Reviewed by the finduni team · Last verified 16 September 2026 · Sources: GOV.UK: Student visa, money you need, Home Office: Student and Child Student caseworker guidance, Home Office: Student sponsor guidance, sponsorship duties
Why finance comes up
Your university has to be satisfied you are a genuine student, and its sponsor duty says: A university sponsoring students must do all it can to ensure prospective students are genuine students who can comply with the Immigration Rules. A student who cannot pay for the course and living costs is unlikely to complete it, so almost every pre-CAS interview asks about money.
The interviewer is not only checking that funds exist. They want to see that you understand where the money comes from and that your answers match the documents you sent.
The Home Office living-cost rule
Your Student visa application must show you can pay your course fees and your living costs. The living-cost part is set by the Home Office, and universities often check it before issuing a CAS:
| Where you will study | Living costs per month | Months counted |
|---|---|---|
| London | £1,529 | Up to 9 |
| Outside London | £1,171 | Up to 9 |
The money must have been held for at least 28 consecutive days, and that 28-day period must end within 31 days of the date you apply for your visa. Course fees are on top of this; your CAS and offer letter show what your university says you still owe.
Your university may have its own rules about which bank accounts, loans or documents it accepts, and they can be stricter than the visa rule. Check its international admissions pages or ask the admissions team.
Questions you may be asked
| Question | What the interviewer checks |
|---|---|
| Who is sponsoring your studies? | That you know the sponsor and your relationship to them |
| What does your sponsor do? | That the income is real and matches the evidence |
| Where did the money in the account come from? | The source of funds, such as salary, business income, savings or a loan |
| How long has the money been in the account? | That you understand the held-funds rule |
| How much are your tuition fees, and how much have you paid? | That you know your own costs from your offer and CAS paperwork |
| How much will you need to live on each month? | That you understand the living costs where you will study |
| What happens if your costs go up? | That you have thought about the budget, not just the minimum |
Know your sponsor
If a parent, relative or another person is paying, you should be able to talk about them without reading from a paper:
- Their name and relationship to you.
- What they do for work or what business they run, in plain words.
- Roughly how they built the savings or arranged the funds.
- Why they are willing to support your study.
You do not need to recite exact balances from memory. You do need to know the broad picture and to describe it the same way your documents do.
Source of funds and consistency
- Match your documents. If your sponsor letter says the money is from farming income, do not describe it in the interview as salary.
- Explain large deposits. If money arrived in an account recently, be ready to say where it came from, such as a property sale, a loan or a family transfer, and have the paperwork.
- Do not overstate. Claiming more support than your documents show creates an inconsistency.
- Know any loan. If an education loan is part of your funding, know who issued it and what it covers.
A clear way to answer
An illustrative structure, to fill with your own facts: say who is paying, what they do, where the money is held and where it came from, and how long it has been there. For example: "My father is paying. He runs a hardware business in Pokhara. The funds are in his savings account and come from the business income over several years." Use your own details, never these.
Practise saying it out loud until it sounds natural. The finduni.ai mock interview includes finance questions with feedback on each answer. For the other topics, see pre-CAS interview questions and pre-CAS course questions.