The standard Immigration Health Surcharge rate is £1,035 per person per year in 2026, with a reduced rate of £776 for students, their dependants, Youth Mobility Scheme applicants and under-18s. The Home Office calculates your liability using the maximum period of leave granted for your visa route, applying the rate in force on the date you submit your completed application, not the date you pay.
TL;DR:
- The IHS rates remain at £1,035 for the standard and £776 for the reduced in 2026, with no increase despite the April fee update.
- The fee is calculated based on the maximum permitted leave period, not the intended stay, with each full year costing the applicable rate.
- exemptions include certain visa categories such as health workers, indefinite leave applicants, EU settlement, and asylum seekers, who pay nothing.
- Refunds are available only if applications are refused, withdrawn, or paid twice; refunds must be claimed within specific windows and require supporting evidence.
- Practitioners advise confirming the maximum visa length, correct rate, and confirming eligibility before payment to avoid delays or overpayment.
Table of Contents
- What is the IHS fee in 2026 and who pays it?
- How is the IHS calculated for part-years and full years?
- Who is exempt from the IHS, and how do refunds work?
- How do I pay the IHS fee and check my reference?
- Did the IHS fee change in the April 2026 update?
- What does the IHS actually cost for common visa lengths?
- What do practitioners see go wrong with IHS payments?
- How Mnssolicitors helps with IHS calculations and urgent applications
- Sources
- FAQ
What is the IHS fee in 2026 and who pays it?
The rates have not moved since 6 February 2024, and they remain the figures you should budget against for any 2026 application. Split into half-years, the standard rate works out at £517.50 for six months, and the reduced rate comes to £388.
Who pays which rate depends entirely on visa category, not income or personal circumstance. The Home Office guidance on the surcharge sets out the reduced-rate categories clearly:
- Student visa holders and their dependants
- Youth Mobility Scheme applicants
- Anyone applying for a visa aged under 18 on the date of application
Most other routes, including Skilled Worker, spouse, fiancé, visitor extensions inside the UK, and business visas, pay the standard rate.
Certain applicants pay nothing at all. Full exemptions cover Health and Care Worker visa holders and their dependants, anyone applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain, EU Settlement Scheme applicants, asylum seekers and specific humanitarian categories such as Ukraine Scheme applicants and victims of trafficking, according to Gov. Diplomats and visiting armed forces personnel are also exempt, and the rules for the Isle of Man and Channel Islands differ slightly because those territories sit outside the NHS funding arrangement that the surcharge supports.
How is the IHS calculated for part-years and full years?
The Home Office does not calculate your charge against how long you actually plan to stay. It calculates against the maximum period of leave your visa route allows, which is a legally defined concept rather than a guess about your circumstances. Caseworker guidance confirms this is deliberate: the surcharge buys NHS access on broadly the same footing as a permanent resident, and the Home Office needs a fixed, verifiable period to price that access against, rather than relying on an applicant’s stated intentions.
That single principle explains most of the confusion applicants have about their bill. A Skilled Worker sponsored for a two-year contract but granted permission for the visa’s full statutory length will pay for that full length, not the two years they expect to work.
The rounding mechanics follow a consistent pattern, laid out in the statutory Immigration (Health Charge) Order and the accompanying Home Office guidance:
- Any period up to and including six months counts as a half-year charge.
- Any period over six months but not a full year rounds up to a full year charge.
- Each additional full year adds one more annual charge at the applicable rate.
Pro Tip: Check the exact grant length for your specific route before you calculate, not just the visa category name. Two applicants on what sounds like “the same visa” can receive different maximum periods depending on sponsorship type or immigration history.
One statutory wrinkle catches out applicants making certain applications outside the standard Immigration Rules: in specific defined circumstances a multiplier of 2.5 applies to the calculation. This is a narrow scenario, and if you think it might affect you, it is worth having a solicitor confirm the correct figure before you pay rather than after.
