Health cover on a UK student visa: the surcharge and private insurance

For most students the health cost of a UK student visa is not an insurance premium at all: it is the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), which GOV.UK prints at £776 per year for students and which is paid as part of the visa application. A private health insurance policy is a separate, optional purchase on top. If you are weighing that second decision, this page's enquiry form leads to a no-cost phone call from the FCA-authorised broker we introduce, who can price a policy on your own details; the rest of this page sets out the surcharge first, then what private cover can and cannot add.

Student visa health surcharge: the rates GOV.UK prints

The figures here come from the "How much you have to pay" section of GOV.UK's guide "Pay for UK healthcare as part of your immigration application" (www.gov.uk/healthcare-immigration-application, read on 21 October 2026). They are copied as printed, and the Home Office sets and changes them, so check the live page on the day you apply. Under the heading "Cost for a year", the guide lists three lines:

• "£776 per year for students, their dependants, and those on a Youth Mobility Scheme visa, for example £1,552 for a 2-year visa"
• "£776 per year for visa and immigration applicants who are under the age of 18 at time of application"
• "£1,035 per year for all other visa and immigration applications, for example £3,105 for a 3-year visa"

A student applying in their own right is on the first line, and a child applicant is on the second, which carries the same yearly sum. The higher third line is for routes that are neither. How many years you pay for, and whether a part-year is charged in full, depends on something other than your course, which is where the next section starts.

How the amount follows your visa, not your course

The guide is explicit on this: "The exact amount you pay depends on the length of your visa. A visa may last longer than your course of study or period of employment." The number to work from is the length of the visa you are granted, and GOV.UK sets out the part-year rules like this:

• 6 months or less, applying from outside the UK: "You do not need to pay the surcharge if you’re applying from outside the UK for 6 months or less."
• 6 months or less, applying from inside the UK: half the yearly cost, with the example "£388 for students, their dependants or under-18 applications".
• More than 6 months but less than one year: the cost of a full year, wherever you apply from.
• More than a year: the yearly cost plus half the yearly cost if the visa is for 18 months or less, or the cost of 2 full years if it is for more than 18 months but less than 2 years.

The two worked examples on the page, £1,552 for a 2-year visa at the student rate and £3,105 for a 3-year visa at the other rate, are whole years at the yearly figure. A one-year master's whose visa runs on past the last teaching date can land in a different band from the length of the course alone, so read the visa length on your application before you add anything up.

Paying it, using the NHS, and getting it back

GOV.UK's "Student visa" guide lists the surcharge as part of the application, alongside the visa fee. The healthcare guide gives the mechanics: you pay when you apply, by debit or credit card; a student is asked for their course dates; and an IHS reference number follows by email so you can finish the visa form. If you do not pay, or pay too little, UK Visas and Immigration emails you, and you then have 10 working days to pay from inside the UK or 7 from outside it. Miss that window, or pay short, and the guide says the application will be turned down.

What the payment buys is set out in the same guide: "You can start using the NHS free of charge from the date your visa starts. You must have already paid the IHS if you need to." Two limits follow: you may need to pay for NHS treatment if the Home Office has not yet decided your visa, and some services are still charged, the guide naming prescriptions, dental treatment, eye tests and assisted conception as examples.

The overlap with insurance is answered in a single line under "Who needs to pay": "You still need to pay even if you have private medical insurance." A policy is no substitute for the surcharge, and the surcharge needs no policy behind it.

On refunds, the guide gives a full refund where you paid twice for the same application, where the visa is refused, or where you withdraw before a decision. A partial refund is due if the visa is granted for less time than you asked, if a dependant on the application is refused (you get only their share back), or if you paid twice for the same period when extending or switching inside the UK; that last kind is rounded down to the nearest 6 months, and nothing comes back for an overlap of under 6 months. You do not need to apply for these: the money goes back to the card or account that paid, usually within 6 weeks of the visa decision, though an appeal or administrative review can make it longer.

There is a separate route for some European students. GOV.UK says you can apply for a full or partial refund only if all four of these are true: you are a full-time student in UK higher education, your visa started on or after 1 January 2021, you hold a European Healthcare Insurance Card issued in an EU country, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein, and you do not work and do not plan to work while you study. The earliest period it can cover depends on where the card was issued, and the amount depends on when the card runs out.

Someone coming on a visitor visa pays no surcharge at all, and their position is on private health insurance for visitors to the UK; how the NHS and a UK policy fit together for other visa holders is on private health insurance for non-UK nationals.

What private cover can add once the surcharge is paid

The surcharge opens the NHS to you. A private medical policy does something narrower: planned treatment for a new condition, usually after a GP referral, with a choice of consultant and a private hospital. Whether that is worth paying for while you study turns mostly on how long you might otherwise wait, and current figures for that are on private health insurance and waiting times.

Insurers frame their own role the same way. AXA Health's Personal Health membership handbook (October 2024, print code PB116343a/10.24; the copy read is hosted by the intermediary more-health.co.uk, PDF page 7) answers the question of whether members still need the NHS with "No, your insurance is not designed to cover every situation. It is designed to add to, not replace, the NHS." For a student that is a sound way to look at it: the GP, prescriptions and emergencies stay with the NHS, and a policy sits beside them for eligible private treatment.

