Moving to the UK from India: Complete Guide

Which Visa Route Is Right for You?

India is on the UK's visa national list, so an Indian passport holder needs a visa for any stay, including a short visit. The £20 electronic travel authorisation is not open to visa nationals; a 6-month Standard Visitor visa costs £135. For a move, the route depends on why you are going:

Skilled Worker Visa

The Skilled Worker visa is the most popular work route for Indians. You need a job offer from a UK employer who holds a sponsor licence, and the job must pay at least the minimum salary of £41,700 a year, or the going rate for the occupation code if that is higher. Since 22 July 2025 a new applicant's job must sit at degree level (RQF 6), unless the occupation code is on the Immigration Salary List or the Temporary Shortage List. A job on the Immigration Salary List has a lower salary floor of £33,400 and a lower visa fee, but the full going rate for the code still applies: the old 80% discount ended with the shortage occupation list in April 2024. Roles reached through the Temporary Shortage List cannot bring dependants.

You will need a certificate of sponsorship from your employer. The visa is initially granted for up to 5 years and can lead to settlement (indefinite leave to remain) after 5 years of continuous residence. If you change employer or move to a different job, you need a new certificate of sponsorship and permission from the Home Office before you start: GOV.UK says to wait until the application is decided, not to start on submitting it.

Student Visa

The Student visa is for study at a licensed institution and costs £558. You need a confirmation of acceptance for studies, and you must show money for living costs on top of any tuition you have not yet paid: £1,529 a month for study in London or £1,171 a month outside London, for up to 9 months. The money must have been held for 28 consecutive days, ending no more than 31 days before you apply.

After completing your degree, you may be eligible for the Graduate route, which which gives 2 years of work permission without a sponsor, or 3 years after a PhD. For applications made on or after 1 January 2027 the 2-year period shortens to 18 months. Time on the Graduate route does not count towards settlement, so people who want to stay longer switch to a Skilled Worker visa.

India Young Professionals Scheme

India is not one of the countries on the Youth Mobility Scheme. There is a separate India Young Professionals Scheme visa for Indian citizens aged 18 to 30 who hold an eligible qualification. Places are allocated by ballot: you enter the ballot first, and only apply if you are invited. The visa costs £340, lasts up to 24 months, and you need £2,530 in savings. GOV.UK gives the healthcare surcharge for the route as £1,552. You have 90 days from the invitation to apply, and must travel to the UK within 6 months of applying.

Health and Care Worker Visa

A growing number of Indian nurses, doctors, and care workers use this route. It is a version of the Skilled Worker visa with a lower fee — £324 per person for up to 3 years, or £628 for more than 3 years — and no healthcare surcharge. The job must still be with a licensed sponsor and in an eligible occupation code, and the salary rules still apply.

Spouse and Family Visas

If your spouse or partner is a British citizen or has settled status, you can apply for a Spouse visa. The UK sponsor must meet the financial requirement (currently £29,000 per year). You will need to provide genuine relationship evidence including photographs, communication records, and details of time spent together.

Indian Document Requirements

Indian applicants must prepare documents carefully. The Home Office has specific expectations for documents originating from India.

MEA Apostille

India became a member of the Hague Apostille Convention on 15 July 2023. Since then, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issues apostille certificates for Indian public documents. For UK visa applications, your documents should be apostilled rather than using the older legalisation route.

The apostille process works as follows:

1. State-level attestation. Get your document attested by the relevant state government authority (e.g., the Sub-Divisional Magistrate or the Home Department).
2. MEA apostille. Submit the state-attested document to the MEA (or an authorised agency such as a regional passport office) for apostille. The MEA affixes an apostille sticker to the document.
3. Translation. If the document is in Hindi or a regional language, you need a certified English translation. The translation itself should also be attested.

Common documents that need apostille include birth certificates, marriage certificates, degree certificates, and police clearance certificates.

Criminal Record Certificate

Most applications do not need one. GOV.UK asks for a criminal record certificate from a Skilled Worker applying from outside the UK whose job is in education, healthcare, therapy or social services. Where it is needed, the Indian document is a police clearance certificate, applied for through the Passport Seva portal with an appointment at a Passport Seva Kendra. Neither the Home Office nor the Ministry of External Affairs publishes a processing time on GOV.UK, so this guide gives none.

