with identical £15,000 tuition offers and no deposit paid, one in London and one in Leeds.

• London student: £15,000 tuition plus £13,761 maintenance equals £28,761 to prove.
• Leeds student: £15,000 tuition plus £10,539 maintenance equals £25,539 to prove.
• Gap: £3,222, which at mid-2026 exchange rates is well over a million rupees of extra funds that must sit frozen for a month.

That gap alone pushes a lot of families toward universities in the north of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Living costs there are genuinely lower too, which we break down in our post on how much money Pakistani students need per month in the UK.

What else costs money in the application?

Two fees are paid at the point of application and neither counts toward your maintenance total. From 8 April 2026 the Student visa application fee for applicants outside the UK is £558, up from £524, according to the Home Office fee table published in March 2026. The Immigration Health Surcharge is £776 per year for students and their dependants, so a course granted a two year visa attracts £1,552.

You will also pay for a tuberculosis test at an approved clinic in Pakistan, biometrics at the visa application centre, and courier or priority services if you choose them. The full picture is in our breakdown of what a UK student visa costs from Pakistan.

Common mistakes Pakistani applicants make

Refusals under the financial rules are usually procedural rather than a shortfall of money. A parent transfers salary into the account on day 19 and resets the clock. A statement is printed on bank letterhead without the account number. The applicant counts a fixed deposit that cannot be broken. Someone applies six weeks after pulling the statement.

Border and Bridges is a Johar Town, Lahore consultancy verified by SECP, FBR, ICEF and the British Council, and the single most common file we fix is a bank statement with the right amount presented in the wrong format. If you want a second pair of eyes before you upload, the contact page is the fastest route to a free document review. You can also browse every country we handle on the destinations hub or read the UK study guide in full.

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