Immigration Health Surcharge
Section 1: Purpose and Contents of this page:
All you need to know about the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS).
If you are applying for immigration permission to enter or remain in the UK for more than 6 months, you will need to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) when you submit your visa application.
This payment is in addition to the visa application fee and is not optional, even if you have or intend to purchase private medical insurance for your time in the UK.
Paying the IHS means that you will be entitled to use the NHS (National Health Service) in the UK.
In addition to emergency health care, you will not be charged for hospital treatment or further medical treatment.
Please note that you will still need to pay for certain types of services (e.g. prescriptions, dental treatments and eye tests.).
If you are from an EU country and are applying for a Student visa:
You will need to pay this charge as well, however, you may be eligible for a IHS Reimbursement.
Please see the guidance on the following link for full details:
The current fees for students (and their dependants) is £470 per person per twelve months of leave granted (or £235 per 6 months of leave).
If unsure, use this GOV TOOLLink opens in a new window to find out how much you need to pay
For more information about the length of leave you will be granted click here.
Example 1:
An undergraduate student applying for student visafor a three year course has a CAS start date of 23/09/2022 and a course end date of 27/06/2025. They should be granted additional 4 months after the 'course end date' on the CAS (i.e., visa expiry date will be 27/10/2025).
Student visa length from course start date to visa expiry date = 38 months (3 years + 2 months) = IHS payment £1,645.
Example 2:
A Masters student applying for student visa along with their spouse as a dependant for a 12 months course with a CAS start date of 01/10/2022 and end date of 30/09/2023. They should be granted a total of 4 additional months after the 'course end date' on the CAS (i.e., visa expiry date will be 30/01/2023).
Leave granted = 16 months (1 year & 4 months) x 2 applicants (student and dependant) = IHS payment £1,410.
Please note that if you are making your visa application from outside the UK, you will be charged in local currency. Exchange rates can go up or down and the Home Office sets the exchange rates at a level which ensures that the risk associated with fluctuating rates is kept to a minimum and an applicant does not pay less than the sterling fee set out in the relevant Fees Regulations. For more information, please refer to the Home Office's Exchange Rate Policy.
When making a visa application online, the payment of the IHS is part of the application process. The form will automatically calculate the correct IHS payment depending on the information entered in the visa details section.
You will need to have access to a credit or debit card which can be used to pay the health charge (and the visa application fee) online. There is no requirement to hold the IHS fee for 28 days or to provide evidence of sufficient funds to cover the health fee in the visa application. However, students using the same account to pay the visa application fee and health charge as they are using to evidence maintenance, should ensure that there is enough money available to cover everything.
If you are due a refund (as a result of a visa refusal, duplicate payment or miscalculation on the form), this should be automatically refunded to your original source of payment within 6 weeks of receiving a decision on your visa application.
Please note: you will not get a refund if your visa was curtailed, shortened or if you changed coourses and had to make a visa appliation from overseas.
If you are unsure whether you are eligible for a refund, please read more information about the UKVI's Refund Policy.
If no refund is issued to you automatically when you believe you are eligible to receive one, you can contact us to make an enquiry to the UKVI on your behalf. You will need to include evidence of duplicate payment (for example, the Worldpay email receipt) with your email and provide the GWF number/ application reference number.
IHS refund for continuing students:
Please note that if you are part way through your course and need to make a further stuent visa application to complete that course (for example, you changed course from a 3-year to a 4-year course, and are applying for your new visa when you are in Year 2), there will be no refund to the overlapping period of IHS fees if you applied for your visa from outside the UK.
However, if you made this visa application within the UK, then you will be eligible for a refund for any overlapping IHS payment for periods of 6 months or more. Any overlapping IHS payment for a period of less than 6 months will not be refunded.
If you need to pay IHS but the payment calculation is showing as 0, it might be that you have answered one of the questions incorrectly (for example, if you answer yes to 'are you under local authority care?' or yes to 'are you studying in the Isle of Man?'). Don't worry though, as this will not cause a refusal.
If this happens, please go ahead and pay for your student visa online application as normal. Attend your visa appointment and submit your documents as normal. When your visa application is processed after the appointment, the UKVI caseworker will check if the correct payment is made and if not, you will receive an email from the UKVI with a link for top-up payment (they will usually give you 7 days to pay but obviously the earlier you pay, the earlier your application will be considered). This will mean a slight delay on your visa application processing time but hopefully only by a few days. Please make sure that you keep checking your email and its junk/spam folder as failure to pay the IHS within its due date will result in a visa rejection.
Section 7: What if I answered one of the questions on the IHS form incorrectly, but the amount of payment made is correct?:
Section 8: I entered my credit card details for payment but then the web-page crashed. What do I do?:
Section 9: I have tried everything but still cannot pay the IHS fee/ the web-page does not take me to the next page:
You won't need to pay the IHS if you're applying for a visitor visa or for a visa (including student visa) for 6 months or less (from outside the UK). For details of exemptions please visit the gov.uk website.
Please click on the following link and submit our online contact form:
Please click on the following links for more information
UK Government:
Other contacts: