Maintenance Funds Mistake: Tier 4 Visa

Hello! I have a question. I submitted a Tier 4 application from the United States a few days ago. Unfortunately, the school informed me that I had made a mistake on my form AFTER I sent it out. The school representative said they could not look at the application I had submitted, but then they did! Anyway, I wrote the wrong amount of money in the maintenance funds section because requirements changed on July 1. The funds I listed were too low, by about 130 pounds.

HOWEVER, I also provided an official document to prove that I have sufficient funds, even after the recent changes. So if they look at my application separately from my document, they could easily reject me. If they actually look at the loan letter I provided, I should be fine. Has anyone done this before? The consulate keeps telling me I can't change anything now. Do you know how likely it is to be rejected, accepted, or delayed? I don't know if the United States being a "low-risk" country makes any difference.

Hello! I have a question. I submitted a Tier 4 application from the United States a few days ago. Unfortunately, the school informed me that I had made a mistake on my form AFTER I sent it out. The school representative said they could not look at the application I had submitted, but then they did!

How did your school manage to get access to your application? I thought the applicant was the only person who could see your visa application online... you would have to sign into your online account to get to it.

Not even the consulate sees your online application I don't think - the only version they see is the one you print out and send to them in the mail.

Anyway, I wrote the wrong amount of money in the maintenance funds section because requirements changed on July 1. The funds I listed were too low, by about 130 pounds.

What amount did you write? I didn't actually realise that the requirements had gone up.

Last I looked, it was £9,000 for studying in Inner London and £7,200 everywhere else. The new figures are £9,180 for Inner London and £7,380 outside Inner London - so I'm guessing you were actually £180 out.

HOWEVER, I also provided an official document to prove that I have sufficient funds, even after the recent changes. So if they look at my application separately from my document, they could easily reject me. If they actually look at the loan letter I provided, I should be fine. Has anyone done this before? The consulate keeps telling me I can't change anything now. Do you know how likely it is to be rejected, accepted, or delayed? I don't know if the United States being a "low-risk" country makes any difference.

If you provided the evidence you may well be okay, because they will be able to see that you do have the money and that it was just a mistake on the form (if you had noticed before mailing it, you could have just crossed it out and written the correct amount beside it and it would have been fine). Also, if they have any queries about it, they may contact you for further evidence.

As you're from a low risk country you actually didn't need to provide any evidence of your finances at all. However, it's probably a good thing you did, because they will be able to see that you do in fact have more money than you stated on the form.

It's correct that you can't change anything now, so all you can do is wait and see what happened. (although how did you contact the consulate? The only way to contact anyone is to call the expensive helpline and they're not at the consulate and are pretty useless anyway as they have no access to your application details).

Thank you for your reply! I downloaded my application form when printing it. From there, I was able to upload it to the school's international queries form. I wrote 7,200 pounds on the form, so you're right about being 180 pounds short. I didn't remember the number off the top of my head.

I contacted the consulate through their online email form. It's a very short form, and I don't always hear back from them. So I keep sending them messages until I do. The answers are fairly vague, but I have received answers. I've heard horror stories about the expensive help line, so I haven't even bothered with that, especially since I could barely afford it.

I do feel a bit encouraged at your answer because I have been nearly sleepless since I realized my mistake. X_X

Thank you for your reply! I downloaded my application form when printing it. From there, I was able to upload it to the school's international queries form.

Ah, okay - didn't realise that was something that could be done.

I contacted the consulate through their online email form. It's a very short form, and I don't always hear back from them. So I keep sending them messages until I do. The answers are fairly vague, but I have received answers. I've heard horror stories about the expensive help line, so I haven't even bothered with that, especially since I could barely afford it.

My advice: stop trying to contact them. That online email form is not seen by anyone at the consulate (it's sent to their commercial partner, HGS UK, who have no access to your application) and so I'm not sure there's much point in continuing to email them.

It's only a small mistake that you've made and to be honest, I don't know that it will be an issue anyway. Proving you have the money is more important than the number on the form anyway.

All you can do is wait and see if:
a) they contact you to query it
and/or
b) they approve or refuse the visa.

If they do refuse it (which I think is pretty unlikely), you'll just have to apply again with the correct number written on the form.

Honestly though, you're from a low risk country and normally they don't even need to see the evidence of funds in order to approve the visa, so I don't think it will be much of an issue... plus the fact that you did send the evidence is good, as it means they can already see it and won't have to ask you for it.

Thank you again for your response. It's helped put me at ease! I'll just have to see what happens. If it is approved and I continue onto the UK, I will probably be visiting this message board from time to time, hehe.

Because the US is a low-risk nation the maintenance funds really do not come into play when considering your visa.  Not only that but with the daily fluctuation in the USD to GBP exchange being off by £180 is not going to make them deny your visa application.  When I applied I only submitted a print screen of my monthly statement for the previous 3 months so they didn't actually know what was currently in my account at the time anyway!

Good luck