UK Student Visa: Requirements, Costs and How to Apply

UK student visa requirements (checklist)

The route is the Student visa — the replacement for Tier 4, now an eVisa rather than a sticker in your passport. It is a points test with three parts — a confirmed place of study, money, and English — each with its own evidence.

Before you open the online form you need:

• A CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) from a licensed sponsor. Your university issues it once you accept an unconditional offer and clear its conditions. It carries a reference number, your course dates and your first-year tuition — the figure your funds are checked against. It can be used once and it expires, so apply promptly.
• Proof of funds: first-year tuition as printed on the CAS, less any deposit, plus living costs — 28-day bank statements or official sponsor letter.
• English at degree level. Universities holding sponsor track-record status assess it themselves and record the result on your CAS; everyone else needs a Secure English Language Test from a UKVI-approved provider. Study in the UK without IELTS sets out who can skip the test.
• A valid passport and biometrics, given in person at a VFS Global centre.
• A TB certificate from an IOM-approved clinic: TB test required for all 8 origins except Egypt.
• The academic certificates your offer rests on; no apostille is needed for the visa itself.
• The fees, paid online before your appointment.

Your CAS is the one item nothing else substitutes for: without it there is no application.

Proof of funds — the exact rule

Money decides most refusals. You must show first-year tuition as printed on the CAS, less any deposit already paid, plus maintenance: £1,171/£1,529 per month × up to 9 months + first-year fees. That maintenance ceiling is £10,539–13,761 — the lower figure outside London, the higher one inside it.

The mechanism is 28-day bank statements or official sponsor letter. The balance must never dip below the required total on any day of that window, and the closing balance must be recent when you apply — a statement that has aged out counts as none.

Details that catch applicants from our nine countries:

• The money can sit in your account or a parent’s or sponsor’s; if it is theirs, you need their statement, a signed consent letter and proof of your relationship.
• Only cash counts. Shares, land, pensions and most investment accounts do not.
• An official sponsor — a government or scholarship body — replaces the statements with a letter naming you, your course and what it covers.
• None of these origins sits on the differential-evidence list, so you upload full financial evidence with the application, not afterwards.

Start the clock early: on the day you apply the money must already have sat still for the full period. Our proof of funds guide works through the statements.

Health insurance

There is no monthly student health premium in the UK. Instead you pay the Immigration Health Surcharge with the visa application: £776 per year, charged upfront for the full length of your permission, so a longer degree is settled in one payment at the start.

It buys NHS access on the same terms as a UK resident — registering with a GP, hospital treatment, accident and emergency, maternity care, mental health services. It does not cover what residents also pay for out of pocket: prescriptions in England, most dental treatment, most eye tests. Treat the surcharge as part of the visa cost, not an extra — the application cannot be submitted without it.

Where Africans apply: embassies and visa centres

Every one of our nine countries applies the same way: Online + biometrics at VFS Global (all 8 origins since Nov 2024). You complete the form and pay on gov.uk first, then attend a centre to give fingerprints and a photograph and hand in documents. The centre decides nothing.

• Nigeria: two VFS Global centres in Lagos and one in Abuja. TB testing at IOM in Abuja, Benin City or Lagos.
• Ghana: Accra and Kumasi. VFS collects its own optional charges — SMS updates, courier return — at the counter, in local currency.
• Kenya: Nairobi is full-service, Mombasa runs a premium lounge, and Eldoret opened in 2026, also taking documents and biometrics. TB testing only at IOM Nairobi, in Gigiri.
• Egypt: Cairo. Egypt is the single origin here with no TB test.
• South Africa: VFS Global has run the UK route since 2024.
• Uganda: Kampala at Lugogo, plus a premium centre in Entebbe. TB testing at IOM Naguru.
• Zambia: Lusaka, open since 2024, with TB testing at IOM Lusaka. gov.uk prices the fee in local currency here, so use its fee tool on the day.
• Zimbabwe: Harare at Sam Levy’s Village in Borrowdale, and Bulawayo at the Rainbow Hotel, Saturdays only. TB testing at IOM Harare.
• Morocco: Casablanca. As with Zambia, gov.uk quotes the fee in local currency.