The date that fixes your rate is the date you submit your completed application. Someone who paid the 2024 rate on an earlier attempt but resubmits in 2026 is still charged at the rate in force on the new submission date, per the Home Office’s own guidance on this point.
Who is exempt from the IHS, and how do refunds work?
Exemptions and refunds are separate mechanisms, and mixing them up is one of the most common mistakes applicants make. An exemption means you never pay in the first place; a refund means you paid and later qualify to get some or all of it back.
The full exemption list, confirmed by GOV.UK, covers:
- Health and Care Worker visa holders and their dependants
- Indefinite Leave to Remain applicants
- EU Settlement Scheme applicants
- Asylum seekers and specific humanitarian categories, including Ukraine Scheme applicants
- Diplomats and visiting forces personnel
Refunds fall into two categories. A full refund applies where a visa application is refused, withdrawn before a decision is made, or where the surcharge was accidentally paid twice, according to GOV.UK’s refund guidance. A partial refund applies where the visa actually granted is shorter than the period paid for, or where an eligible EU, Swiss, Norwegian, Icelandic or Liechtenstein student held a valid EHIC covering their UK study period.
Student EHIC refunds carry their own procedural quirk worth knowing about: the NHS Business Services Authority rounds these refunds down to the nearest six-month block, and claims must be made with the right supporting documents within a defined window. Miss that window and the refund can lapse, so gathering evidence, EHIC details, employment payslips for health and care refund claims, and confirmation of visa outcome promptly matters far more than most applicants realise. If you withdrew an application and are unsure how that affects your refund, our guide to withdrawing a visa application covers the practical steps.
Full refunds for refused or withdrawn applications are usually processed automatically once the Home Office updates its records, but that automation depends on your case being closed cleanly in their system. Our guide to claiming a UK visa fee refund sets out the five-year claim limit and what to do if an automatic refund never arrives.
How do I pay the IHS fee and check my reference?
You pay the surcharge as part of your online visa application, through the same government service that processes your immigration form. The system generates an IHS reference number, a unique code tied to your payment, which you should keep alongside your visa application reference for the entire duration of your stay.
Before you submit anything, it is worth running your own numbers against the official guidance rather than trusting a figure you’ve seen quoted elsewhere:
- Confirm the maximum period of leave for your specific route, not an estimate of how long you intend to stay
- Apply the correct half-year or full-year rounding rule to that period
- Use the rate in force on your intended submission date, since rates can change between now and when you actually apply
- Keep a screenshot or PDF receipt of your payment confirmation and IHS reference as proof
If you discover you paid the wrong amount, whether through miscalculating the period or applying the wrong rate, contact the Home Office promptly and keep every piece of correspondence. Duplicate payments are one of the more common errors and typically qualify for a full refund, but only if you can demonstrate both payments were made against the same application.
Did the IHS fee change in the April 2026 update?
No. The Home Office published a revised fee schedule on 8 April 2026 that increased many visa application fees, but the Immigration Health Surcharge itself was left untouched. The rates you should use for any 2026 application remain £1,035 standard and £776 reduced, exactly as they have been since February 2024.
The figure to trust: £1,035 (standard) and £776 (reduced) are the only correct 2026 IHS rates. Any figure that differs from these, including the £1,145 amount that circulates in some unofficial visa forums and third-party guides, is either outdated, mistaken, or refers to a different fee entirely.
That distinction matters because visa application fees and the health surcharge are governed separately. Application fees change through routine Home Office fee orders; the surcharge itself can only change through a new statutory instrument amending the Immigration (Health Charge) Order. No such instrument has been laid for 2026, which is why the April fee update left it alone. If you want to confirm the current position before submitting, the safest move is to check the official legislation page directly rather than relying on a forum thread or a third-party calculator that hasn’t been updated.
What does the IHS actually cost for common visa lengths?
