UK Student Visa Cost: Full Breakdown

What a UK Student visa costs, separating the fees GOV.UK publishes from the costs it does not. The application fee and the immigration health surcharge are set out on GOV.UK; the price of an English test, a tuberculosis test or a translation is not, and this guide says so rather than estimating.

Checked 13 March 20269 min readWritten by the Rowan Editorial Team

Section: Student & Graduate
Reading time: 9 min
Last checked: 13 March 2026
Source: The published Immigration Rules and GOV.UK guidance, linked throughout this guide.
Rowan does not: Look at your own case, tell you which route to choose, or say what the Home Office will decide. This guide shows the published rules and where to read them.

In short

The Student visa application fee is 558 GBP, from outside or inside the UK, for the main applicant and for each dependant.
The immigration health surcharge is 776 GBP a year for a student and a student's dependants, against 1,035 GBP a year for most other routes. It is charged on the length of the permission, not the length of the course.
Paying the surcharge does not make NHS care free. It puts you on the same footing as a resident, who in England pays 9.90 GBP for each prescribed item.
GOV.UK publishes no price for an English language test, and no single price for a tuberculosis test — each approved clinic sets its own fee.
The money you must show for fees and living costs is not a fee. It is a balance held for 28 days in a row: 1,529 GBP a month in London, 1,171 GBP outside, for up to 9 months.

Two Student visa costs are published on GOV.UK: the application fee of 558 GBP, and the immigration health surcharge at 776 GBP a year for a student and each of their dependants, paid in advance for the whole length of the permission. On top of those sit costs GOV.UK does not price — an English test where one is needed, a tuberculosis test, translations — and a separate money requirement that is not a fee at all, but a balance you have to hold for 28 days in a row.

Visa Application Fee

The Student visa application fee is 558 GBP, and it is the same whether you apply from outside the UK or extend or switch from inside it. Each dependant who applies pays the same 558 GBP. The fee is not refunded if the application is refused.

The fee is paid online as part of the application process. You pay in GBP, and your bank will convert from your local currency at their exchange rate.

Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS)

The Immigration Health Surcharge is 776 GBP a year for a student and for a student's dependants. The rate for most other routes is 1,035 GBP a year. It is paid in full as part of the application.

It is charged on the length of the permission, not the length of the course, and permission for a Student visa usually runs past the end of the course. GOV.UK sets the amount in half-year steps: more than 6 months but under a year is charged as a full year; up to 18 months is charged as a year and a half; more than 18 months and less than 2 years is charged as 2 years. At the student rate that makes 18 months 1,164 GBP. Because the exact length of permission is not known until it is granted, work out your own figure from the length on your decision rather than from the length of the course.

Paying the surcharge does not make NHS care free. It puts you on the same footing as someone who lives here, which means you then pay what a resident pays. In England that is 9.90 GBP for each prescribed item and NHS dental charges of 27.90 GBP, 76.60 GBP or 332.10 GBP depending on the band of treatment. Prescriptions are free in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, so where you study changes what you pay.

Financial Evidence

You must prove you have enough money for course fees and living costs. This is not a fee you pay to anyone; it is a balance you must hold in your bank account for at least 28 consecutive days:

Course fees: The amount shown on your CAS, minus any deposits already paid
Living costs (London): 1,529 GBP per month for up to 9 months, so 13,761 GBP at the maximum
Living costs (outside London): 1,171 GBP per month for up to 9 months, so 10,539 GBP at the maximum

The end of the 28-day period must be within 31 days of the date you apply. Money held in another currency is converted to pounds using the OANDA spot rate for the date of the application. See our guides for Bangladesh and China for how this works from those two countries.

English Language Test

The cost of an approved English language test is set by the test provider, not by the Home Office. GOV.UK publishes the list of approved providers but no price for any of them, and prices differ by provider and by country, so check the provider's own site for the figure that applies to you. This guide does not estimate one.

