IHS Fee for UK Masters Student Visa 2026 | Nepal Guide

IHS Fee for a UK Masters Student Visa in 2026

The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) for a UK student visa is £1,035 per year of the visa. This is separate from the £558 visa application fee — you pay both, plus your tuition deposit and maintenance funds, before you can submit the application. The IHS gives you NHS access for the length of your visa; it is not a tuition cost and it does not appear on your CAS.

Most one-year taught masters are granted a visa slightly longer than 12 months, so the IHS is often charged for more than one year. The Home Office invoices this as part of the online application based on the exact dates on your CAS — check that screen rather than assuming a single year's charge. We are not going to multiply £1,035 by a guessed number of years here; your CAS and the visa application system will show the precise figure for your dates.

What the IHS Pays For — and What It Doesn't

The IHS buys access to the NHS on broadly the same terms as a UK resident, for the duration of your visa. It does not reduce your tuition fee, and it is not refundable just because you finish your course early unless you cancel the visa itself. Students sometimes confuse the IHS with health insurance required by the university — they are different things, and some universities also recommend or require separate cover, which is outside the scope of this fee.

Full Cost of Applying for the Visa

These are the fixed government charges that sit alongside your tuition and living costs. None of these change by university — they are the same whether you are going to Bradford or Exeter.

Item	Amount	Notes
Student visa application fee	£558	Paid once, at application
Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS)	£1,035 per year	Charged for the length of the visa shown on your CAS, not simply "one year"
TB test certificate	£65	Required for Nepalese applicants on courses longer than 6 months, from a UKVI-approved clinic

These three are paid on top of the tuition fee and the maintenance funds shown further down — do not fold them into your tuition budget or you will arrive short.

Maintenance Funds: The Figure That Actually Gets Checked

The visa officer checks your bank balance against a fixed monthly rate, not against what you expect to spend. The rate depends on whether your course is in London or outside it — a Home Office definition tied to where the institution is based, not how large the city feels.

Location	Monthly rate	Months counted	Deposit already paid is separate
London (e.g. UWL, City St George's, St Mary's, Huddersfield London, London Met)	£1,483/month	Up to 9 months maximum	Yes
Outside London (e.g. Bradford, Huddersfield, Ulster, Keele, MMU, Gloucestershire, UCA, Plymouth)	£1,136/month	Up to 9 months maximum	Yes

Two things trip up Nepali applicants more than any other part of this process:

The 28-day rule. The maintenance amount must sit in the account for 28 consecutive days, and that 28-day period must end within 31 days of the date you apply. A balance that only reaches the required level on day 20 does not count.
Maintenance is in addition to tuition, not instead of it. The CAS shows the tuition fee and what you've already paid as a deposit. The maintenance figure above is a separate pot the bank statement must show, on top of that.

Confirm which side of the London line your specific campus sits on before you calculate anything — it changes the monthly rate.

Dependants: Check This Before You Budget for a Family Visa

For a taught masters starting on or after 1 January 2024, dependants are not permitted at all. This applies regardless of the course fee or the student's financial strength. Only a PhD, another doctorate, a research-based higher degree, or a government-sponsored student on a course longer than six months carries dependant rights. If a family is planning around a spouse or child accompanying the student on a one-year MSc or MA, that plan needs to be corrected at the very first counselling session, not discovered at visa stage.

Documents to Have Ready Alongside the Fee Payments

Document	What it covers
Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS)	Issued after your deposit. Shows the course, the fee, and what's already paid — everything else is checked against it
Bank statements	Must satisfy the 28-day rule described above
Academic transcripts and certificates	NEB/+2 or bachelor's records; may need official translation
English language evidence	IELTS/PTE/TOEFL as the course requires, or an approved national qualification where the institution accepts one
TB test certificate	From a UKVI-approved clinic, for courses over 6 months
Passport	Valid for the length of the course
Sponsor documents	If funds are not in the student's own name — relationship evidence, consent letter, and the sponsor's own bank statements
ATAS certificate	Only for certain sensitive science and engineering postgraduate subjects

Use our Master Reckoner to check a specific course's fee, English requirement and entry bar against your own profile before you start gathering these documents — it saves a student from assembling a full file for a course they don't yet meet.

Common questions

Is the IHS fee the same for every UK masters course in 2026?

Yes — the published rate of £1,035 per year applies regardless of which university or course you're attending, because it is a visa charge, not a university charge. What varies is how many years (or part-years) of visa the Home Office grants based on your CAS dates, which changes how many times that per-year rate is applied.

Does the IHS fee cover health insurance for my whole family?

No, unless your family members are legally permitted dependants on your visa. For a taught masters starting on or after 1 January 2024, dependants are not permitted at all, so the IHS in that case covers the student only.

Do I pay the IHS fee and the visa fee together, or separately?

Both are paid as part of the same online student visa application — the visa fee of £558 and the IHS of £1,035 per year are separate line items within one payment process, not two separate applications.

Is the IHS fee refundable if I leave the UK early?

This guide does not hold a confirmed refund figure or process detail for early departure, so check the current rules directly on the official visa application pages before relying on a refund in your budget.

Official sources

University of Exeter — https://www.exeter.ac.uk/
Ulster University — https://www.ulster.ac.uk/
Manchester Metropolitan University — https://www.mmu.ac.uk/
Keele University — https://www.keele.ac.uk/
City St George's, University of London — https://www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/
University of Plymouth — https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/
University of Huddersfield — https://www.hud.ac.uk/
University of Huddersfield (London) — https://london.hud.ac.uk/
St Mary's University, Twickenham — https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/
University of West London — https://www.uwl.ac.uk/
University for the Creative Arts — https://www.uca.ac.uk/
University of Gloucestershire — https://www.glos.ac.uk/

For a full walkthrough of the UK study route from offer to visa, see our UK study guide, and browse all guides for course-specific breakdowns.