UK Student Visa Proof of Funds from Nigeria: Exact Amounts for 2026/27 (28-Day Rule Explained)

Last updated: 28 October 2026

For a UK Student visa, your proof of funds must cover two things: any course fees still unpaid on your CAS, plus living costs of £1,529 per month if you will study in London, or £1,171 per month outside London, for each month of your course up to a maximum of nine months. The full amount must sit in an eligible account for 28 consecutive days before you apply. From 30 November 2026 the monthly amounts rise, so the date you apply changes the total you need:

Where you study	Per month (applying before 30 Nov 2026)	Maximum (9 months)	Per month (applying on/after 30 Nov 2026)	Maximum (9 months)
London	£1,529	£13,761	£1,570	£14,130
Outside London	£1,171	£10,539	£1,203	£10,827

Key takeaways
– Proof of funds = unpaid course fees on your CAS + living costs (£1,529/month in London, £1,171/month outside London, up to 9 months).
– Applying on or after 30 November 2026? The figures become £1,570 (London) and £1,203 (outside London). Applications made before that date are decided under the current figures.
– The 28-day rule: the full amount must be held for 28 consecutive days, ending no more than 31 days before you apply. If the balance drops below the required amount on any day, the 28 days start again.
– Money can be in your own account or a parent’s/legal guardian’s account (with a consent letter and proof of relationship). An uncle’s, sibling’s or family friend’s account does not count.
– Paying your university a deposit for sponsor-arranged accommodation reduces the living-cost amount you must show, by up to £1,529 (£1,570 from 30 Nov 2026). A deposit to a private landlord does not.
– Nigeria is not on the differential evidence list, so Nigerian applicants submit financial evidence with the application: there is no “submit it later” shortcut.
– The old figures still quoted on many sites, £1,023/£1,334 and £1,136/£1,483 per month, are out of date. Do not plan with them.

UK student visa proof of funds: the exact amounts

The living-cost figures above come from paragraph ST 12.3 of Appendix Student of the Immigration Rules, via GOV.UK’s Student visa money page and financial-evidence guidance. Three details in the rule matter as much as the headline numbers.

London has a precise meaning: the City of London plus the 32 London boroughs. Reading, Coventry or Manchester are “outside London”; Croydon or Greenwich are in London. If part of your course is taught at a London campus, ask your university which rate applies before you fix your budget.

Nine months is a cap, not a standard charge. Multiply the monthly amount by your course length, up to nine months: a 12-month master’s uses the full nine months, a six-month course uses six. A part-month rounds up: six months and two weeks counts as seven months of funds.

The November change is triggered by your application date. Under HC 584 (laid 3 September 2026), applications made before 30 November 2026 are decided under the rules in force on 29 November 2026. So a student starting in January 2027 who applies in mid-November is assessed at £1,529/£1,171; the same student applying on 1 December must show £1,570/£1,203. The Home Office aligns this figure with home-student maintenance loans and reviews it yearly. Expect it to keep moving, and check it in the month you apply.

The dependant amounts

If you are one of the few students who can bring a partner or child (see “Bringing dependants” below), each dependant needs their own living-cost amount on top of yours: £845 per month in London or £680 per month outside London, for each month of the visa up to nine months, a maximum of £7,605 or £6,120 per dependant. These figures were not changed by HC 584.

The formula: fees, minus what you have already paid

The full calculation is:

Funds to show = course fees still unpaid on your CAS + living costs − any qualifying accommodation offset

Course fees. You must show the fees for one academic year (up to nine months of the course), as stated on your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS), which records the fee and any payment already made. A fee payment only reduces the amount you must show if it is confirmed on the CAS, or if you have a receipt issued by the university (ST 12.5). Check your CAS statement when it arrives and query any missing payment before you apply: a payment on neither document may not be credited.

