UK Visa Fee 2026: Visitor, Student, Worker & Family Costs
The full Home Office price list after the April 2026 increase — visitor, student, Skilled Worker, spouse, settlement, IHS and priority fees
UK visa fees moved in 2026, and most guides have not caught up: since 8 April 2026 a Standard Visitor visa costs £135 (not £127), a Student visa £558 (not £490 or £524), and Skilled Worker routes start at £819. On top of every long-stay fee sits the Immigration Health Surcharge — £1,035 per adult per year — which quietly doubles or triples the headline price. This guide gives the complete post-increase price list, works out real family totals, and explains priority services, refunds and payment. Pair it with our UK visitor checklist and the Skilled Worker guide, and total your own route with the visa fee calculator.
A note on sources: every figure below comes from the Home Office fee tables applying from 8 April 2026 (frozen again in the 8 October 2026 table) and the separate IHS regulations. Application fees are non-refundable; the IHS is refunded on refusal. Where a figure depends on your exact grant length or route — IHS rounding, in-country vs out-of-country pricing — it is marked approximately, and the GOV.UK payment page is authoritative on the day you apply.
How UK Visa Pricing Works: Fee + Surcharge + Premium
A UK visa price is almost never one number. It stacks three layers: the Home Office application fee (route and duration specific), the Immigration Health Surcharge for stays over 6 months (£1,035 per adult per year, £776 for students and under-18s, rounded up in 6-month blocks), and optional premium services (£500 priority, £1,000 super priority, per person). A £558 student headline becomes £1,593 for one year; a £819 worker headline becomes £3,924 for three years before dependants.
The April 2026 increase is the reason to distrust older pages: visit £127→£135, student £524→£558, Skilled Worker £769→£819 (up to 3 years) and £1,519→£1,618 (over 3 years). Premium fees were frozen. Each section below gives the current layer cake for its route, and the fee calculator adds your layers automatically.
UK Visa Fee Table 2026 (Post-April Increase)
All figures are the Home Office fees applying from 8 April 2026, unchanged in the October 2026 table. IHS is additional wherever stays exceed 6 months.
| Visa route | Application fee | IHS per year | Priority option |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Visitor (up to 6 months) | £135 | None | £500 / £1,000 |
| Long-term visit: 2 / 5 / 10 years | £506 / £903 / £1,128 | None | £500 / £1,000 |
| Student (main + each dependant) | £558 | £776 | £500 / £1,000 |
| Short-term English (6–11 months) | £228 | £1,035 | £500 |
| Skilled Worker, CoS ≤3 years | £819 | £1,035 | £500 / £1,000 |
| Skilled Worker, CoS over 3 years | £1,618 | £1,035 | £500 / £1,000 |
| Skilled Worker, Salary List ≤3 / over 3 years | £628 / £1,235 | £1,035 | £500 / £1,000 |
| Partner / spouse (entry clearance) | £2,064 | £1,035 | £500 |
| Indefinite leave to remain (approx.) | £3,226 | None | £1,000 super priority |
In-country application fees for work routes run higher than the out-of-country figures above (for example Skilled Worker extensions are priced toward £943/£1,865) — check the in-country column of the GOV.UK table for your exact situation. US citizens needing only a short trip should first check the UK ETA for US citizens, which is far cheaper than any visa.
Visitor Visas: Short Stay and Long-Term Visit Costs
The £135 Standard Visitor covers tourism, family visits and short business trips up to 6 months, with no IHS and no extension of stay beyond 6 months per visit. It is decided in about 3 weeks standard, 5 working days with priority. Refusal means paying again — see the document standards in our UK visitor checklist before risking £135 on a thin file.
Long-term visit visas (£506/£903/£1,128 for 2/5/10 years) suit frequent travellers with a clean UK travel history, but each stay is still capped at 6 months and the visa can be cancelled for living in the UK through back-to-back visits. A first-time applicant is often refused a long-term visa and keeps no refund — earn it with compliant 6-month trips first.
