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Student Visa Proof of Funds by Country: What Each One Asks You to Show
The requirement is never just a number
Every destination asks you to prove money, but each defines the proof differently: a blocked account in one country, a 28-day holding clock in another, a figure printed on your admission document in a third. This guide walks the main destinations using the figures in this site's own country guides, so the numbers match the checklists elsewhere on the blog. Read it beside the requirements checklist if you are assembling documents now; read it a year early if you are still choosing where to apply, because several of these proofs have to age before they count.
Germany, Canada and the United Kingdom: three different machines
Germany runs on the blocked account: 11,208 euros for a year, deposited before the visa is decided, released monthly after arrival; the visa fee itself is small, and the account is the real cost. Canada prices the proof as a living-funds rule, CAD 22,895 on top of tuition for a single applicant, with modest application costs (CAD 150 permit plus CAD 85 biometrics). The United Kingdom combines a fee (490 pounds), a health surcharge (776 pounds a year, so 2,328 pounds across a three-year degree) and a maintenance rule priced by location: 1,529 pounds a month in London, 1,171 outside, for up to nine months, with the money held for 28 consecutive days before you apply. Australia's headline is its fee, AUD 2,500 since July 2026, the most expensive student visa fee on earth.
The United States: the I-20 carries the number
The United States does not publish one funds figure; your school does. The I-20 lists the first year's costs and the funding that covers them, and the officer's funding questions test whether your documents and your story match that page. The cash you spend applying is fixed instead: $185 application fee plus $350 SEVIS, $535 before the interview. It is why the funding dimension in interview practice is scored on consistency as much as on wealth.
Prepare the proof early, then practice explaining it
The pattern across all five: the proof must exist before the application, and in the United Kingdom and Germany it must also be old enough. Start the money a season ahead, keep the paper trail in one folder, and then practice saying it out loud in the Visa Interview Simulator, where funding is one of the five scored dimensions. Country fees and timelines are compared across this blog's guides, indexed on the search page.
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