The accommodation offset. If you have paid a deposit to your university for accommodation arranged by the university, that deposit can be taken off the living-cost amount you need to show, capped at £1,529 for applications before 30 November 2026, and £1,570 from that date (ST 12.4). Three limits catch people out:

1. The money must have been paid to the student sponsor (your university), for accommodation it arranged. Money held by, or paid to, a private landlord, a housing agent or a relative in the UK cannot be offset.
2. The offset comes off living costs only: it never reduces the course-fee element.
3. Only the amount up to the cap counts. Pay a £2,000 deposit today and you can offset £1,529, not £2,000.

Note on older guides: you will still see a £1,483 accommodation cap quoted widely. That was the previous cap. The current Immigration Rules text (ST 12.4) says £1,529.

From our editorial team: The CAS error applicants report to us most often is a tuition deposit paid by bank transfer that never appears on the first CAS statement. If your deposit is missing, ask the university to correct and reissue the CAS before you start your 28-day count: a CAS that understates what you have already paid inflates the amount you still need to show.

Worked examples

The tuition figures below are examples: your own fee is whatever your CAS states. Naira conversions use one stated rate: £1 = ₦1,785.37 (fx-rate.net GBP/NGN reference rate, 28 October 2026). Treat them as planning estimates only: UKVI converts naira funds at the OANDA spot rate on the day you apply, so hold a buffer above the converted figure.

Example 1: A 12-month master’s in London

Example tuition: £20,000 for the year, with a £5,000 deposit already paid and shown on the CAS. Unpaid fees: £15,000.

Application date	Unpaid fees	Living costs (9 months)	Total to hold for 28 days	Naira equivalent at £1 = ₦1,785.37
Before 30 Nov 2026	£15,000	£13,761	£28,761	≈ ₦51,349,027
On/after 30 Nov 2026	£15,000	£14,130	£29,130	≈ ₦52,007,828

If this student had also paid a £1,500 deposit to the university for university-arranged accommodation, the pre-November total falls by £1,500 (within the £1,529 cap) to £27,261 (≈ ₦48,670,972). Applying three days later than planned, across the 30 November line, would raise the requirement by £369, small in pounds, roughly ₦658,802 at the stated rate, and enough to fail the requirement if the account was funded to the old total.

Example 2: A 12-month master’s outside London

Example tuition: £16,500, with £4,000 paid and shown on the CAS. Unpaid fees: £12,500. The university is outside London.

Application date	Unpaid fees	Living costs (9 months)	Total to hold for 28 days	Naira equivalent at £1 = ₦1,785.37
Before 30 Nov 2026	£12,500	£10,539	£23,039	≈ ₦41,133,139
On/after 30 Nov 2026	£12,500	£10,827	£23,327	≈ ₦41,647,326

Example 3: A six-month course outside London

Shorter courses need fewer months of living costs. At six months, with (as an example) £8,000 of fees unpaid on the CAS: £8,000 + (6 × £1,171) = £15,026 before 30 November 2026, or £8,000 + (6 × £1,203) = £15,218 on or after that date. Your own figure is driven by course length; a dependant’s by the length of the visa.

The 28-day rule, explained properly

The 28-day rule is where most otherwise-strong applications fail, because it is really three rules working together:

1. The full required amount must be in the account for 28 consecutive days. Not an average balance, and not the balance on the final day only: the amount must not drop below the required total on any day in the period. One withdrawal, bank charge or failed transfer that takes you £1 below the line restarts the count from the day the balance recovers.
2. The 28 days are counted back from the closing balance on the most recent evidence you provide: your statement’s closing date is day 28 (or the period ends on that date).
3. That closing date must be no more than 31 days before the date you apply. A perfect 28-day period that ended six weeks ago does not work. In practice this means your sequence is: funds complete → wait 28 clean days → get your statement/letter → apply within 31 days of its closing date.

Work backwards from your course. To apply on 1 December 2026 (at the new figures), your money must be fully in place by early November, held clean through the 28 days, with a statement closing in November. If family money arrives in stages, count the 28 days from the day the last top-up brought the balance to the full required amount: money sitting below the total was not yet “the required funds”.

