Student Visa Refusal Guide

A refusal letter names the requirement that was not met and the rule it comes from. This guide sets out the requirements a Student application is decided against, what an administrative review is and is not, and the published deadlines, fees and timings.

Checked 16 March 20269 min readWritten by the Rowan Editorial Team

Section: Student & Graduate
Reading time: 9 min
Last checked: 16 March 2026
Source: The published Immigration Rules and GOV.UK guidance, linked throughout this guide.
Rowan does not: Look at your own case, tell you which route to choose, or say what the Home Office will decide. This guide shows the published rules and where to read them.

In short

The refusal letter names the requirement and the rule paragraph. Start there.
A Student refusal does not normally carry a right of appeal.
Administrative review: 28 days to apply from outside the UK, 14 days from inside, 7 days if detained. It costs £80.
GOV.UK says an administrative review can currently take 12 months or more.
Making a new application cancels a review request; the two cannot run together.
Previous refusals must be declared on later applications.

This guide covers the requirements a Student visa application is assessed against, how to read a refusal letter, the published rules on administrative review — the deadline, the £80 fee, and that no new evidence can be added — and what applies if you make a fresh application instead.

Common Refusal Reasons

A Student visa application is decided against the requirements in Appendix Student of the Immigration Rules. Rowan does not publish refusal rates, and GOV.UK does not publish a ranking of refusal reasons, so no reason below is more or less likely than another. These are the requirements a refusal is written against:

The financial requirement. Outstanding course fees for the first academic year plus living costs for up to 9 months, normally held for 28 days in a row, evidenced as Appendix Finance requires. See our financial requirements guide.
A valid Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies. The Home Office guidance says a caseworker must refuse an application made with an invalid one: issued more than 6 months before the application, already used in an application that was granted or refused, withdrawn or cancelled, or missing the mandatory information.
The English language requirement. See our English language guide.
The genuine student requirement. A caseworker may interview an applicant and must be satisfied they are a genuine student who intends to study the course.
Course-specific documents. A tuberculosis test certificate where your country requires one, and an Academic Technology Approval Scheme certificate where the course requires one.
Suitability. Part Suitability of the Immigration Rules covers matters such as deception in an application and previous breaches of immigration law.

Understanding Your Refusal Letter

When an application is refused you receive a refusal letter, also called a reasons for refusal letter. It sets out:

Which requirement(s) you failed to meet
The specific immigration rule paragraph under which you were refused
What evidence was considered
Your options (administrative review or reapplication)

The letter is the only record of the reasoning in your case, and it is what any next step is built on. It also states whether you can ask for an administrative review.

Administrative Review

An administrative review asks the Home Office to check whether it made a case working error in the decision. It looks at the evidence that was already before the decision maker: you cannot use it to send documents you did not send with the application. Your decision letter tells you whether you can ask for one.

The published rules are:

Deadline: 28 days from getting the decision if you are outside the UK and applied from outside; 14 days if you are in the UK; 7 days if you were detained when you got the decision
Fee: £80
How long it takes: GOV.UK says it can currently take 12 months or more. If there is no decision within 6 months, the Home Office will contact you with an update
Second reviews: you cannot ask for one, unless the first review found new reasons for refusal. The decision letter says if you can
If you apply for something else: a review request is withdrawn if you make any other immigration or visa application, and a review request made after a new application is rejected
Withdrawing: you can email the Home Office to withdraw the request. The fee is not refunded

Reapplying After Refusal

A new application is a fresh application: a new fee, a new healthcare surcharge, and a fresh decision against the same requirements. The Immigration Rules set no waiting period after a refusal. The points that follow from the rules are:

Each refusal names a requirement. The same requirement will be assessed again in the new application
A Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies used in an application that was refused cannot be used again, so a new application needs a new one from your sponsor
The financial requirement is assessed afresh, including the 28-day holding period, against the date of the new application
Previous refusals must be declared. Not declaring one is deception under Part Suitability of the Immigration Rules
A new application cancels any administrative review request you have made

Regulated Immigration Advice

Rowan publishes information, not advice on your case. Anyone giving immigration advice in the UK for a fee must be regulated: by the Immigration Advice Authority — the body that replaced the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner on 16 January 2025 — or by a legal regulator such as the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the Law Society of Scotland, the Law Society of Northern Ireland or the Bar Standards Board.

Our guide on immigration solicitor costs sets out what advisers charge, and applying yourself or using a solicitor sets out what each involves. For refusals on other routes, see our visa refused guide.

Next Steps

The deadlines run from the date you get the decision: 28 days from outside the UK, 14 days inside it, 7 days if you were detained. Your refusal letter names the requirement, the rule paragraph, and whether a review is open to you.

Related guides:

For official information, see the GOV.UK Student visa page and the GOV.UK visas and immigration hub.

Questions and answers

Why was my Student visa refused?

Your refusal letter names the requirement you did not meet and the paragraph of the Immigration Rules it comes from. The requirements a Student application is refused against include the financial requirement, the English language requirement, the validity of the Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies, and the suitability rules. Read the letter first: it is the only reliable account of what happened in your case.

Can I appeal a Student visa refusal?

A Student visa refusal does not normally carry a right of appeal. Your decision letter tells you whether you can ask for an administrative review, which is a review of whether the decision was correct on the evidence already provided. Making a new application cancels a review request, so the two cannot run at the same time.

What is the difference between reapplying and asking for a review?

An administrative review asks the Home Office to check whether it applied the rules correctly to the evidence you already sent; you cannot add new evidence, it costs £80, and GOV.UK says it can currently take 12 months or more. A new application is a fresh application with a fresh fee, and you can include evidence you did not send before. Making a new application cancels any review request.

Does a Student visa refusal affect future applications?

You must declare previous refusals on later UK visa applications. A refusal on its own is not a ground for refusing a later application, but the Immigration Rules on suitability do treat deception, and some previous breaches of immigration law, as grounds for refusal.

This guide is general information about published immigration rules. It is not advice about an individual application under s.82 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and Rowan is not regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority. Immigration rules change several times a year. For advice on a particular situation, contact an adviser authorised by the Immigration Advice Authority or an immigration solicitor. Always check GOV.UK for the authoritative current rules.

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