Verifying UK bank account balance in US Dollars

mamps

Hi.
I am moving to the U.S. to study and I have to supply a bank statement verifying my balance in U.S. Dollars to support my application for an I-20 form. I have asked my banks (Nationwide & Barclays) if they can do this, however I have been told that as it is a UK bank account, the balance can only be verified in Pound Sterling. Does anyone know of any certified agencies that can verify the exchange rate and/or convert my balance into US Dollars? Or if you know of an alternative solution, please let me know asap.
Thanks you!

chambta

Why can't they work it out themselves? I've never had this request at the bank I work for an I doubt any bank would be able to assist.

The problem is you're asking for what may appear straightforward but is in fact impossible.

ms29zippy

Yeah unfortunately OP as a fellow bank worker I can only agree with chambta.

Theres too many variables from the uk side, the main one being what rate do we use or how would the uk banks know what rate the US wanted us to use, their rate, our rate, central rate etc etc.

I think you should maybe suggest to them that uk based banks do not have a facility to calculate sterling transactions into different currencies.

Im sure they can sort something out....its America after all!!!

dtsazza

Could you confirm with the American side whether an account showing the balance in GBP is appropriate?

I'm sure that if you have many times over the required amount (e.g. they want to see that you have $2,500 and there's £10k in there) then there shouldn't be any trouble - regardless of what rates they use, on what days, you definitely have enough funds and they'd have to be exceptionally bureaucratic to claim that the exchange rate might fall below 0.25.

On the other hand, if you don't have well above the amount, perhaps an account in sterling isn't in fact suitable at all? Even if your bank could show that you had e.g. $2,503.42 equivalent in there today, rate fluctuations meant that the amount tomorrow may be different and may well be under the required amount. Thinking it through from the Americans' side, they clearly want to make sure you have that amount of money for something (e.g. pay course fees). Getting a statement with today's USD amount doesn't let them know that you'll still have enough money when the time comes to use it. Perhaps they want you to have a USD-denominated account, which would remove all of this ambiguity? It might be worth checking with them.

tom717

I had to do this 2 years ago, and they accepted a letter from my bank stating that I had in excess of x GBP. The letter said nothing about dollars.