The exchange-rate trap for naira accounts. If your funds are in naira, UKVI converts them at the OANDA spot rate on your application date, not the rate on the day the money entered the account. If the naira weakens during your 28 days, an account that was sufficient on day 1 can be insufficient on application day. The practical defence is simple: hold a buffer. Our team’s working habit is to fund to the required total plus a margin, then re-check the converted value on the morning of application. In practice, fund to the required total plus roughly 10%: exchange rates move daily, and a margin is far cheaper than a refusal.

After you apply. Do not assume the money is free to spend once you submit. Under ST 12.7, if the funds on the decision date have fallen substantially below the required level, the decision maker must be satisfied the spending went on outstanding course fees, an accommodation deposit, or other course costs. Paying remaining tuition from the account fits the rule; emptying it on unrelated spending invites questions.

Two types of funding are not subject to the 28-day holding rule: a qualifying student loan and official financial sponsorship (ST 12.6). Those are proved by letter instead: see below.

Which accounts and evidence count

Accounts you can use

• Your own account: a personal bank or building society account (current, savings, or similar) that you control, allowing immediate access to the money.
• A parent’s or legal guardian’s account: allowed, and the route most Nigerian applicants use. You need two extras: evidence of your relationship (for example, your birth certificate naming the parent) and a signed consent letter from the parent/guardian confirming the relationship and giving permission for the money to be used for your studies in the UK. The account must be one they control, and the same 28-day and 31-day rules apply to their statements.
• A partner’s account: only if your partner is in the UK or applying at the same time as you.
• A joint account in your name with someone else, or several accounts combined, provided the total meets the requirement for the full period and each account holder is an eligible person above.

Accounts and assets you cannot use

• Anyone else’s account: an uncle, aunt, sibling, grandparent or family friend cannot hold the funds for you, however generous the offer. If family money is coming from a wider relative, it needs to be in your account or a parent’s/legal guardian’s account in good time for the 28-day period.
• Overdrafts and credit facilities.
• Cryptocurrency, stocks and shares, and pensions.
• Accounts at institutions not regulated in the country where the bank operates, or that do not keep electronic records.
• Money that was acquired illegally, or money you cannot access immediately.

Evidence formats (from GOV.UK’s financial-evidence guidance): bank statements (paper or electronic downloads), building society passbooks, certificates of deposit, or a letter from the bank or building society, showing the account holder’s name, the bank’s name and the amount. A certificate of deposit only works if the funds can be withdrawn immediately: a locked fixed deposit does not meet the immediate-access requirement. The Home Office may verify your evidence with your bank, and evidence it cannot verify can lead to refusal, so use statements your bank will confirm.

Loans and sponsorship instead of savings. A student loan must come from a government, a government-sponsored loan company, or a regulated academic/educational loans scheme. The loan letter must be dated within six months of your application, confirm the amount and that it is for you, state there are no conditions on release other than a successful application, and confirm the money will be available (or paid to your sponsor) before your course begins. Official financial sponsorship (from a national government or a university, for example) is proved by the sponsor’s letter (date, name and contact details, duration, and amount, or confirmation that all fees and living costs are covered), unless it is already recorded on your CAS. If a scholarship is your funding route, read our guide to fully funded scholarships for Africans before relying on an award letter alone, and budget separately for costs it does not cover, including the English test, where our breakdown of how much IELTS costs in Nigeria will help.

The Nigeria-specific points

You must submit evidence with your application. GOV.UK publishes a “differential evidence” list of nationalities who do not have to provide financial evidence upfront (they must still meet the requirement, and can be asked for the evidence later). We checked the full list on both GOV.UK pages on 28 October 2026: Nigeria is not on it. So for a Nigerian applicant there is no version of this process where the bank statements go in “if they ask”: they are part of the application from the start, and the 28-day period must already be complete when you submit.

