Every figure on this page was checked against gov.uk in July 2026, and the guidance is free, with no commissions. Just the process, in order, the way the Home Office actually runs it.
NISAU is not authorised to advise on individual immigration matters, and nothing published by NISAU should be treated as advice on your case. For advice specific to your circumstances, consult an adviser regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA, formerly OISC) or a solicitor qualified in UK immigration law. We are not agents. We don't take commissions. This guidance is free, and it always will be.
Apply online at gov.uk up to 6 months before your course starts, using the CAS issued by your university. Show funds held for 28 consecutive days, pay the £558 fee and £776 per year health surcharge, and complete biometrics in India. Most decisions arrive within 3 weeks, issued as an eVisa.
The Student visa is the route almost every Indian student takes to a UK degree. It is points based and sponsor led. A university holding a Home Office licence offers you a place, issues an electronic reference called a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies, and that CAS becomes the spine of your application. You prove your identity, your money and your English, pay the fee and the health surcharge, and the Home Office decides. The outcome now arrives as an eVisa, a digital record of your status linked to your passport. There is no sticker in your passport and no card in the post.
If you are reading this in India, you have probably already met conflicting information: a WhatsApp forward claiming the funds rule was scrapped, or a promise that the visa can be guaranteed for a fee. No one can guarantee a visa. The rules are public, published on gov.uk, and you can do every step of this yourself; a good adviser will tell you the same.
That is why this page exists. We are not agents. We don't take commissions. This guidance is free, and it always will be.
Sources: [1]
You cannot start the online form in any meaningful way until these are in hand. Gather them in this order.
This is where most applications go wrong, so here are the government's own numbers, checked in July 2026.
The funds can be in your own account or a parent's. If they are in a parent's account you will also need your birth certificate and a signed letter confirming you may use the money. Education loans from regulated lenders and official financial sponsorship are accepted too, with the right paperwork. What is not accepted is fabricated evidence. The Home Office verifies documents, and a deception finding carries consequences that outlast any single application.
Sources: [2] [3]
There is no visa sticker to admire and no biometric residence permit to collect. BRPs are gone; your eVisa in your UKVI account is your immigration status, and the account matters more than any document you will carry. Check that your name, date of birth and visa dates are correct, and if you renew your passport later, update the account before you fly.
You can travel to the UK up to 1 month before your course starts if your course is longer than 6 months, but not before the start date shown on your visa. Book flights after the decision, not before. Every year students book non-refundable tickets on an assurance that the visa is 'basically done'. It is done when the eVisa appears in your account, and not a minute earlier.
What happens after you land, from opening a bank account to registering with a GP, is its own subject. We have written it up in our guide to your first 100 days in the UK.
Sources: [1] [5]
Most refusals are boring, and that is good news, because boring problems are preventable. The single biggest one is money: funds that dipped below the threshold for a day, statements that closed more than 31 days before the application, money that appeared in a lump the week before applying with no explanation. The 28-day rule is mechanical. Caseworkers do not weigh intentions, they count days.
The second cluster is credibility. Students who cannot explain their own course choice, or whose study plan reads like it was written by someone else. If your statement is not in your own words, an interview will surface it. The fix is not clever, it is honest: know your own plan.
The third is deception, and this one is not recoverable in the way the others are. A fabricated bank letter or a doctored document does not just refuse one application, it can bring a re-entry ban that follows you for years. If anyone offers to 'arrange' documents that are not real, walk away.
If you are refused, read the refusal letter slowly. It must set out the reasons. Most refused students can fix the specific problem, get a fresh CAS and reapply for the next intake. Panic reapplications with the same flaw fail the same way.
Sources: [3] [10]
Every figure on this page traces to the sources below, accessed and verified on 12 July 2026. Numbered references [n] appear under the sections they support.
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