You may not need to pay for a test at all. If you are studying at degree level or above at a higher education provider with a track record of compliance, that provider can assess your English itself and note it on the CAS. Check your CAS before booking anything.

TB Test

If you are applying from a country on the UK's TB testing list, you must be tested at a clinic the Home Office has approved. There is no single published price: each clinic sets its own fee, and GOV.UK prints that fee beside the clinic on its country-by-country lists. Look up the clinic you plan to use. Not every country is on the list, so check whether yours is.

Other Costs

A faster decision. GOV.UK prices two of its own services: 500 GBP for the priority service, which aims at a decision within 5 working days, and 1,000 GBP for super priority. GOV.UK says you are told when you apply whether either is available to you.
Document translation. Documents not in English need a certified translation. Translators set their own prices and no official source publishes a figure, so this guide gives none. See our translation guide for what a certified translation has to contain.
Travel to the visa application centre. GOV.UK publishes where the centres are but not what it costs to reach one.
A new passport. If your passport is close to expiring you may need to renew it first. The price is set by the country that issues it, not by the UK.

What Adds Up, and What Cannot Be Totalled

Two figures are fixed and published, and they are the ones you can add together in advance:

Visa application fee: 558 GBP, per person
Immigration health surcharge: 776 GBP a year, per person, charged on the length of the permission

So a 2-year permission for one student is 558 GBP plus 1,552 GBP, which is 2,110 GBP. Change the length of the permission and the second figure changes with it.

The rest cannot be totalled honestly. GOV.UK publishes no price for an English language test, no single price for a tuberculosis test, and no price for translation. Tuition is set by each university and no official source publishes a single range for it. Adding invented numbers to the two real ones would make the total look researched without making it true, so this guide leaves them out. For a complete picture of immigration costs across all routes, see our complete UK visa fees guide and our immigration budgeting guide.

Related Guides

For official fee information, see the GOV.UK Student visa page and the Immigration Health Surcharge page.

Questions and answers

How much does a UK Student Visa cost in total?

GOV.UK publishes two of the costs. The visa application fee is 558 GBP, from outside or inside the UK, and for each dependant. The immigration health surcharge is 776 GBP a year for a student and for a student's dependants, paid in advance for the whole length of the permission. GOV.UK does not publish a price for an English language test, and there is no single published price for a tuberculosis test — each approved clinic sets its own, and GOV.UK prints it next to the clinic on its country lists.

Do I pay the immigration health surcharge upfront?

Yes. The whole amount is paid as part of the application, and it is charged on the length of the permission rather than the length of the course. GOV.UK charges a full year for permission of more than 6 months and under a year, a year and a half for permission of up to 18 months, and two years for permission of more than 18 months and less than 2 years. At the student rate of 776 GBP a year, 18 months comes to 1,164 GBP. This is on top of the visa application fee.

Can I get a refund on the immigration health surcharge if I leave the UK early?

No. GOV.UK states that you will not get a refund if you leave the UK before your visa ends, for example to make a new application. Refunds are given where the application is refused, where it is withdrawn before a decision, where the surcharge was paid twice for the same application, where you are granted less time than you asked for, or where a dependant on the application is refused.

What other costs are there, and does GOV.UK price them?

GOV.UK does not publish prices for translation, for a new passport issued by another country, or for the extra services a visa application centre sells. The two paid options GOV.UK does price are its own faster decision services: 500 GBP for the priority service and 1,000 GBP for super priority, and it says you are told when you apply whether either is open to you. Accommodation deposits and travel to the visa application centre are real costs too, but no official source publishes a figure for them.

This guide is general information about published immigration rules. It is not advice about an individual application under s.82 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and Rowan is not regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority. Immigration rules change several times a year. For advice on a particular situation, contact an adviser authorised by the Immigration Advice Authority or an immigration solicitor. Always check GOV.UK for the authoritative current rules.

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