Table Of Contents
- Financial proof required for a UK visitor visa
- If you are using your own funds
- If you have a sponsor
- Let’s summarise
When applying for a UK visitor visa, you must have access to sufficient resources to maintain and accommodate yourself and any dependents for the whole of your planned stay in the UK. There is no fixed level of funds you are required to show. At the border, you may be asked where you will be staying in the UK and also asked for evidence that you have access to funds to cover the costs you are likely to incur during your visit.
When assessing your application, caseworkers will go through the information you provided in your application form, along with any financial evidence you submitted, to determine whether you meet the financial requirements. They will assess the expected expenses of your visit and consider the income or funds that you will continue to have access to during your visit to the UK.
Additionally, they examine your existing financial responsibilities in your home country, such as rent or mortgage obligations, as well as any dependents you financially support — including family members who will not be travelling with you.
Your income/savings, minus your financial commitments, must be enough to meet the likely costs you will incur on your visit to the UK and be reasonable expenditure in light of your financial situation. Where you provide documents showing that you have sufficient funds for your planned stay, but either most or all of these funds have not been held in your account for long, there may be further checks to establish the origin of this money.
Any funds you rely upon to demonstrate that you have sufficient funds must be held in a permitted financial institution—for example, any form of personal bank.
Financial proof required for a UK visitor visa
You must prove that you will be financially able to maintain and accommodate yourself and any dependents for the whole stay in the UK without using public funds, or you will be funded by someone else (known as ‘sponsor’).
Similarly, you must also prove that you have enough funds to pay the cost of your return or onward journey and the cost of any planned activities, such as private medical treatment, without using public funds, or you will be sponsored by someone else.
1. If you are using your own funds
You must produce financial documents showing that you have sufficient funds available. These documents must clearly show that you have access to the funds, such as:
- bank statements detailing the origin of the funds held
- building society books detailing the origin of the funds held
- proof of earnings, such as a letter from your employer which confirms employment details (employment start date, salary, role, contact details of the company)
Your electronic bank statements or passbooks are not required to be stamped on each page or accompanied by a supporting letter.
You would normally be expected to show a banking record or building society record to:
- be an electronic record or on official stationery
- be electronic (not hand-written) or printed
- include the name of account holder (s)
- include the account number and the date of the statement
- include information about the bank, such as its contact details or a branch code
- show transactions and funds/amount held over time (this is not the norm in all countries)
Financial Institutions
Financial institutions’ funds will not be counted if you have held them in a financial institution where any of the following apply:
- The decision maker cannot undertake satisfactory verification checks; or
- The institution is not regulated by the appropriate regulatory body for the country in which it is operating; or
- The institution does not use electronic record keeping
If the institution does not meet these requirements, your funds will not be considered in assessing the financial requirement, and your application may be refused for this reason.
2. If you have a sponsor
In assessing whether you have enough sufficient, a third party (also known as ‘sponsor’) may provide your maintenance, accommodation, and travel costs but only if that third party has a genuine personal or professional relationship with you, is not, or will not be, in breach of UK’s immigration laws at the time of the decision or your entry to the UK as a visitor, and can and will provide support to you for the intended duration of your stay in the UK as a visitor.
In case you are being sponsored, the bank statement should be accompanied by a signed copy of the sponsor’s passport and signed sponsorship letter.
In case a third party is covering the cost of your maintenance, travel, or accommodation, you should provide evidence showing:
- What support are you being provided, and whether the support extends to any dependent family members
- How this support is being provided
- The sponsor has sufficient funds to support themselves and their dependents adequately
- The relationship between you and the sponsor, for example, if they are your employer or a family member
- The sponsor is legally in the UK (if applicable), for example, if they hold a British passport or have a residence document
Let’s summarise
You must meet a financial requirement for a UK visitor visa. You must have sufficient funds for your travel, maintenance, accommodation, and other planned activities such as private medical treatment. You cannot access public funds to meet the financial requirements.
You can also be sponsored by a third party to cover your costs, provided you have a personal or professional relationship with them.
You will be required to produce UK visitor visa financial proof. Even though there is no set level of funds required, you must have enough funds held in a permitted financial institution.
If someone is sponsoring you, the bank statement should be accompanied by a signed copy of the sponsor’s passport and a signed sponsorship letter.
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