Student Visas and the IHS: Worked Totals
The student headline (£558) misleads because the IHS dominates: a one-year master's totals roughly £1,593, a three-year bachelor's roughly £2,886 (student IHS rate £776 × 3 + £558), and each dependant repeats the whole stack at the same rates. Add £500–£1,000 per person for priority, plus TB testing and the maintenance-funds requirement (separate from fees — money you must hold, not spend).
Two reliefs: refused students get the IHS refunded automatically (the £558 fee is lost), and the Graduate route later costs its own fee plus IHS again — budget the degree as a multi-instalment Home Office subscription, not a one-off. CAS timing matters too: apply within the 6-month CAS window or pay everything twice.
Skilled Worker Fees by Duration and Salary List
Your fee follows the certificate of sponsorship: £819 for 3 years or less, £1,618 for longer from outside the UK, discounted to £628/£1,235 for Immigration Salary List occupations. A 3-year CoS therefore costs £819 + (3 × £1,035) = £3,924 for the main applicant alone; a 5-year CoS costs £1,618 + (5 × £1,035) = £6,793. Dependants multiply it per head at identical rates.
Details in our Skilled Worker guide: shortage-occupation and new-entrant salary discounts, the sponsor's own licence and CoS-assignment charges (employer-paid but sometimes passed on informally — challenge that), and settlement later at approximately £3,226. Never confuse the CoS assignment fee your sponsor pays with your visa fee — both exist, and both must be current for the application to be valid.
Spouse, Family and Settlement (ILR) Fees
Family routes are the UK's most expensive per grant: £2,064 for partner entry clearance plus ~£3,105 IHS per adult for the 33-month visa, so a childless couple pays roughly £8,000+ before priority, English tests or legal help — then pays extension and settlement fees on the 5-year route to ILR. Children's entry clearance follows the same fee scale per child with the lower £776 IHS rate.
Settlement itself (indefinite leave to remain) costs approximately £3,226 per person, usually with super priority (£1,000) for a next-day decision. Families should therefore price the whole 5-to-6-year journey, not the first visa: entry clearance + extension + ILR, each with IHS where applicable. The fee calculator models multi-person totals before you commit to a route your savings cannot finish.
Priority vs Super Priority: £500 vs £1,000
Priority (£500) buys a 5-working-day target on most routes, or 30 working days for family entry clearance from abroad; super priority (£1,000) buys next working day where offered. Both are per applicant, both sit on top of fee + IHS, and both are subject to availability by country and route — super priority is generally unavailable for out-of-country family cases.
Buy priority only for a complete, low-risk file: UKVI can de-prioritise complex cases and keep the fee, and a fast refusal costs the same as a slow one. For visitors, compare the £500 upgrade against simply applying 6–8 weeks earlier; for workers and students tied to start dates, it is usually money well spent. Settlement applicants in-country should default to super priority when a job, mortgage or travel deadline depends on the decision.
How to Pay, Refunds and Common Overpayments
Payment happens online by card on GOV.UK before biometrics booking at TLScontact or VFS Global. The application fee and IHS are charged together; print both confirmations. The IHS refund on refusal or withdrawal is automatic but takes weeks — chase it only after 6 weeks. Duplicate payments (back-button double charges are classic) are reclaimable through the UKVI refund process with both transaction references.
Common overpayments to avoid: buying priority for every family member when only the main applicant's timeline matters (decisions are linked anyway); paying a 10-year visit visa fee on a first application with no travel history; using the in-country fee table from abroad or vice versa; and forgetting that centre extras (assisted scanning ~£50–£100 equivalent locally, courier, prime-time slots) are separate. When in doubt, the payment summary page itemises fee + IHS + premium before you click — screenshot it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How We Fact-Check This Page
All figures were checked on October 1, 2026 against the Home Office fee tables applying from 8 April 2026 and 8 October 2026 (visitor £135, student £558, Skilled Worker £819/£1,618, priority £500, super priority £1,000), GOV.UK's faster-decision guidance, and 2026 IHS reporting (£1,035 adult, £776 student/child). Spouse (£2,064) and settlement (approximately £3,226) figures follow 2026 legal reporting — confirm on GOV.UK before paying, as Parliament can amend fees by regulation. Read more about our standards on the about us page.