Planning to study in the UK from Nepal? Before you book your IELTS or PTE exam or start collecting documents for your CAS, you need a clear picture of exactly how much the UK Student visa will cost you — because it’s more than just one application fee. Between the visa fee itself, the Immigration Health Surcharge, and the maintenance funds you must show in your bank account, the total upfront cost can easily run into lakhs of rupees before you’ve paid a single rupee of tuition.
This guide breaks down every fee a Nepalese student needs to budget for a UK Student visa in 2026, based on the current Home Office fee schedule.
UK Student Visa Application Fee: £558
From 8 April 2026, the Home Office increased visa fees across most immigration routes. The Student visa application fee rose from £524 to £558, whether you’re applying from Nepal or extending/switching your visa from inside the UK. Child Student visa applicants pay the same £558 fee.
Key point for timing your application: the fee that applies is based on your submission date, not when you start preparing your documents. If you already have your CAS and documents ready, there’s no fee benefit to delaying — the £558 rate is now the standard rate for all new applications.
In Nepali rupees, at typical exchange rates, this comes to roughly NPR 95,000–100,000, though the exact amount depends on the day’s conversion rate since UK visa fees are charged in GBP and converted using the Home Office’s own exchange rate policy, which can differ slightly from your bank’s rate.
Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS): £776 per Year
Alongside the visa fee, every international student must pay the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), which gives you access to the NHS during your studies. For students, this is £776 per year of visa length granted — and this rate has stayed the same even through the April 2026 fee increase.
This is where costs add up quickly, because you don’t pay per year of your course — you pay for the full length of visa granted, which typically includes your course duration plus a short buffer period (usually one month before your course starts and 2–4 months after it ends).
Example for a Nepalese student on a 1-year master’s: Most one-year master’s programmes result in a visa of around 16 months, meaning you’ll be charged for 2 full years of IHS: £776 × 2 = £1,552, paid upfront at the time of application.
Example for a 3-year bachelor’s degree: IHS for 3 years = £776 × 3 = £2,328
Combined with the £558 application fee, a 3-year bachelor’s degree applicant should budget approximately £2,886 (roughly NPR 4.9–5 lakhs) just for the visa and health surcharge — before tuition or living costs. Nepalese students can use our calculator to estimate total cost to study in UK.
Total Cost Snapshot for a Nepalese Student (Outside the UK)
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Student visa application fee | £558 |
| IHS (1-year master’s, ~2 yrs charged) | £1,552 |
| IHS (3-year bachelor’s) | £2,328 |
| Priority service (optional, 5 working days) | £500 |
| Super Priority service (optional) | £1,000 |
For Nepalese students, the real cost of a UK Student visa isn’t just the £558 headline figure — it’s the combination of the application fee, the Immigration Health Surcharge, and the maintenance funds requirement that together can total several lakhs of rupees before tuition even enters the picture. Getting the numbers right — and timing the 28-day fund window correctly — is often the difference between a smooth approval and an avoidable refusal.
Always verify current fees on gov.uk before submitting an application, as rates are subject to change.
