Reference
Student Visa Guide
The documents, the money and the interview — what every student visa application needs, and the mistakes that cause most refusals.
Last updated
An offer is not a visa. The admission decision looks at your transcript; the visa decision looks at your money, your intent and the consistency of your paperwork. Those are different tests, and a strong student can fail the second one entirely on documentation.
The universal checklist
- A valid passport with at least six months remaining beyond your intended entry date.
- The offer letter or enrolment confirmation from the institution.
- Academic transcripts and certificates, attested where the destination requires it.
- IELTS, PTE or TOEFL results issued within the last two years.
- Bank statements covering tuition plus the published living-cost figure for one year.
- A sponsor affidavit and income evidence, where a parent or relative is funding you.
- Health insurance or the destination's equivalent surcharge, paid before lodgement.
- A medical examination and, for the United Kingdom, a tuberculosis clearance certificate issued in Bangladesh.
Proof of funds is where files fail
Every destination publishes a maintenance figure and a holding period. The figure is easy to find; the holding period is what catches applicants out. Money that appears in an account three days before submission raises more questions than it answers, and an officer who cannot trace where it came from will treat it as borrowed for the application.
Work backwards from your intake date. If the destination requires funds held for 28 consecutive days, the account has to be at that level a full month before you plan to lodge — and every deposit into it needs an explanation you can evidence. Sale of land, a gratuity payment, a remittance from a relative abroad: all acceptable, all needing a document.
The credibility interview
Several destinations now interview applicants, either in person or over video. The questions are rarely hard, but they are specific: why this course, why this university, why not the same degree at home, who is paying, and what you intend to do afterwards. The officer is checking whether your answers match the documents in your file.
Read your own statement of purpose out loud a week before the appointment. If you no longer agree with it, or cannot explain a claim in it, that is exactly where the interview will go. We run free mock sessions once your offer is confirmed, and students consistently report that the mock was harder than the real thing.
Why applications get refused
- Funds below the threshold, or held for too short a period.
- Unexplained deposits in the sponsor's account.
- A study plan that does not follow from the applicant's academic history.
- Inconsistencies between the application form, the statement of purpose and the interview.
- Missing or expired English test results.
- A previous refusal that was not declared.
Most of these are fixable before submission and expensive to fix afterwards. Bring your documents to the office and let a counsellor go through them before anything is lodged — that review is free, and it is the single most useful hour in the whole process.
Next step
Bring your documents and we will read them with you
A counsellor goes through your transcripts, your English result and your funding line by line before anything is submitted. That review is free and it is the cheapest hour in the whole process.