Study in the UKStudent Visa Guidance from Jalandhar

Information on this page was checked against official UK Government sources on 22 October 2026. Reviewed by Mandeep Sandhu, Sandhu Overseas, Jalandhar. Next scheduled review: January 2027. Two UK rules change inside the next ten weeks — both are marked below. Always confirm on the gov.uk page linked beside each point before you act.

Why students from Jalandhar look at the UK

The UK is the shortest route to a recognised master’s degree that we deal with. A taught postgraduate course is usually one year rather than two, which changes the arithmetic completely: less tuition, fewer months of living costs, and a graduate work permit a year sooner than most other destinations. For a student from Doaba who already has a three-year bachelor’s degree, that compression is the whole appeal.

It comes with a trade-off that nobody in Jalandhar explains clearly enough. Since January 2024 a one-year taught master’s carries no right to bring a spouse or children. If you are married and your plan depends on your partner coming with you, the UK is a different conversation from Canada or Australia, and it is better to have that conversation before you pay a deposit than after.

What is changing, and when

Everything in this table is already in the Immigration Rules. None of it is a prediction.

Sources: Statement of Changes HC 584 · Appendix Graduate · Appendix Student.

Money you must show, and the 28-day rule

The UK does not ask for a lump sum in the abstract. It asks for a specific amount, held for a specific length of time, ending within a specific window. More Jalandhar applications fail on the timing of the money than on the amount of it.

You must cover up to nine months of living costs at that rate, plus any outstanding course fees for one academic year as stated on your CAS. Part months round up. If you have already paid an accommodation deposit to your university, it can be offset against the living-costs figure up to a capped amount.

• The money must sit in the account for 28 consecutive days
• The end of that 28-day period must fall within 31 days of the date you apply
• Bank funds, a student or education loan, and official sponsorship letters are all accepted evidence
• If you have already lived in the UK on a visa for at least 12 months, you are exempt from proving funds and course fees

Official source: gov.uk — Student visa: money you need. Amounts change; confirm the current figures before you move money.

English: what the UK actually requires

You must demonstrate all four skills — reading, writing, speaking and listening. Where the university assesses you itself, it has to say so on your CAS and state the method it used. Where a test is required, the CAS must carry the test provider, the unique reference number and your score in each component.

Official source: gov.uk — Knowledge of English. Our IELTS guide covers test preparation.

Check your college is a licensed student sponsor

A UK institution can only issue you a CAS if it holds a sponsor licence. The Home Office publishes the register of licensed sponsors and updates it almost daily. That register is the only official way to check — gov.uk offers no other method, and no agent’s assurance substitutes for looking.

Two things follow from your sponsor’s status, and they matter more than most students realise. Your right to work 20 hours a week, your ability to switch to a Skilled Worker visa before your course ends, and your eligibility for the Graduate route all depend on being sponsored by a higher education provider with a track record of compliance. A college on probationary standing is not the same thing. Since June 2026 sponsors must also keep their visa refusal rate below 5% and enrol at least 95% of the students they issue a CAS to, which has put a number of smaller providers under real pressure.

Official source: Register of licensed sponsors: students.

What you will need

Our visa document checklist covers the general paperwork most applications need.

How the application works, step by step

Official source: gov.uk — Student visa. Fee and Immigration Health Surcharge amounts change regularly; we do not publish them here, and neither should anybody else without a date on them.

Working while you study

An assessed work placement that forms an integral part of your course is allowed on top of this. What is never allowed, at any level: self-employment or running a business, work as a professional sportsperson — which expressly includes working as a sports coach — work as an entertainer, filling a permanent full-time vacancy, and claiming public funds. The 20-hour limit is a weekly cap, not an average, and breaching it is a breach of your visa conditions rather than an employment matter.

Official source: Immigration Rules, Appendix Student (paragraph ST 26).

After you graduate: the Graduate route

The Graduate route is an open work permit. You do not need a job offer, you are not tied to an employer, and you may be self-employed. You can get it once.

To qualify you must be inside the UK when you apply, hold Student permission, have successfully completed the course, and have been sponsored by a higher education provider with a track record of compliance. Your university must also have told the Home Office that you finished — your application cannot be decided before that notification lands, which is why graduates sometimes wait on their own institution. If your course ran longer than twelve months you must have studied at least twelve of them in the UK; if it was twelve months or shorter, you must have done the whole course in the UK.

The Graduate route cannot be extended. Most people use it to find skilled work and then switch to the Skilled Worker route from inside the UK.

Official source: gov.uk — Graduate visa.

Can your husband, wife or children come with you?

For most Jalandhar applicants the honest answer is no, and it is better to hear it now. For courses starting on or after 1 January 2024, only these students may bring dependants:

• Students on a PhD, other doctorate, or a research-based higher degree of nine months or longer
• Government-sponsored students on a course longer than six months

A taught one-year master’s — the most common UK choice from Punjab — does not qualify. Nor does an undergraduate degree. A dependant is a husband, wife, civil partner or unmarried partner, or a child under 18 who is unmarried and lives with you.

Where dependants are permitted, they may work and be self-employed, with one express exclusion: no work as a professional sportsperson or sports coach. They may also study, subject to an ATAS certificate where one is needed after they turn 18. They have no access to public funds. If your family situation is the deciding factor in where you study, read our UK dependent visa and UK spouse visa pages, and let us map the options against the current rules before you commit.

Official sources: gov.uk — your partner and children · Appendix Student, paragraphs ST 31 and ST 39.

If your application is refused

Start by separating two different outcomes. An application can be rejected as invalid — the wrong form, an unpaid fee or health surcharge, no biometrics, no passport, or a CAS more than six months old — in which case it is never considered at all. That is different from a refusal.

Where an application is refused, the Immigration Rules set out the grounds. The ones that affect students most often are:

• Deception — refusal is mandatory where the Home Office is satisfied deception was used
• False representations or false documents — and this applies whether or not the false material was relevant, and whether it came from you or from someone acting for you
• Failing to provide information, attend an interview, give biometrics or undergo a medical examination without a reasonable excuse
• Previous breaches of immigration law, including overstaying, with re-entry bans running from 12 months to 10 years
• Unpaid NHS charges of £500 (approx. ₹62,400) or more, and certain criminal convictions

The remedy for a refusal is administrative review, not an appeal. Applying from outside the UK you have 28 days from the decision; from inside the UK, 14 days. There is a fee, and gov.uk warns that a review can take twelve months or more. A review is treated as withdrawn, with no refund, if you make another application, ask for your passport back to travel, or leave the UK. Your refusal letter states which remedy is open to you — read it before doing anything else, including reapplying.

Official sources: Immigration Rules, Part Suitability · Ask for a visa administrative review. Our visa interview guide covers credibility interviews.

Starting your UK application from Jalandhar

The UK file is less about volume of paperwork than about sequence. The CAS has a six-month clock, the money has a 28-day clock that must close within 31 days of applying, and from 30 November the amount itself changes. Those three clocks have to be lined up before anything is submitted, and that is most of what we do on a UK case.

One more thing worth saying plainly. Jalandhar has a great many immigration offices and the quality varies enormously. Whoever you work with, ask them to show you the gov.uk page behind any rule they quote. Every figure on this page carries its link for that reason.

How Sandhu Overseas helps

We are an immigration and visa consultancy in Jalandhar. We are not part of the Home Office, we do not represent UKVI, and no consultancy can guarantee a visa. What we can do is make sure the file is complete, current and internally consistent, and that you understand each requirement before you spend money against it.

Other UK services from our Jalandhar office

This page covers the Student visa. If your UK plan takes a different route, these pages go into each one:

Frequently asked questions