(UNITED KINGDOM) — The Home Office raised most UK visa and nationality charges on 8 April 2026, lifting costs for visitors, students, skilled workers and settlement applicants as it rolled out a wider set of immigration rule changes.

The new fee table pushed the Electronic Travel Authorisation, or ETA, from £16 to £20, a 25% increase and the sharpest percentage rise among common travel permissions. A standard 6-month visitor visa now costs £135, up from £127.

Student and work routes also became more expensive. The Student visa fee rose from £524 to £558, while a Skilled Worker application made outside the UK for up to three years increased from £769 to £819.

Those increases followed a separate package of rule changes that the Home Office laid before Parliament in its Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules on 5 March 2026. Some measures took effect in March and April 2026, while others are scheduled for 2027.

The government has framed the higher UK Visa and ETA Fees as part of a longer shift toward making applicants and sponsors bear more of the cost of border control and immigration administration. The Home Office said the increases are intended to help maintain and modernize the immigration and border system while reducing the burden on taxpayers.

Most charges rose by about 6% to 7%, though some went higher and a few did not move. The scale matters across routes because the changes come less than a year after the April 2025 fee increases, adding another layer of cost to applications for temporary entry, long-term residence and citizenship.

The ETA sits near the front of that system. It applies to many visa-exempt travelers making short visits for tourism, family visits and certain business activities, and it has become part of the standard pre-travel process for a growing list of passengers as the UK expands its digital border model.

Longer-term visitor visas also cost more from 8 April 2026. A 2-year visit visa now costs £506, a 5-year visit visa costs £903, and a 10-year visit visa costs £1,128.

Those figures come on top of other common expenses tied to travel and applications, including insurance, document translation and, in some cases, priority processing. Families and repeat business visitors face the cumulative effect most directly because the entry fee is only one part of the overall cost of maintaining ties with the UK.

International students now pay more at the point of application as well. The Student visa fee increased to £558 for both out-of-country and in-country cases, and the Child Student visa rose to the same level.

That increase lands in a market where the UK competes with the United States, Canada, Australia and parts of Europe for overseas students. The visa charge is one part of a larger bill that also includes tuition, housing, visa support paperwork and the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS).

Employers using the Skilled Worker route also face another rise in entry costs. For applications made outside the UK, a visa valid for more than three years now costs £1,618, up from £1,519.

Inside the UK, the Skilled Worker fee now stands at £943 for applications of up to three years and £1,865 for applications over three years. The route remains central to recruitment in technology, healthcare, engineering, logistics, education and professional services, which makes even modest increases material for employers that sponsor at scale.

Sponsor licensing became more expensive at the same time. From 8 April 2026, small sponsors, charities, student sponsors and Temporary Worker sponsors pay £611, up from £574, while large Worker sponsor licences rose from £1,579 to £1,682.

One element did not change. The Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) fee remained unchanged, even as the Home Office tightened sponsorship guidance and placed renewed emphasis on governance, recordkeeping and correct salary payments.

A new compliance rule for sponsors came into force on 7 April 2026. Under that change, employers must pay Skilled Workers the full required salary in every pay period, subject to limited permissible flexibilities, rather than relying on averaging over time.

The rule is designed to make underpayment easier for UK Visas and Immigration to detect earlier and to reduce the chance that employers can mask compliance failures by smoothing wages across multiple pay periods. Payroll systems and internal controls now carry more weight because revocation action can follow breaches even where they are not deliberate.

Settlement and citizenship routes also moved higher. Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) increased from £3,029 to £3,226, and British citizenship naturalisation rose from £1,605 to £1,709.

Adult registration as a British citizen went from £1,446 to £1,540. Route to settlement applications, including partner and spouse route settlement, now cost £2,034 for out-of-country applications and £1,407 for in-country applications.

One charge moved in the other direction. The child citizenship registration fee fell from £1,214 to £1,000, offering a rare reduction in a system where most lines on the fee schedule went up.

The March rule package added a second layer of change beyond price. From 26 March 2026, the Home Office introduced what it called a “visa brake” for some applications made from outside the UK.

Under that policy, Skilled Worker entry clearance applications from Afghan nationals are refused. Student visa applications from nationals of Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan are also refused if they are made from outside the UK.

Applicants already in the UK are not affected by that measure, and the Home Office said it would keep the restriction under review. The policy adds a nationality-specific limit to work and study routes at a time when ministers have linked immigration control more closely to asylum and enforcement policy.

Another change has been set for 26 March 2027. From that date, the English-language requirement for settlement is expected to rise from B1 to B2 across many visa categories, including Skilled Worker routes.

That raises the bar for migrants planning permanent residence because language preparation, testing and career planning often happen well before a settlement application is filed. The shift also signals that the Home Office intends to use settlement rules, not only entry rules, as a tool for tightening eligibility.

The protection system changed as well. For asylum claims made on or after 2 March 2026, permission to stay on a protection route is being reduced from 5 years to 30 months under a more temporary “core protection” regime.

Taken together, the changes point in the same direction. Entry costs rose across common routes, sponsor obligations became stricter, some nationalities now face outright barriers in specific categories, and the path from temporary stay to settlement is becoming both more expensive and more demanding.

That combination reaches beyond headline visa charges. A worker sponsored from overseas may now face higher application fees, employer compliance checks, health charges and later settlement costs, while a family moving toward citizenship confronts rising bills at several stages of the process.

Travelers see the effect at the front end through the ETA and visitor visa increases. Students face higher upfront charges before tuition and living costs, and employers recruiting abroad absorb additional pressure through sponsor licence fees and the new salary compliance rule.

The Home Office has presented the fee rises as moderate and tied to inflation, operational demands and investment in digital border tools. Its broader argument has remained steady for several years: applicants should pay a larger share of system costs as the government spends more on digital processing, enforcement and border management.

Spring 2026 turned that approach into a wider reset of the system. By the time the B2 settlement requirement arrives in March 2027, the UK will have raised ETA Fees, increased charges across major immigration categories, shortened protection leave for new asylum claims and imposed new restrictions on some overseas applicants, leaving a system that is costlier at entry and tighter at every step after that.