Last checked: 20 September 2026. The standard UK Student visa application fee is GBP 558. That is only the first payment. Most applicants also pay the immigration health surcharge (IHS) before submitting the application, and its amount depends on the length of the visa granted, not merely the teaching weeks printed in a course brochure. Separately, many applicants must demonstrate money for unpaid tuition and living costs. Demonstrating those funds is not the same as paying them to the Home Office.
This distinction matters when a student asks, “How much does a UK student visa cost?” One answer is the amount charged online during the visa process. Another is the amount that must remain available and be documented under the financial rules. A third is the cash needed to actually travel, rent a room and start a course. Treating all three as a single visa fee produces confusing and sometimes dangerous budgets. The figures below are for the Student route, checked against current GOV.UK Student visa guidance. Check the live application pages again before paying: fees, exchange rates and financial requirements can change.
Start with three separate amounts, not one headline total
| Type of money | What it means | When it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Paid during the visa application | Usually the GBP 558 application fee plus the IHS calculated for your permission period; optional services may cost more. | You need a usable payment method and enough balance when applying. |
| Shown as financial evidence | Any applicable unpaid course fees and the maintenance amount under the Student route rules. | The evidence must meet the rules on amount, permitted source and timing. It is not simply sent to UKVI as a fee. |
| Other real-world costs | Tuition deposit, travel, housing deposit, tuberculosis test if required, document preparation and setup expenses. | These can arise before travel or soon after arrival, even though they are not the standard visa application fee. |
A useful budget puts these amounts on different lines. If your university has already received a tuition payment and records it on your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS), it may reduce the unpaid tuition amount you must show under the visa financial rules. It does not erase your IHS payment. Likewise, showing maintenance funds in a qualifying account does not mean the government will collect that maintenance amount at checkout. Our UK Student visa proof-of-funds guide deals with the evidence rules in greater depth; this article concentrates on how to budget and separate the costs.
The GBP 558 application fee: what it covers and what it does not
As of this check, GOV.UK lists GBP 558 for a Student visa application from outside the UK and GBP 558 to extend or switch to this route from inside the UK. This is the standard application charge, not a package price for a visa, healthcare, tuition and flights. If an eligible family member applies as your dependant, there is a separate application fee for that person. Eligibility to bring dependants is restricted, so do not assume every student can add a partner or child simply by including another fee.
Applicants outside the UK may see the charge in local currency or another payment currency rather than exactly GBP 558 on their bank statement. The payment portal’s exchange rate and a bank’s foreign-transaction charge can change the final amount debited. Cambridge’s student visa fees guidance warns that local-currency payments can exceed a straight sterling conversion. Budget a buffer rather than converting GBP 558 at a search-engine mid-market rate and leaving no margin. If a payment fails, the practical problem is immediate: you may be unable to complete the application at the planned time.
Some applicants can buy a faster decision service, but that is optional and availability varies by route and location. Do not add a priority-service price to every student’s mandatory total. Conversely, do not assume a last-minute application can be rescued by paying for priority. A missing CAS, an unmet financial-evidence period or an unresolved document issue is not solved by faster processing. The official Student visa overview gives ordinary decision-time estimates and says whether faster service may be offered during an application.
Why the health surcharge is often larger than the visa fee
The immigration health surcharge is charged at GBP 776 per year for students under the current GOV.UK IHS schedule. The amount follows the period of immigration permission. A course lasting one academic year can result in a longer period of permission, so budgeting only GBP 776 for every one-year master’s course is unsafe. UKCISA gives a one-year master’s example with GBP 1,164 IHS because the permission includes an additional period after the course. That example is useful for planning, but your own calculation depends on your CAS dates, route and the permission period determined for your application.
For a visa lasting more than one year, the surcharge uses full-year and part-year charging rules. A period of up to six months beyond a complete year generally adds half the annual student rate, or GBP 388; a longer part-year can add a full year. The rules are different for permission of six months or less depending on whether the application is made inside or outside the UK. Instead of multiplying the number of course years by GBP 776 without checking, use the official IHS guidance and the calculation displayed in the actual application.
The charge normally has to be paid as part of the online visa process. It is not a monthly insurance premium you can defer until arriving in the UK. If UKVI later asks for an IHS top-up because the amount paid was insufficient, read the official message promptly and verify its authenticity through your application account. GOV.UK says that a failure to pay a requested top-up within the specified period can result in the application being turned down. A student’s adviser at their university can help check whether the requested amount reflects the intended visa period.
A worked master’s example, with the assumptions visible
Suppose an applicant outside the UK has a CAS for a one-year master’s course and, for planning purposes, their visa period results in the same IHS amount as UKCISA’s example. The immediate government-payment estimate is GBP 558 + GBP 1,164 = GBP 1,722. This is an example, not a universal quote. The actual IHS amount appears in the application and can differ when course dates or permission length differ. The applicant may also face a payment-currency difference, optional service charges or a country-specific visa application centre charge.
Now suppose that student still owes GBP 12,000 of first-year tuition and will study outside London. Under the rules displayed on GOV.UK’s money page at the time of writing, the maintenance figure is GBP 1,171 per month for up to nine months. Nine months equals GBP 10,539. Subject to the relevant evidence rules and any applicable exceptions, the example student could therefore need to demonstrate GBP 22,539 for unpaid tuition plus maintenance. That GBP 22,539 is not an extra UKVI checkout charge. It is a distinct financial requirement. The student also needs the actual GBP 1,722 estimate available to pay the visa fee and IHS, and should plan for tuition deposits, travel and arrival costs.
