Tier 4 student Visa - how to prove finances?

Hi,

My partner is hoping to move to the UK for 2 years (and hopefully longer if we can convert to another visa) to study under tier 4 on a masters.

The course will be part time over the 2 years and my partner will be living with me and working (no job set yet) the allowed max of 20 hours per week. I work full time.

The Visa asks us to prove that my partner can financially support themself. They plan to have about $10,000 in savings. Will this be enough? Does it need to be combined with a job offer for further financial stability?

Thanks!

Jill

Welcome to the forum .

There are very specific financial requirements that must be met to qualify for a Tier 4 visa.

Your partner will need to show she has access to:

- at least 1 year of international fees... these are usually between £15,000 and £20,000 for full-time study
AND
- at least 9 months of living costs. For studying outside London, the required amount is 9 months x £1,015 = £9,135 (if the course is in London it’s more like £11,000).

She must provide evidence of these funds in full, either by showing that she has held at least the total amount (about £25-30,000) in her bank account for a minimum amount of time, or by way of showing evidence of approved US loans for the course.


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Note that US applicants are considered Low Risk, so she isn’t required to actually provide the evidence of the funds with the visa application, but she MUST meet the requirements and be able to prove she has the money if they ask.

Have a read here of the Tier 4 policy guidance: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/843003/T4_Migrant_Guidance_October_2019.pdf

Has she already been accepted to study for a masters at the university?

She will need a Certificate of Sponsorship (CAS) for the visa issued by the university before she can apply for the visa. If the course starts in September, the CAS won’t usually be issued until around April time and the visa application is then usually submitted around May/June/July.


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Just re-reading your initial post... if she is studying part-time, she will NOT be allowed to work at all on her Tier 4 visa.

The 20 hours a week only applies to full time students, and not to part-time students.

From the Tier 4 Policy Guidance:





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One question:

Have you and your partner considered getting married instead of her getting a student visa and coming to live with you for 2 years first?

If you were to marry, and you (the U.K. sponsor) earn more than £18,600 per year, you could sponsor her for a fiancé or spousal visa and then she could move to the UK without needing to show £20,000+ in tuition and living costs.

If you were to marry in the US and apply for a spousal visa, she could work and study immediately upon arriving with no restrictions (but she would still have to pay international tuition fees if she was studying).

If you were to marry in the U.K., it would mean an extra visa to apply for - the fiancé visa (about £1000 more), and she would not be allowed to work, study or use the NHS for ‘free’ until you were married and her next visa had been granted after the wedding.


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Thank you, this is all super helpful.

We were not aware that you cannot work when studying a part-time masters. This may change things. Jen (btw, Jen uses the pronoun Jen and doesn't use she/her pronouns) does have enough money to pay for the course and will also have enough money to show one academic year of funds to live here, not two.

We have looked into the fiance visa but I work as a teaching assistant so only earn about £13k a year. I am wondering how I can up my income by £5k+ 

I will report all this information back and see what happens!

J

We have looked into the fiance visa but I work as a teaching assistant so only earn about £13k a year. I am wondering how I can up my income by £5k+ 

You can work as many jobs as it takes to make the requirement.

 If you do go down the partner route, getting married in the US and applying directly for a spouse visa is a much better way of doing it than the fiancee visa.

(btw, Jen uses the pronoun Jen and doesn't use she/her pronouns).

Thanks for letting me know - apologies for using she/her previously. I'll use Jen from now on (feel free to correct me if I slip up and use she/her by accident - sometimes I just write on autopilot without thinking) .

We were not aware that you cannot work when studying a part-time masters. This may change things. Jen (btw, Jen uses the pronoun Jen and doesn't use she/her pronouns) does have enough money to pay for the course and will also have enough money to show one academic year of funds to live here, not two.

I actually wasn't aware either until I checked the guidance when I was getting the link for it. I actually thought you weren't even allowed to get a Tier 4 visa for part-time studies, but I see now that you can study part-time if the course is masters-level or higher.

That's good that Jen has the money for the tuition and the required 9 months of living costs. However, if they already have that money, then I'm a little confused about what you were asking with your initial question about finances.

The only funds Jen needs to show are the tuition fees and £9,135 in living costs. Any other money held above that amount is irrelevant.

We have looked into the fiance visa but I work as a teaching assistant so only earn about £13k a year. I am wondering how I can up my income by £5k+ 

I mostly just suggested the fiance or spousal visa route in case Jen wasn't able to get enough money together for the Tier 4 visa (as your initial post implied that all they had was $10,000 ... which isn't enough to cover the tuition or the living costs).

But if Jen can afford the Tier 4 visa and you don't currently earn £18,600 or more, then maybe the fiance/spousal visa route won't be suitable for you at the moment.

If you were able to increase your income to meet the £18,600 requirement, you would need to be able to show either that you had been earning all of the income for at least 6 months (Category A)), or that you had earned a total of £18,600 in the previous 12 months (Category B), and you would also need to be able to guarantee that you would continue to earn that income for the foreseeable future (i.e. you can't just do one-off work to make it up, you would need to be able to show you will earn £18,600 every year in the future too)

You can work as many jobs as it takes to make the requirement.