Numbers make this far easier to plan around than percentages or rate tables alone. Below is what the surcharge comes to for the visa lengths most applicants ask about, using the standard £1,035 and reduced £776 annual rates:
- Six months: £517.50 standard, £388 reduced
- One year: £1,035 standard, £776 reduced
- Sixteen months: rounds up to two years under the part-year rule, so £2,070 standard, £1,552 reduced
- Two years: £2,070 standard, £1,552 reduced
- Three years: £3,105 standard, £2,328 reduced
- Five years: £5,175 standard, £3,880 reduced
A Skilled Worker granted the common three-year maximum period pays £3,105 at the standard rate, a figure worth having confirmed in writing before you commit funds, particularly if your sponsor’s certificate suggests a shorter contract. Our guide to choosing the right high-skilled visa route walks through how grant length varies by route.
A student granted a typical three-year undergraduate course pays the reduced rate across that period, £2,328 in total, unless an EHIC refund applies later. Our checklist for student visa evidence requirements is useful if you’re assembling the financial documents alongside your surcharge payment. A spouse visa granted for 33 months, a common initial partner route length, rounds up to three full years under the six-month rule, giving a total of £3,105.
Before you calculate your own figure, confirm four things: your route’s maximum grant period, your submission date, whether you qualify for the reduced rate, and whether any dependants need separate calculations of their own, since each dependant pays their own surcharge at the applicable rate.
What do practitioners see go wrong with IHS payments?
Three mistakes come up repeatedly. Applicants calculate against their intended stay rather than the maximum period of leave; they use an outdated rate found on an old forum post; and they miss refund claim windows because they didn’t keep evidence at the point their circumstances changed.
A quick pre-payment check covers most of it: confirm your route’s maximum grant length, confirm the rate in force on your submission date, and calculate each dependant separately. Where the calculation involves a statutory multiplier, a disputed refund, or an urgent submission deadline, that’s precisely when professional input earns its cost.
— michelle
How Mnssolicitors helps with IHS calculations and urgent applications
Getting the IHS figure wrong on a visa application can mean delays, a rejected payment, or a refund claim you didn’t know you were entitled to. Professional legal advice is an alternative to guessing your own calculation or relying on a forum thread. Every enquiry is handled directly by a qualified solicitor from the outset, with clear, fixed pricing so you know the cost before you commit.
An initial consultation runs for one hour at a fixed £120, giving you a direct answer on your correct IHS liability, exemption eligibility, or refund position before you submit anything to the Home Office. If your situation is time-sensitive, perhaps a visa deadline is days away or a refund window is closing, the urgent visa application service can prepare your case fast, without the back-and-forth of a call centre. For broader support, from Skilled Worker applications to settlement and appeals, the full range sits on the services page. Book a consultation and get your figures checked before you pay a penny to the Home Office.
This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified lawyer. Consult a qualified legal professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.
FAQ
How much is 2 years of IHS?
Two years of the surcharge costs £2,070 at the standard rate or £1,552 at the reduced rate for students, their dependants, Youth Mobility Scheme applicants and under-18s. The figure applies per person, so each dependant on the application pays their own amount at the same rate.
How much will it cost to get British citizenship in 2026?
Naturalisation involves a separate Home Office application fee plus a citizenship ceremony fee, which sit apart from the IHS since the surcharge only applies to time-limited visas, not citizenship applications. If you need help preparing a naturalisation application, Mnssolicitors offers this as a fixed-fee service at £950.
Is ILR increasing to 10 years?
Proposals to extend the standard qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain have been discussed by government, but this relates to residence requirements, not the IHS. ILR applicants remain exempt from the surcharge regardless of any change to the qualifying period, according to GOV.UK guidance.
What is the IHS fee in the UK for 2026?
The standard rate is £1,035 per person per year and the reduced rate is £776 per person per year, unchanged since February 2024 and confirmed unaffected by the April 2026 Home Office fee update. Your total charge depends on the maximum period of leave granted for your specific visa route.
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