A student also has a timing question that a settled resident does not. A visa has an end date, and a policy runs for a year. How a given insurer treats someone whose permission to stay finishes partway through a policy year is something an FCA-authorised broker can check with several insurers on the free call-back, so mention your visa end date when you ask for it.

What a policy will not pay for, even for a student

Three exclusions catch younger buyers out, because they are the things people assume a policy handles.

A condition you already have or have had. AXA's handbook (PDF page 14) says: "A pre-existing condition is any disease, illness or injury that: you have received medication, advice or treatment for in the five years before the start of your cover, or you have experienced symptoms of in the five years before the start of your cover: whether or not the condition was diagnosed." Bupa's By You policy guide (BINS 14718, © Bupa 2024, for policies starting after 1 May 2024, on bupa.co.uk, PDF page 50) ties its definition instead to the time before your effective underwriting date, and counts medication, advice or treatment, symptoms, or simply knowing you had it, diagnosed or not. The underwriting route you join on changes how either definition is applied, and do insurers cover pre-existing conditions? walks through those routes.

A long-term condition. The same Bupa guide (PDF page 28) states "Treatment of chronic conditions isn’t covered." It counts a condition as chronic if it has any one of six characteristics, such as a need for long-term monitoring, the lack of a known cure, or a tendency to return, and it adds that expected flare-ups of a chronic condition are not covered either. A student managing asthma or a recurring skin condition at university should read that definition against their own history before buying; the way other insurers would view the same history is something the broker can find out and explain on the free call.

Emergency care. Bupa's guide (PDF page 27) says "Treatment, including immediate care, provided by an NHS or private accident and emergency (A&E) department, urgent care or walk-in clinic isn’t covered." Treatment after an admission through A&E, an urgent care centre or a walk-in clinic is excluded too, although the guide makes an exception: once you have left the A&E, urgent care or walk-in setting, eligible consultant treatment in a recognised facility is covered. AXA's handbook (PDF page 11) gives the practical version: "In an emergency, please call for an NHS ambulance or go to a hospital A&E department. Most private hospitals are not set up for emergency treatment." Emergencies stay with the NHS whether or not you buy a policy.

Pricing a policy around a fixed-term visa

A premium comes from an individual quote, priced on your age, address, the cover you choose and your medical history, and nothing on this page should be read as what you would pay. Our nearest indicative figure, which is for adults in their thirties and so not a guide for an 18-year-old, is given with its limits on private health insurance for students, which also covers the term-time and home address question. The direction of the main settings is general: a bigger excess, less out-patient cover or a shorter hospital list will usually bring the premium down, and in return more of any claim falls to you, and what is a private health insurance excess? shows how that works.

What is particular to a visa holder is the residence test. Insurers word it differently, and the page on non-UK nationals goes through two insurers' wording, so do not assume a policy bought in your first term can run for as long as you would like. Leaving the UK to study elsewhere is a different question again, covered on international cover for students.

Points a visa holder should settle before accepting a quote:

• If my visa ends before the policy year does, what happens to the cover, and to a claim still being treated, when I leave the UK?
• Does the insurer ask how long I have lived here, or how long I intend to stay, before it accepts me?
• Can a partner or child who is on my visa as a dependant join the same policy?
• Is the premium monthly or annual, and what happens to it if I cancel when my course finishes?

A broker can take those to a number of insurers in one call and set the quotes side by side for you. Your visa end date, date of birth and postcode are enough to begin, and asking costs nothing.

Student visa health insurance costs: common questions

How much is health insurance for a UK student visa, and what is the fee called?

The charge that comes with the visa is the Immigration Health Surcharge, which GOV.UK prints at £776 per year for students, with £1,552 for a 2-year visa as its example. It is paid by card with the application, and the total follows the length of the visa, not the course. A private policy is extra and is priced by quote.

How much is student health insurance in the UK on top of the surcharge?

A UK policy is priced on your own age, postcode, cover and health history, so the figure is personal to you; the nearest indicative marker we hold is on the students page linked above, with its limits. If you want to know what moves your own figure, the broker can go through it with you when they ring back after your request.

What does health insurance cost for a master's student in the UK?

The surcharge works the same way for a master's student as for any other: the visa length sets it, so a visa of more than 6 months but under a year is charged as a full year, and one of more than a year but no more than 18 months as a year and a half. Any private policy is priced like anyone else's.

Do my partner and children pay too?

GOV.UK says "Dependants aged 18 or over usually need to pay the same amount as you." Its £776 yearly figure covers students' dependants and applicants under 18, and if your own visa is granted but a dependant on the application is refused, their share of the surcharge comes back to you.

Do I get the surcharge back if I leave the UK before my visa ends?

Going by GOV.UK, no. Its list of cases with no refund includes "you leave the UK before your visa ends, for example to make a new application", and it also rules out a refund where the visa is granted but you never come to the UK.