UK Student Visa IHS Fee 2026: What Nepali Students Pay

What the IHS fee is for a UK student visa in 2026

The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) for a UK student visa is £1,035 per year of your visa. It is separate from the £558 visa application fee and the £65 TB test that Nepalese applicants must also pay — none of these three figures include tuition, and none of them include the maintenance funds you must separately show in your bank account.

The three visa costs beyond tuition

These are paid as part of the application, before you travel, and they are fixed amounts set by the Home Office — not something a university or agent can discount.

None of these figures move with which university you pick, or whether the course is in London or outside it. That distinction matters for maintenance funds, below, but not for the IHS, the visa fee, or the TB test.

How the IHS scales with your course length

The £1,035 figure is per year, and your visa is granted for the length of your course plus a short extra period — so a one-year taught masters and a three-year bachelor's degree are billed very differently. Work this out from the exact number of years and part-years on your own CAS and visa grant, not from the course length on the prospectus alone. A PG Certificate (around 4-6 months) and a PG Diploma (around 9 months) sit inside a single IHS year; a three-year or four-year bachelor's degree runs across several. Check the total shown at the point of application on the official form rather than assuming it from the course title — the Home Office system calculates it for your specific dates.

Maintenance funds: the number that actually decides your refusal

The IHS and visa fee are fixed and small compared with this one. The maintenance requirement is what most refusals turn on, because it depends on where your institution is and for how long you hold the money.

This maintenance amount is in addition to the tuition fee shown on your CAS, not a figure you subtract tuition from. The 9-month cap applies regardless of whether your course runs longer — a two-year masters still only requires 9 months of maintenance to be shown. London or non-London is a Home Office classification tied to where the specific campus sits, not how big or expensive the city feels, so confirm which side of that line your named campus falls on before you calculate anything.

On dependants: for a taught masters starting on or after 1 January 2024, dependants are not permitted at all. Only a PhD, another doctorate, a research-based higher degree, or a government-sponsored course over 6 months carries dependant rights. If a family is planning around a spouse or child joining, this has to be raised before the funds are gathered, not after.

Documents that sit alongside the visa fee

• CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) — issued after the deposit, carries the course, the fee and what has already been paid. Every other document is checked against it.
• Bank statements — the 28-day rule — the maintenance amount must sit in the account for 28 consecutive days, with that period ending within 31 days of the application date. This is the single most common refusal point, more common than the IHS or visa fee ever being wrong.
• Academic transcripts and certificates — NEB/+2 or bachelor's documents, sometimes needing 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 longer than 6 months.
• Sponsor documents — if the funds are not in the student's own name, you need relationship evidence, a consent letter, and the sponsor's own bank statements. Check whose name is actually on the account before submitting anything.
• ATAS certificate — only for some sensitive science and engineering postgraduate subjects.

For course-specific tuition and entry requirements once the visa costs are clear, the Master Reckoner tool matches a course to its real fee, English bar and intake without you cross-checking a dozen pages.

Common questions

How much is the UK student visa IHS fee for 2026?

£1,035 per year of the visa. It sits alongside a £558 visa application fee and, for Nepalese applicants, a £65 TB test — three separate fixed costs, none of which include tuition or living-cost funds.

What does a Nepali student actually need in the bank, beyond the IHS?

£1,483 per month for a London course or £1,136 per month outside London, for up to 9 months — so the maintenance figure sits on top of the tuition already shown on the CAS, the £558 visa fee, the £1,035-per-year IHS and the £65 TB test. The money has to sit in the account for 28 consecutive days, ending within 31 days of the application.

Can my spouse come with me on a one-year master's visa?

No. For postgraduate courses starting on or after 1 January 2024, dependants are only permitted on a PhD, another doctorate, a research-based higher degree, or a government-sponsored course over 6 months. A standard one-year MSc, MA or MBA does not qualify, whatever the dependant maintenance figures look like on paper.

What is the 28-day bank statement rule?

The full maintenance amount — tuition aside — must be held in the account for 28 consecutive days in a row, and that 28-day period has to end within 31 days of the date you submit the visa application. Submitting too early or too late against that window, even with the right amount of money, is the most common reason a maintenance refusal happens.

Official sources

Figures for the visa fee, IHS and maintenance thresholds are quoted from the UK government's Student visa guidance (gov.uk). For course-level detail once your visa budget is set, see university pages such as Ulster University and University of Bradford, or browse the full UK study guide hub and all guides on this site.