Change one assumption and the budget changes. If the university is in London, the currently displayed maintenance rate is GBP 1,529 per month for up to nine months, or GBP 13,761 for nine months. If part of tuition was paid and recorded on the CAS, the remaining course-fee evidence may be lower. If a qualifying scholarship or student loan covers a relevant amount, the form of evidence can change. If the student has already been in the UK with valid permission for a qualifying period, different financial-evidence rules can apply. These are reasons to calculate from the student’s own CAS and circumstances, not to copy a total from somebody else’s visa video.
A financial-rule change is coming in late 2026
UK student visa content is especially easy to date incorrectly this year. The September 2026 immigration-rule changes replace the current monthly maintenance figures of GBP 1,529 in London and GBP 1,171 outside London with GBP 1,570 and GBP 1,203 respectively. The University of South Wales guidance identifies 30 November 2026 as the changeover for applications. For nine months, those later figures would be GBP 14,130 in London and GBP 10,827 outside London.
This planned increase changes the amount some applicants must show, not the standard GBP 558 application fee or the GBP 776 yearly student IHS rate stated above. Check the effective date and the live GOV.UK money page before applying. An article published in September may still be read by a student applying in December. A serious guide must therefore show its verification date and describe the transition rather than quietly present one maintenance rate as valid for all of 2026.
What about tuition deposits, CAS charges and visa centre extras?
Your institution may require a deposit before issuing a CAS or before you can confirm a place. That deposit is a university payment, not a UKVI visa fee. Ask whether it is refundable, whether it will appear on the CAS and when the balance of tuition is due. Do not assume that every university charges a separate CAS fee. The British Council notes that a university may charge for a CAS and that the institution should confirm the amount; it is not a single national fee to add automatically to every calculation.
There can also be costs for a tuberculosis test where required, travel to a visa application centre, document translation, courier or appointment services. Some optional services are marketed alongside the visa process. Check what is mandatory in your country and what can be declined. Paying a third-party agent is not a universal requirement for a Student visa application. If you do use an adviser, understand precisely what they will do, who receives the fee and whether your university offers free visa support to its admitted students.
A sensible pre-application budget has at least four columns: amount, due date, payee and whether the charge is mandatory. Put the visa fee and IHS under UKVI application payments; tuition deposit under the university; testing under an approved test provider; and optional priority or premium appointments under a separate heading. This prevents an expensive but common planning mistake: a student has enough money to show for maintenance but no accessible balance on a suitable payment card when the application asks for the IHS.
The bank balance is not the same as cash you may spend today
If you need to rely on bank-held funds for the Student route, timing matters. GOV.UK currently says the relevant money must be held for at least 28 consecutive days and that the end of that 28-day period must fall within 31 days of the application date. Certain loans and financial sponsorship follow different evidence routes, so read the rules that match your source of funding. The point is that a transfer made yesterday will not necessarily produce acceptable evidence for an application tomorrow. Similarly, paying a large tuition deposit from the account during the evidence period can affect the amount available to demonstrate, even if the deposit reduces unpaid tuition.
Plan the transaction sequence before moving money: confirm the CAS amount, determine the required maintenance figure for the intended application date, ask your institution how deposits are recorded, then work backwards from the application date to the required evidence period. If using a parent’s funds, scholarship or loan, verify the permitted documentation rather than assuming a bank screenshot is enough. Our broader student visa proof-of-funds guide explains why source and availability of money matter, while the study-abroad documents checklist helps organize the admission and visa files.
Five questions to settle before you click Pay
- What are the dates on my CAS? The expected permission period drives the IHS calculation. Confirm errors with your university before relying on a copied example.
- What is the applicable maintenance rule on my application date? The late-2026 change makes the date consequential. Check GOV.UK on the day you apply.
- What tuition remains unpaid on the CAS? Keep the course-fee evidence separate from the visa and IHS payment balance.
- What will the payment portal charge in my currency? Leave space for conversion and bank fees; do not rely on a mid-market exchange-rate widget as your final price.
- Which extras are genuinely required? TB testing, appointment charges and translations depend on circumstances. Priority processing and many premium services are optional.
After paying, retain the payment confirmations and the IHS reference with your application records. If something on the payment screen differs materially from your estimate, pause and check the official guidance and your university’s international student team. A mismatch can be a result of your visa dates, a route selection, a different application location or a service you selected; it should not be explained away with an unsupported claim that UKVI “always overcharges.”
The bottom line
For a standard UK Student visa application checked in September 2026, the fixed starting point is the GBP 558 application fee. Add the IHS based on the visa permission period, not just course length. A one-year master’s may, for example, produce GBP 1,164 IHS and a GBP 1,722 combined government-payment estimate, but that is not every applicant’s total. Then calculate the separate tuition-and-maintenance evidence requirement using your CAS, study location, application date and funding source. Finally, add the real costs of deposits, travel, tests and any optional services you choose.
Keeping those categories separate is more useful than memorizing one impressive total. It tells you what has to be paid now, what must stay documented, and what will be due later. For the detailed evidence side, continue with our UK proof-of-funds guide. For current legal amounts and eligibility, use GOV.UK as the final authority before submitting your application.