Financial Documents

The Home Office accepts Indian bank statements as financial evidence. Key points for Indian applicants:

• Bank statements must cover a consecutive period (28 days for Student visas, varying periods for other routes).
• Statements should be on the bank's letterhead with the bank's stamp or be electronic statements accompanied by a bank letter confirming their authenticity.
• Money held in a currency other than pounds is converted to pounds for the date of the application. Exchange rates move, so this guide gives no rupee figure.
• Fixed deposits (FDs) are accepted as savings evidence, but the funds must have been held for the required period and you must provide an FD certificate or statement showing the maturity value.
• For a Student visa you must show any unpaid tuition plus £1,529 a month for living costs in London, or £1,171 a month outside London, for up to 9 months.

Tuberculosis Test

India is on the Home Office tuberculosis testing list. You need a certificate if you are coming for 6 months or more and have lived in India, or another listed country, for 6 months or more within the last 6 months. Get tested before you submit the application.

The test must be done at a clinic approved by the Home Office. GOV.UK publishes the current list of approved clinics in India, which covers several cities. Each clinic publishes its own fee, so this guide gives no price.

If tuberculosis is found, you are referred for treatment and cannot get a certificate until it is complete. The certificate is valid for 6 months from the date of the x-ray, so time the test accordingly.

English Language Requirement

India is not on the Home Office list of majority English-speaking countries. English being widely used and an official language in India makes no difference: the list is a fixed list, and India is not on it. So an approved secure English language test is needed unless you are exempt. The level depends on the route:

• Skilled Worker visa: CEFR B2 in reading, writing, speaking and listening for a new application since 8 January 2026. B1 is still accepted on an extension of the same route.
• Student visa: CEFR B1 below degree level, CEFR B2 at degree level and above. A university may ask for more than the visa rule requires.
• Partner visa: CEFR A1 for a first application, A2 at the extension after 2.5 years, and B1 for settlement (indefinite leave to remain), rising to B2 from 26 March 2027 on several routes.

Only a test taken with a provider on the Home Office approved list, at one of that provider's approved centres, is accepted. A degree taught in English can meet the requirement instead of a test: the degree must be recognised by Ecctis as equivalent to a UK bachelor's degree or above, and because India is not a majority English-speaking country, Ecctis must also confirm it was taught in English.

Applying and Giving Biometrics

After completing your online application on GOV.UK, you book an appointment at a visa application centre to have your fingerprints and photograph taken. The centres in India are run by a commercial partner on the Home Office's behalf, and the booking system tells you which are open, and where the faster services are offered, when you apply. Appointments fill up before the start of the academic year, so book as soon as you have applied.

Decision Times

These are the service standards GOV.UK publishes for applications made outside the UK. They are not guarantees, and the Home Office does not publish separate times per country or per-country refusal rates.

• Skilled Worker and other work visas: 3 weeks
• Student visa: 3 weeks
• Partner, spouse, parent or child visa: 12 weeks
• Standard Visitor visa: 3 weeks

The priority service costs £500 and usually gives a decision within 5 working days, or 30 working days for a family visa. The super priority service costs £1,000 and usually gives one the next working day. Neither is available for citizenship applications. For more, see our Skilled Worker processing time guide and Spouse visa processing time guide.

What It Costs

The Home Office publishes its fees in pounds. It does not publish a rupee price, and the exchange rate it applies is the rate on the day you pay, so this guide gives no conversion.

• Skilled Worker visa, applying from outside the UK: £819 for 3 years or less, £1,618 for more than 3 years. A job on the Immigration Salary List is £628 or £1,235.
• Health and Care Worker visa: £324 for up to 3 years, £628 for more than 3 years, with no healthcare surcharge
• Student visa: £558
• India Young Professionals Scheme: £340
• Partner visa, applying from outside the UK: £2,064 per person
• Standard Visitor visa: £135 for 6 months
• Healthcare surcharge: £1,035 a year, or £776 a year for students, their dependants and anyone under 18
• Settlement: £3,226 for each person
• Naturalisation: £1,709 plus a £130 ceremony fee

GOV.UK publishes no price for an English language test, a tuberculosis test, or an apostille; the providers, clinics and authorities set their own. For a complete breakdown of all UK visa fees, see our dedicated guide.