No centre here takes cash for the visa fee — it is an online card payment to UKVI, made before you can book.

The fee

Two payments go to the Home Office, both online, both before your appointment: the application fee of £558 and the surcharge of £776 per year for every year of permission granted. There is no residence-permit card fee — the UK issues an eVisa. Beyond that, budget the TB test at US$75–165 and any optional VFS service you choose. On a multi-year course the surcharge, not the visa fee, is the larger bill. Older guides understate both; fees rose in 2026. Full picture in UK study costs.

Step-by-step: how to apply for a UK student visa

For a September 2027 start, working backwards:

1. Apply to universities. Undergraduates go through UCAS (undergraduate); the dates are 13 January 2027, 18:00 UK time (UCAS equal-consideration deadline, 2027 entry); 15 October 2026 for all Oxford/Cambridge courses and most medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine/science courses at any university. Master’s applications are Rolling; varies by course, so early still wins places.
2. Accept an unconditional offer and clear its conditions — transcripts, English evidence, the deposit your university asks for. Spring 2027 for an autumn start.
3. Receive your CAS. Check the reference, the course dates and the tuition figure the day it arrives; an error here becomes a refusal later.
4. Assemble the money. Move the full amount into one account and leave it untouched: 28-day bank statements or official sponsor letter.
5. Book the TB test at an IOM clinic — every origin here except Egypt — and collect the certificate before you apply.
6. Apply online on gov.uk, pay £558 and the surcharge, and book the VFS Global appointment the system offers you.
7. Attend the centre with your passport, CAS number, financial evidence, TB certificate and academic documents. Give biometrics.
8. Wait for the decision, then set up your eVisa account and book travel. Do not buy a ticket before the decision arrives.

Processing time

The published service standard is 3 weeks for applications made from outside the UK, and it is the same figure for every origin here — no country-specific timetable is published. Priority services exist at some centres for an extra charge, but availability shifts and they are not sold everywhere every month. Plan on the standard timetable and apply as soon as your CAS and funds allow, rather than buying speed later. Intakes are September, January (some), and a late decision means a deferred place, not a late arrival.

Common refusal reasons — and how we help

Refusal rates for our origins run at NG 10.3%, KE 12.2%, GH 16.7%; ZW ~9%, UG ~9%. Most of those are paperwork, not ability. The recurring grounds:

• Failing the genuine student test — answers that do not hold together on funding, on why this course, or on what comes afterwards.
• Maintenance funds not held for the required period, or bank statements that disagree with each other.
• An invalid CAS: wrong reference format, missing from the database, issued too early, already used, or withdrawn by the sponsor.
• A prior UK immigration breach — overstaying, breaching conditions, or being on immigration bail.
• Document fraud or a document that fails verification, which is a mandatory refusal.

Before you submit, we read your statements against the funds rule day by day, check the CAS against your offer letter, confirm your sponsor still holds a live licence, and rehearse the credibility questions in the words a caseworker uses. How we work sets out that review; spot a fake agent covers what an honest adviser will never promise.

Talk to a World Study advisor on WhatsApp or take the free 2-minute eligibility check →

Working during and after your studies

On a degree-level course you may work 20 hours/week in term time and Full-time during official holidays, with no separate permit to apply for. Below degree level the allowance is smaller; self-employment and professional sport are off-limits throughout.

Afterwards the Graduate Route lets you stay and work without an employer sponsoring you: 18 months after a bachelor’s or master’s, 36 months after a doctorate, for a fee of £937 plus its own surcharge. Timing decides the length: apply on or before 31 December 2026 and you keep the older two-year permission; apply from 1 January 2027 and you get the shorter one, whatever your course dates. More on picking a course in our UK study guide.