UK Student Visa Maintenance Funds Rise on 30 November 2026: What Pakistani Applicants Must Show

How much money do you need to show right now?

As of 3 November 2026, GOV.UK says that a Student visa applicant needs £1,529 for each month of the course in London or £1,171 for each month outside London, for up to 9 months. That is the monthly living-cost part. On top of it you must show enough to pay any course fees still outstanding, as stated on your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies. Our guide to what a CAS letter is and how Pakistani students get one explains where those fee figures come from.

The two parts of the funds requirement

The rule has two halves, and applicants often remember only one of them.

• Outstanding course fees. The CAS states the fee for the first year and any deposit you have already paid. You must show the balance.
• Living costs. A fixed monthly figure, multiplied by the number of months of your course, capped at 9 months. Part of a month is rounded up to the next full month.

Who is "in London"?

GOV.UK defines London as the City of London and the 32 London boroughs. A university with a campus in Greater London but outside those boundaries would fall in the lower band, and a university with a campus in both places is decided by where your course is taught. Your CAS shows the study location. If the CAS and your own reading of the map disagree, ask your university to confirm before you build your bank evidence around the wrong figure.

Who does not have to show living costs?

GOV.UK says you do not need to show living-cost funds if you have been in the UK with a valid visa for at least 12 months on the date of your application. That exemption helps people extending or switching inside the UK. It does not help a first-time applicant applying from Pakistan, who must show the full amount.

What changes on 30 November 2026?

As of 3 November 2026, the Home Office Statement of Changes HC 584 substitutes £1,570 for London and £1,203 for outside London, and these amounts apply to applications made on or after 30 November 2026.

The paragraphs are numbered APP ST8 to APP ST10 in the statement. They amend rule ST 12.3(a) for London, ST 12.3(b) for outside London, and ST 12.4 for the accommodation offset. The statement also says that applications made before 30 November 2026 are decided under the rules in force on 29 November 2026. The explanatory memorandum describes the change as an annual uplift to the Student route maintenance requirement.

Old and new figures side by side

The nine-month totals are simple multiplication of the monthly figures, so they carry the same dates and sources as the monthly rates. The increase is modest in percentage terms, but it lands on families who have already fixed a loan amount or a property valuation. A £369 gap matters if your savings were sitting exactly on the old threshold.

As of 3 November 2026, Appendix Student lets an accommodation deposit paid to your sponsor be offset against the funds you must show, up to £1,529, and HC 584 raises that cap to £1,570 from 30 November 2026. In plain terms, if your sponsor arranged your accommodation and you paid a deposit, you can subtract that deposit, up to the cap, from the living-cost total you must show. The deposit must have been paid to the sponsor for accommodation the sponsor arranged. A deposit to a private landlord does not qualify under that wording.

How do you work out your own total?

Use the same four steps for every case. The arithmetic is easy, but the inputs come from documents, so start with the CAS.

1. Read the CAS. Note the study location, the course length in months, the first-year fee and any deposit already paid.
2. Subtract the deposit from the fee to get the outstanding fees.
3. Multiply the monthly figure by the course months, capped at 9, and round part-months up.
4. Add the two results. If you paid a sponsor-arranged accommodation deposit, subtract it, up to the cap, from the living-cost part.

Three worked examples

These examples use invented fee figures for illustration. Your own CAS will show the real ones.

Notice what the 9-month cap does for a 12-month Master's: the living-cost part stops growing after month nine. A three-year undergraduate degree is treated the same way, because the requirement covers the first academic year, up to 9 months, not the whole degree.

Our separate guide on how much bank statement is needed for a UK student visa from Pakistan covers statement presentation. This post is about the rate change and its timing.

What is the 28-day rule?

The GOV.UK Student visa money page says you must hold the money for at least 28 days in a row, and the end date of that 28-day period must be within 31 days of the date you apply.

GOV.UK gives its own example: if you submit your application on 1 January, you must show that the funds were in your account for at least the 28-day period ending on 1 December. Put differently, the last day of your 28-day window can fall no earlier than 31 days before you apply.

Why the 28-day rule and the 30 November date interact

The two rules answer different questions. The 28-day rule asks whether your money sat in the account long enough. The 30 November rule asks which amount you must show. The amount is fixed by your application date. The 28 days are counted backwards from the closing balance of your most recent statement. If you apply on 1 December, your funds must meet the new, higher amount for the entire 28-day period, even though some of those days fall in November.

That surprises people. A student who built a balance of the old amount in early November and applies in December may find the account was fine against the old rate for 28 days but short against the new one. The balance must be at least the new total across the whole window, not merely on the day you apply.

What happens to money after you apply?

Appendix Student also looks at funds on the date of decision. If the balance has fallen substantially below the required level by then, the decision maker must be satisfied that the money was spent on outstanding course fees, an accommodation deposit or other costs linked to your studies in the UK. A large unexplained transfer out of the account after you submit is an avoidable problem. Keep the balance steady until you have your decision, and keep receipts for anything you do pay.