 If you do go down the partner route, getting married in the US and applying directly for a spouse visa is a much better way of doing it than the fiancee visa.

Yes, I am investigating multiple jobs to make up the amount if we go down the spouse route in future - thanks for the tip on getting married in the US before we apply!

Thanks for letting me know - apologies for using she/her previously. I'll use Jen from now on (feel free to correct me if I slip up and use she/her by accident - sometimes I just write on autopilot without thinking) .

Thanks! I am sure Jen really appreciates that - no way of you knowing before hand!!

then I'm a little confused about what you were asking with your initial question about finances.

We didn't know the amounts before you answered the question. Jen will have about $10,000 to bring over here after all moving/visa/course/debt bills are paid off so we didn't know if that would be enough. Seems that for a full time course Jen will only need slightly more than that - which is great!

Thanks again for the information!!!

We didn't know the amounts before you answered the question. Jen will have about $10,000 to bring over here after all moving/visa/course/debt bills are paid off so we didn't know if that would be enough. Seems that for a full time course Jen will only need slightly more than that - which is great!

I'm afraid I'm still a little confused - Jen needs to be thinking of it in terms of the total amount required for the visa, which is the tuition plus the required £9,135 living costs. Moving, bills, debt payments should have nothing to do with how much they have available to show for the visa (i.e. the visa will be applied for before they pay any moving costs).

How much does Jen have in total that they can use for the visa requirements (i.e. how much will be in their bank account on the day they apply)?

$10,000 is only £7,683 as of today's exchange rate, which is about £1,500 short of the living cost requirement. Plus they will also need the first year of tuition on top of that, which I'd estimate is about £8,000 for part-time study (depends on the course, though).

So, that'll be about £17,000 (around $22,000) needed in total.

If Jen is not relying on loans to fund the course/living costs, then they will need to have held the entire amount (tuition plus living costs) in their bank account in full for a minimum of 28 days before applying for the visa. Those 28 days must end no more than 31 days before the visa application date.

11

So, that'll be about £17,000 (around $22,000) needed in total.

If Jen is not relying on loans to fund the course/living costs, then they will need to have held the entire amount (tuition plus living costs) in their bank account in full for a minimum of 28 days before applying for the visa. Those 28 days must end no more than 31 days before the visa application date.

I am not sure where the confusion is coming from...yes, Jen will have the amount of money you mention.

The information on holding the money for a minimum of 28 days before Visa application will be more of a challenge though. The money will come from a house sale and was not anticipated to be ready that early. We will definitely look into that,so thank you so much for sharing that info!

I am not sure where the confusion is coming from...yes, Jen will have the amount of money you mention.

My confusion is coming from the fact that you keep mentioning that Jen has $10,000, and I don’t really know why the focus is on that number specifically, because $10,000 alone does not meet the requirements, so saying they have it doesn’t really mean anything in relation to the visa.

The information on holding the money for a minimum of 28 days before Visa application will be more of a challenge though. The money will come from a house sale and was not anticipated to be ready that early. We will definitely look into that,so thank you so much for sharing that info!

That one is an absolute requirement. Although US applicants are not actually required to send their bank statements showing this, they still need to be able to prove they have held the money for 28 days if asked.

What date does Jen’s course start and when are they planning to apply for the visa? Can they hold off on applying for a while until it’s all sorted?



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Has Jen already paid money toward their course, or do they have all of the funds in savings right now?

My thought:  Jillosaurus makes ~£13k.  This is a 'shortfall' of £5600pa to sponsor a spouse visa.  The shortfall can be met with savings held for at least six months, by either the applicant or the sponsor...

5600 (the shortfall) * 2.5 (length of visa in years) + 16000 (first £16k of savings isn't counted) = £30,000 needed

If Jen has had ~£30k in savings (about $39k at today's rate) for the last six months (her tuition/fees/savings she's planning to spend on her course), that would make up for the income insufficiency. Once they come over on a spouse visa, they will have the right to work (unlimited hours!), and their wages can go toward meeting future visa applications.

This would necessitate getting married, which means you can't trial living together first.  But lots of us have rushed things along (or got married when we don't even support the concept of marriage) for the sake of a visa to allow us to be together at all.  It's a strange club, but you're welcome to join us!

Edited to add:  I missed the bit about the money coming from a house sale.  If they have owned the house for at least six months, the proceeds of the sale can be counted as savings for the visa application.  So don't let the six-month savings requirement stop you!

My confusion is coming from the fact that you keep mentioning that Jen has $10,000, and I don’t really know why the focus is on that number specifically, because $10,000 alone does not meet the requirements, so saying they have it doesn’t really mean anything in relation to the visa.

I can see why that caused you confusion,I understood (incorrectly) that the course would be paid for prior to the Visa peeps needing proof of finances so was only focused on living expenses. From the house sale jen will have way more than the total amount you mention so again, I can confirm we will have the money.

The 28 days matter is what we are now looking into.

Thanks again.