UK Visa Fee Increase April 2026: New Costs for Work, Student & ILR Applications. Starting on April 8, 2026, the UK government will hike the fees for Work, Study, Settlement Visas, and Sponsor Licences.
The Home Office has said that starting on April 8, 2026, immigration and nationality fees will substantially up for all types of visas, settlement applications, and sponsor licenses.
Most fees will go up by about 6–7 percent. This will affect work, student, and guest visas, as well as the expenses of employer sponsorship.
The change shows that the UK government is still moving toward a system where applicants and businesses pay more of the costs of immigration. It comes after other increases in 2025, such as the Immigration Skills Charge and the Immigration Health Surcharge.
Several important visa routes will see small hikes under the new framework. The charge for a Skilled Worker visa application that lasts up to three years will go up from £769 to £819. The fee for an application that lasts more than three years will go up from £1,519 to £1,618. The cost of a student visa will go up from £524 to £558, and the cost of a six-month tourist visa will go up from £127 to £135.
For people who are already in the UK, the cost of a Skilled Worker visa will go up from £885 to £943 for stays of up to three years and from £1,751 to £1,865 for longer stays. The price of Indefinite Leave to Remain will also go up, from £3,029 to £3,226.
Fees for sponsor licenses and ETAs have also changed.
Charges relating to employers are also going up. Fees for a Worker Sponsor Licence will go up from £1,579 to £1,682 for big businesses and from £574 to £611 for small businesses. The charge for the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) will rise from £16 to £20.
The Home Office said the hikes were small and connected them to inflation. But experts say that raising fees over and over again will probably make it much more expensive to hire and move international workers to the UK.
These changes will immediately effect the budgets and expense planning for hiring overseas personnel through different application procedures for organisations who do so.
Businesses will have to look over and update their immigration budgets and any internal documents that have to do with fees to show the new charges for all sponsored routes. They should also make sure that the expense estimates they give to both current and potential sponsored workers are up to date. Click Here to Read More and See the Main Points Below
- Starting on April 8, 2026, the cost of UK immigration and nationality will go up.
- Changes influence applications for work, study, visit, settle, and citizenship.
- Costs for Skilled Worker visas and sponsor licenses are going up.
- The cost of studying in the UK has gone up because student visa fees have gone up.
- Fees for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) and British citizenship are similarly expensive.
- Fees for registering a child’s citizenship have gone down, which is good news for families.
- Most of the fees for priority services and the Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) stay the same.
- The date you submit your visa application, not the date you get a decision, determines the charge.
- Costs like the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) can add a lot to the total cost.
- If you pay the wrong fee, your application could be delayed or turned down.