Prepare parent-account paperwork early. The consent letter and relationship evidence are not last-minute documents. Get the birth certificate (or other relationship evidence) and the signed consent letter ready while the 28 days are running, so a paperwork delay does not push your application past your statement’s 31-day window, or across the 30 November figure change.

One exemption worth knowing. If you are already in the UK and applying to extend or switch, and you have lived in the UK with permission for 12 months or more on the application date, you meet the financial requirement without showing funds at all (ST 12.1). This does not help a first application from Nigeria, but it matters for students progressing from one UK course to another.

Bringing dependants: who can, and what it costs

Most students cannot bring dependants: better to know before you budget for them. For courses starting on or after 1 January 2024, Student dependants are limited to the partner/children of students on a PhD or other doctorate, or a research-based higher degree, and of government-sponsored students on courses of six months or more. A taught master’s, however long, does not by itself qualify.

If you are in one of those groups, budget £845 per month per dependant in London (£680 outside London, up to nine months) in addition to your own fees and living costs. The dependant money follows the same mechanics (held for 28 consecutive days ending within 31 days of the application) and can be held by you or by the dependant (for a child, the child’s other parent can also hold it), per UKCISA’s summary of the rules.

Your step-by-step funds checklist

1. Read your CAS. Note the total fee, what the CAS says you have paid, and the unpaid balance. Query any missing payment with the university immediately.
2. Fix your location figure. London or outside London, and check whether your application will fall before or after 30 November 2026.
3. Do the sum. Unpaid fees + (monthly figure × months of course, capped at 9, part-months rounded up) − any sponsor-arranged accommodation deposit you have paid (capped at £1,529 / £1,570). Add each dependant, if eligible.
4. Add a buffer if the money is in naira: the conversion uses the OANDA rate on application day.
5. Assemble the full amount in an eligible account (yours, or a parent’s/legal guardian’s). The 28-day clock starts only when the balance first reaches the full total.
6. Prepare the supporting documents while you wait: parent’s consent letter and relationship evidence, or your loan/sponsorship letter.
7. Hold for 28 clean days. Do not let the balance dip: watch bank charges and standing orders.
8. Get your evidence (statement, passbook, certificate of deposit or bank letter) showing the name, bank name and balance, with a closing date inside your application window.
9. Apply within 31 days of that closing date, and keep the funds intact afterwards until a decision, or be ready to show any spending went on your course costs.

From our editorial team: Bank documents take longer than applicants expect. A stamped statement is usually quick, but verification responses and corrected statements can take several working days. Start every bank request at least a week before you think you will need the document: the 28-day clock should be the last thing you are waiting on, not the first.

Common mistakes that cause refusals

1. Planning with old figures. Pages still ranking quote £1,023/£1,334 (pre-2025) or £1,136/£1,483 per month. Funding to those totals guarantees a shortfall of thousands of pounds.
2. Missing the 30 November step-up. An application prepared at £1,529/£1,171 but submitted on or after 30 November 2026 is £369 (London) or £288 (outside London) short at the nine-month cap, before any exchange-rate movement.
3. One bad day in the 28. A single dip below the total (a withdrawal, a charge, a transfer that left and came back) restarts the count. “It was only below for one day” is not a defence in the rules.
4. A stale statement. Evidence whose closing date is more than 31 days before the application date fails the window even if the 28 days themselves were perfect.
5. Money in the wrong person’s account. Funds held by an uncle, sibling or family friend do not count, nor does money in a business account.
6. Counting a private accommodation deposit. Only a deposit paid to your university for accommodation it arranged can be offset, and only up to the cap. Paying a London landlord early does not reduce what you must show.
7. Assuming a fee payment counts when the CAS does not show it. If the payment is not on the CAS and you have no university receipt, plan as if you still need to show that money.
8. No exchange-rate margin. Funding a naira account to the exact converted figure leaves your application exposed to 28 days of currency movement, judged at the application-day OANDA rate.
9. Spending the money after applying. A balance that falls substantially before the decision must be explained by course-related spending (ST 12.7). Treat the funds as committed until the visa is decided.

Frequently asked questions

How much bank balance is required for a UK student visa?
There is no single fixed balance. The amount is your unpaid course fees on your CAS plus living costs: £1,529 per month in London or £1,171 outside London, per month of your course up to nine months (£13,761 or £10,539 maximum). From 30 November 2026 the figures rise to £1,570 and £1,203 (£14,130 or £10,827). Each eligible dependant adds £845 or £680 per month, up to nine months.

What exactly is the 28-day rule for a UK student visa?
You must have held the full required amount for 28 consecutive days. The period is counted back from the closing balance date on your most recent evidence, the balance must never drop below the required amount during those 28 days, and the closing date must be no more than 31 days before you apply. Student loans and official financial sponsorship proved by letter are not subject to the 28-day holding rule.

Can I use my parent’s bank account as proof of funds?
Yes. A parent’s or legal guardian’s account is allowed, provided it is in their control, you provide evidence of your relationship (such as a birth certificate naming them), and they give a signed letter confirming the relationship and their permission for you to use the money. The same 28-day and 31-day rules apply to their statements.

Can I use my uncle’s, sibling’s or a family friend’s account?
No. Outside your own account, only a parent/legal guardian, or a partner who is in the UK or applying with you, can hold the funds. Money from other relatives needs to be moved into your account or a parent’s account early enough to complete its own clean 28-day period before you apply.

What happens if my balance drops below the required amount for one day?
The 28-day period breaks and starts again from when the balance returns to the full required amount. GOV.UK’s guidance is built on having “enough money for 28 days in a row”, and there is no allowance for a brief dip, whatever caused it.

Do Nigerian students have to submit bank statements with the application?
Yes. Some nationalities are on GOV.UK’s differential evidence list and do not provide financial evidence upfront (though they must still meet the requirement and can be asked later). Nigeria is not on that list (checked in full on 28 October 2026), so Nigerian applicants submit financial evidence with the application.

When do the new proof-of-funds amounts start: by course date or application date?
By application date. The Statement of Changes HC 584 takes effect on 30 November 2026, and applications made before that date are decided under the rules in force on 29 November 2026. A course starting in 2027 can still be assessed at the current £1,529/£1,171 figures if the application is made before 30 November 2026.

Can I use a fixed deposit or investment account?
Only if the money is in a personal account you (or an eligible holder) control and can be accessed immediately. GOV.UK’s list of what cannot be used includes overdrafts, cryptocurrency, stocks and shares and pensions, and the account must allow immediate access: a locked deposit you cannot withdraw from does not qualify, whatever its balance.

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Sources (all checked 28 October 2026): GOV.UK, “Student visa: Money you need”: https://www.gov.uk/student-visa/money · GOV.UK, “Financial evidence for Student and Child Student visa applicants”: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/financial-evidence-for-student-and-child-student-route-applicants · Immigration Rules, Appendix Student (ST 7.5, ST 12.1–12.7): https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-student · Statement of Changes HC 584, 3 September 2026, Implementation and APP ST8–ST10, with Explanatory Memorandum paras 5.43–5.45: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-changes-to-the-immigration-rules-hc-584-3-september-2026 · UKCISA, “Bringing your family to the UK”: https://www.ukcisa.org.uk/student-advice/visas-and-immigration/student-route-bringing-your-family/ · Naira conversions are worked examples at £1 = ₦1,785.37 (fx-rate.net, 28 October 2026); UKVI converts at the OANDA spot rate on the application date.

Planning your application around these dates? Start with our Fully Funded Scholarships for Africans 2027 list if funding is the gap, and join the SchoolCrib newsletter for a reminder when the proof-of-funds figures are next reviewed, they now move every year.