UK Visa Fees Rise Again from April 8, 2026: What Students, Skilled Wor…

(UNITED KINGDOM) — The Home Office updated its fee tables on March 18, 2026, raising a wide range of UK immigration and nationality charges from April 8, 2026, a move that will affect students, skilled workers, sponsors, visitors, families, and people nearing settlement or citizenship.

The date matters because filing timing can change what applicants pay. People who are ready to submit before April 8, 2026 may avoid the higher charges, while those who file on or after that date will need to budget for the new rates.

Universities, employers, and family sponsors also face higher costs in parts of the system that go beyond the main visa application. That broad reach means the change is not limited to one route or one group of travelers.

The increases extend across student visas, Skilled Worker visas, sponsor licence fees, settlement, and citizenship. They also arrive on top of the Immigration Health Surcharge, which the Home Office currently says is £776 per year for students and certain reduced-rate categories and £1,035 per year for most other applicants.

That stacking effect shapes the real cost of moving to the UK. A higher visa application charge can appear limited on its own, but the total bill can rise much faster once health surcharge payments, dependant applications, document costs, and sponsor-side charges are added.

Students are among those facing the change first. For Student and Child Student applications, the main fee rises from £524 to £558, an increase of £34.

In India, the Home Office fee calculator currently shows the Student visa at ₹66,826, reflecting the updated overseas fee schedule for Indian applicants. For many families budgeting in local currency, that converted figure is the one that matters at the point of payment.

The student visa fee is only part of the cost. The Home Office says the discounted Immigration Health Surcharge for students remains £776 per year, leaving many applicants to balance the application fee, the surcharge, biometrics-related logistics, document expenses, and funds held for maintenance requirements.

Universities also face higher licence costs. The student sponsor licence fee rises from £574 to £611, while the Confirmation of Acceptance for Study fee remains £55.

That means the April change increases compliance and licensing costs for institutions without changing the per-student CAS charge. Colleges and universities reviewing international recruitment budgets now have to account for that distinction.

Skilled workers and their employers face a broader set of increases. For Skilled Worker applicants applying from outside the UK, the main application fee rises from £769 to £819 for visas of up to three years, and from £1,519 to £1,618 for visas over three years.

For applicants on the Immigration Salary List, the fee rises from £590 to £628 for up to three years and from £1,160 to £1,235 for over three years. For Health and Care Visa applicants, the fee rises from £304 to £324 for up to three years and from £590 to £628 for over three years.

The Home Office fee calculator currently lists those charges for Indian applicants as ₹98,071 for a Skilled Worker visa of up to three years, ₹193,720 for over three years, ₹75,243 for Immigration Salary List roles up to three years, and ₹38,769 for Health and Care cases up to three years.

Employers also face higher sponsorship costs. The worker sponsor licence fee rises from £574 to £611 for small sponsors and from £1,579 to £1,682 for large sponsors.

At the same time, the Certificate of Sponsorship fee for Skilled Worker-class routes remains £525. For businesses, especially smaller employers and first-time sponsors, the cost of maintaining sponsorship status rises even though the per-worker CoS charge does not.

Workers bringing family members still face the added weight of the health surcharge. Home Office guidance for Skilled Worker cases continues to point to the separate IHS, usually £1,035 per year, on top of the application fee.

That makes the wider budget question more pressing than the headline rise alone. A worker applying with a spouse and children may see the visa fee increase, but the surcharge often remains the largest part of the total immigration bill.

Visitors will also pay more under the new schedule. The standard visit visa for up to six months rises from £127 to £135.

Longer-term visit visas rise as well. The fee moves from £475 to £506 for two years, from £848 to £903 for five years, and from £1,059 to £1,128 for ten years.

For applicants in India, the Home Office calculator currently lists the six-month standard visitor visa at ₹16,196, the two-year visa at ₹60,577, the five-year visa at ₹108,146, and the ten-year visa at ₹135,055.

A steeper proportional increase appears in the Electronic Travel Authorisation. The Home Office fee table shows the ETA rising from £16 to £20, a 25% jump.

The cash increase is £4, but the percentage rise is sharper than in many visa categories. The Home Office’s March 2026 ETA factsheet says an ETA currently allows multiple journeys, for stays of up to six months at a time, over two years or until the passport expires.

For frequent short-term travelers, the ETA remains cheaper than a visitor visa. Even so, the new rate adds to the cost calculations for people who make repeated trips to the UK.

The fee changes also reach people close to the end of the immigration process. Indefinite leave to remain rises from £3,029 to £3,226.

Naturalisation as a British citizen rises from £1,605 to £1,709. The Home Office also notes that the £130 citizenship ceremony fee is added separately.

Families making final-stage applications now face a higher closing bill after years of earlier visa and extension costs. That makes timing relevant not only for first-time applicants, but also for those already deep into a multi-step immigration path.

One nationality charge moves in the opposite direction. Child registration as a British citizen falls from £1,214 to £1,000.

That exception stands out in a package dominated by increases. Families with children nearing registration eligibility may find that one part of the system has become less expensive even as most other categories rise.

The updated schedule does not change processing times. Home Office processing guidance still says applications made outside the UK are usually processed in 3 weeks for Standard Visitor, Student, and Skilled Worker routes, unless the applicant pays separately for a faster decision where available.

Priority and Super Priority service fees are unchanged in this April 2026 update. A higher application charge therefore does not automatically buy a faster decision.

That distinction matters for applicants who tie travel, study, or work plans to expected approval dates. The immediate effect of the new fee table is a higher entry cost, not a different standard processing timetable.

For people preparing applications now, timing has become more than an administrative detail. Students with offer letters or CAS numbers, workers with Certificates of Sponsorship, and families with complete paperwork all face a simple financial divide between filing before the deadline and filing later.

Sponsors face their own timing questions. Employers and education providers that issued cost estimates earlier in the recruitment or admissions cycle may now need to revise those figures so applicants do not budget on outdated charges.

That matters because even small funding gaps can delay an application. A quoted cost based on the old table may no longer match what an applicant or sponsor has to pay once the new fees take effect.

As April 8, 2026 approaches, attention is likely to focus on implementation details for applications submitted close to the changeover. The practical questions center on when payment is made, when an application is submitted, and whether a case is treated as filed before or after the new rates begin.

Those issues matter most for near-deadline filings. Applicants, sponsors, and advisers are likely to watch Home Office fee pages and filing instructions closely for final confirmation on how the transition applies in individual cases.

The broader effect of the update is clear already. UK Visa Fees are rising across multiple categories at the same time, increasing costs not only for single applicants but also for families, sponsoring employers, and universities managing international recruitment.

For many people, the application charge is only one part of the bill. Once the visa fee, the Immigration Health Surcharge, dependants’ fees, document preparation, and sponsor costs are added together, the financial pressure grows well beyond the headline figure.

That is why the April 8, 2026 date carries immediate weight. Anyone planning a move, visit, study place, job start, sponsorship, settlement application, or citizenship filing now has a narrow window in which the price of entering or staying in the UK can change.