Healthcare

Paying the healthcare surcharge does not make the National Health Service free. It buys care on the same basis as a UK resident, so you then pay what a resident pays. In England that is £9.90 for a prescription and dental charges of £27.90, £76.60 or £332.10 depending on the band of treatment. Prescriptions are free in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Things That Commonly Delay an Application

• Name discrepancies. Indian documents often show different name formats (e.g., father's name as surname on one document but not another, or a single name without a surname). Provide an affidavit explaining any discrepancies and, where possible, get documents re-issued with consistent names.
• Maintenance funds falling short. Student visa applicants must show funds for the full period in a single account. Parents' accounts are acceptable but must be accompanied by a letter authorising the student to use the funds and proof of the relationship.
• An expired tuberculosis certificate. The certificate is valid for 6 months from the date of the x-ray. If you test too early, it can expire before the application is decided and you will have to test again.
• Employment verification delays. The Home Office sometimes contacts Indian employers to verify Skilled Worker applications. Ensure your employer is prepared to respond promptly.
• Gaps in education or employment. Unexplained gaps can cause delays. Provide a clear covering letter explaining any periods of inactivity.

Practical Points

Shipping and Customs

Most Indian movers ship belongings by sea freight (4 to 8 weeks) or air freight (1 to 2 weeks). You can bring personal belongings without paying UK customs duty if you are moving permanently and have owned the items for at least 6 months. You must declare goods through the Transfer of Residence (ToR) process via HMRC.

The Indian Community in the UK

Long-established Indian communities are found in London, particularly Wembley, Southall, Tooting and East Ham, and in Leicester, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, with grocery stores, temples, gurdwaras, mosques and cultural organisations in each. The Home Office does not publish a count of Indian nationals resident in the UK, so this guide gives none.

Banking and Money

Open a UK bank account soon after arriving; a bank will normally ask for your passport, your share code proving your immigration status, and proof of a UK address. India caps how much an individual may remit abroad in a financial year under its Liberalised Remittance Scheme; that limit is set by the Reserve Bank of India, not the Home Office, so check the current figure before you plan a transfer.

First Steps After Arrival

When you arrive in the UK, you should:

• Set up or sign in to your UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account and check your online immigration status. There is no card to collect: biometric residence permits stopped being issued at the end of 2024.
• Apply for a National Insurance number so you can work and pay tax.
• Register with a doctor (GP surgery) (doctor) near your address.
• Open a bank account.
• Tell your local council you have moved in, for council tax. In Northern Ireland the equivalent is domestic rates, collected by Land and Property Services.

Path to Settlement and Citizenship

Most work routes lead to settlement (indefinite leave to remain) after 5 years of continuous residence, at a fee of £3,226 for each person. Time on a Student visa or the Graduate route does not count towards those 5 years. You must pass the Life in the UK test and meet English at B1, rising to B2 from 26 March 2027 on the Skilled Worker and several other routes. Twelve months after receiving settlement you can apply for British citizenship, which costs £1,709 plus a £130 ceremony fee.

The UK does not require you to give up another nationality when you naturalise. Indian law is different: Indian citizenship law does not allow dual citizenship, and the Overseas Citizen of India card is a form of long-term status for former citizens and their descendants rather than citizenship. What that means for you is a question of Indian law, which this guide does not cover; the Indian High Commission publishes the current rules.

Next Steps

Start by identifying the route that matches your situation, then gather documents early: apostilled certificates take time, and a criminal record certificate takes longer. Book the tuberculosis test close enough to the application that the 6-month certificate has not expired by the time a decision is made.

For official information, visit the GOV.UK immigration page.

Related guides:

• Skilled Worker visa: complete guide
• Student visa: complete guide
• Spouse visa: complete guide
• UK visa fees: complete breakdown
• Immigration Health Surcharge explained

Questions and answers