Which accounts and sources does the Home Office accept?

Your own accounts

Appendix Finance accepts personal bank and building society accounts, including current, deposit and savings accounts, provided the account allows the funds to be accessed immediately. It does not accept money held in shares, bonds, credit cards or pensions you cannot withdraw immediately. Overdraft facilities do not count. Funds held in a financial institution can be disregarded if the institution is not regulated by the appropriate regulator, does not use electronic record keeping, or cannot be verified. For a Pakistani applicant that is a reason to use a regulated bank with electronic statements, not an informal arrangement.

Parents and legal guardians

Appendix Finance allows a Student applicant to rely on an account in the name of a parent or legal guardian, but you must prove the relationship and provide the parent or guardian's written consent to use the funds. The practical meaning is simple. Parents can fund you, but the paperwork must show who they are to you and that they agree to your using the money.

Sponsors and loans

Appendix Finance also accepts funds from an official financial sponsor or a qualifying student loan, and a loan letter must be dated no more than 6 months before the date of application. A scholarship from an official body or a university can therefore replace some or all of the bank balance, and the sponsor or loan letter becomes your evidence. Where a university scholarship reduces the fee, the CAS figure for outstanding fees already reflects it.

If you are under 18

The GOV.UK documents page says an applicant under 18 needs written consent from both parents or legal guardians, or from one parent with sole responsibility, together with a document showing the parents' names. That is separate from the funds requirement but must be ready at the same time.

Money held by dependants

Partners and children who come with you need extra funds, and the amounts are set separately from your own. Only certain students can bring dependants, mainly postgraduate research students and those on government-sponsored courses. The 30 November change in HC 584 covers your own requirement and the offset cap, not the dependant rates, so check the GOV.UK family members page for the current dependant figures on your date of application. Our guide on what changed for UK student dependants and settlement explains who is eligible.

Should you rush to apply before 30 November?

It depends on one thing: whether you can submit a complete, accurate application before that date. Where you can, the lower figure applies and you save a few hundred pounds of required balance. Where you cannot, a rushed application costs far more than the difference.

When an early application makes sense

• The CAS is issued and every detail on it is correct.
• IELTS or other accepted English evidence is already in hand.
• Academic documents, passport and any required TB test are ready.
• Bank evidence already meets the old figure for a full 28-day window ending within 31 days of the planned submission date.

When rushing is a mistake

• The CAS has an error that the university has not corrected.
• You are still waiting for a scholarship letter or a loan decision.
• Your statement window would not be complete.
• You would be guessing at documents to beat a date.

A refusal is far more expensive than an extra £288 or £369 in a savings account. A refused application means a fresh fee, a fresh health surcharge, a possible CAS reissue and a refusal on your record that every future UK, Canadian and Australian application will ask about. Treat 30 November as a planning input, not a deadline to meet at any cost.

If you are applying close to your course start date, read our note on the UK student visa priority and super priority service from Pakistan as well, because faster processing changes how much time you have to assemble funds.

What does a realistic timeline look like?

Here is an invented but realistic case for a January 2027 intake, outside London, with fees of £13,000 outstanding.

If this family wants the old figure, they need the whole application ready, with a closing balance of the right size and a window that qualifies, before 30 November. If they miss that date, the fix is to top up by £288 and keep the balance steady for the entire window. Either route works. What does not work is pretending the date does not matter.

Which mistakes cause funds problems?

• Using the wrong rate. Calculating from a blog post written before 30 November, or from last year's figure, when the application falls after the change.
• Counting the window from the wrong date. The end of the 28 days must fall within 31 days of the application date, so an old statement can expire before you submit.
• Last-minute deposits. Large unexplained credits shortly before the window raise questions about the source of funds. Keep a paper trail for every large deposit.
• Forgetting the offset rules. Deducting a landlord deposit that does not qualify.
• Using accounts that do not qualify. Shares, credit cards, locked pensions or overdrafts.
• Parent funds without consent. A parent's statement with no proof of relationship and no written consent.
• Spending the money after applying. Paying large amounts out before a decision without being able to explain them.

Funds are only one part of how a case officer judges credibility. Be ready to explain who is paying, where the money came from and why this course makes sense for you.

What else sits outside the maintenance figure?

The living-cost number is not your full budget. You still pay the visa application fee, the Immigration Health Surcharge, English test fees, biometrics-related costs, flights and a deposit to your university. Those costs are paid in addition and are not part of the 28-day balance unless you choose to hold the money in the same account. Our guide on whether Pakistani students pay the UK Immigration Health Surcharge explains the surcharge, and the UK study hub collects every UK guide in one place.

Keep a separate buffer for rent, a laptop and the first month of food. The Home Office figure is a requirement for the visa, not a promise that £1,203 will cover a month in your city. Students in London or in cities with tight housing markets often spend more than the requirement.

Frequently asked questions