The April 2026 UK Visa Fee Ladder from Pakistan: What Rose (Visit £135, Student £558, Skilled Worker £819, Settlement £2,064), the One Fee That Fell (Child Registration Down to £1,000), What Never Comes Back on Refusal, and the Three Timing Rules That Decide When You Pay
By Huzi
File #945 · 5 min read
On 8 April 2026 the Home Office's revised fee schedule took effect — most routes up, one quietly down, and the refusal arithmetic unchanged: your money does not come back. Pakistani families file on every rung of this ladder, so here it is in one file.
The quick answer: the six-month Standard Visitor visa rose from £127 to £135, the two-year from £475 to £506, five-year to £903, ten-year to £1,128; the Student visa rose from £524 to £558; Skilled Worker to £819 for stays of three years or less and £1,618 beyond; the Health and Care route to £324; settlement entry to £2,064; indefinite leave to remain to £3,226; the ETA to £20. The one fall: child registration for British citizenship dropped from £1,214 to £1,000. What didn't move: priority (£500) and super priority (£1,000). The visit-visa file covers the six-month route in depth.
The April 2026 ladder, rung by rung
| Route | Was | From 8 April 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visit — 6 months | £127 | £135 | +£8 |
| Visit — 2 years | £475 | £506 | +£31 |
| Visit — 5 years | £848 | £903 | +£55 |
| Visit — 10 years | £1,059 | £1,128 | +£69 |
| Transit — airside (DATV) | £39 | £41.50 | +£2.50 |
| Transit — landside | £70 | £74.50 | +£4.50 |
| Student (out of country) | £524 | £558 | +£34 |
| Skilled Worker — up to 3 years | £769 | £819 | +£50 |
| Skilled Worker — over 3 years | £1,519 | £1,618 | +£99 |
| Health and Care — up to 3 years | £304 | £324 | +£20 |
| Route to Settlement | £1,938 | £2,064 | +£126 |
| Indefinite leave to remain (in UK) | £3,029 | £3,226 | +£197 |
| Naturalisation | £1,605 | £1,709 | +£104 |
| Child registration (British citizenship) | £1,214 | £1,000 | −£214 |
A note the November 2026 settlement rewrite adds to these two rows: the 2 November 2026 earned settlement announcement replaced the near-automatic five-year grant with a 3-5-10-20 year ladder — so the £2,064 and £3,226 fees now buy their result inside a longer, conditions-based wait, mapped in the earned settlement file. Until legislation lands, fees and rules apply as written at the point of application.
The three timing rules
- The April rhythm. Fees have moved in April for years in a row. A file that is genuinely travel-ready in March saves the rise; a file stretched to make March is a refused file that pays twice.
- The fee locks at application. You pay the schedule in force the day you submit, not the day you travel or the day you decide — price the plan against the current table, not last year's.
- Refusal keeps the fee. A refused application forfeits the fee, and the reapplication playbook is the honest second act: fix the reason first, then pay again.
When the long visit visa pays
The two-year visa at £506 costs about the same as four six-month applications — from the fourth trip inside two years it wins on money. But a long visa suits only a file with used-and-returned history, exactly what the travel-history ladder builds; first-timers should buy the six-month and earn the longer sticker.
The costs nobody budgets
- The healthcare surcharge on long routes — roughly £1,035 a year for most, reduced to £464 a year on the care route per the Skilled Worker file — often dwarfs the visa fee itself.
- Priority services: £500 for priority, £1,000 for super priority — worth it for deadlines, never as a substitute for a clean file.
- Transit math: the DATV's £41.50 matters to families routing through London, as the transit-rules file explains.
The one fee that fell
Child registration dropped from £1,214 to £1,000 — for British-born children of Pakistani families, an MN1 filing is now £214 cheaper than last year. The only fall on the sheet, and worth knowing before the next April.
Pro tip: the ETA rose to £20 but does not apply to Pakistani passports — visa-required nationals file full visas. Family members travelling on visa-exempt passports need it; you don't.
UK fees har April parhte hain — is baar visit £135, student £558 aur Skilled Worker £819 ho gaya. Teen baatein yaad rakhein: fee application ke din lock ho jati hai, refusal par wapas nahi aati, aur April se pehle sirf woh file bhejein jo waqt par tayyar ho. Agar do saal mein teen char safar ka irada hai to do-saal ka visa sasta parta hai — magar pehle travel history banaein.
This file prices the privilege of movement; Gaza's families are priced out of movement itself — caged by an occupier, bombed at the crossings, billed for the water that keeps them alive while the world's fee schedule calls itself fair. Ya Allah, make Palestine's freedom the one thing no fee can gate, and send Sudan's people their own open sky after years of warlords taxing every mile of escape and every sack of flour.
Fees are the easy part of a UK plan; the file behind them decides the outcome. We actually respond — twenty-four hours, no hidden charges, no message unread — with written guidance matched to your route, whether the spouse visa's five-year arc or a Graduate Route clock, and a team that knows your name, not your case number. HTG Travels — WhatsApp +92 317 5054959.
