Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) will increase from £400 to £624 a year starting October 2020.
Update (06 October 2020): The order was made today, the Immigration Health Surcharge increase will take place 21 days from now on 27 October 2020.
Update (24 September 2020): The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) increase has been delayed by the UK Government beyond 01 October 2020. The previous draft order was replaced by a new draft order stipulating that the IHS increase will take effect 21 days after the draft order is made into law. This is a very sensible approach by the UK Government, the applicants will receive a 21 days notice of the increase taking place.
The UK government has announced that the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) is set to increase from £400 to £624 a year following their initial announcement in their manifesto during the 2019 election campaign. The IHS increase will come into effect for all applications submitted from October 2020 onwards.
The increase was announced by Rishi Sunak when the budget plans were presented to Parliament yesterday. The document states:
To ensure that new arrivals to the UK contribute to the funding of the NHS, the Immigration Health Surcharge will be increased to £624. The government will also introduce a new discounted rate of £470 for children in recognition of the increased financial impact on family groups.
Immigration Health Surcharge or IHS is the UK’s healthcare charge that non-EEA migrants need to pay to use the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). The charges, paid as part of the immigration application process, apply to all nationals from outside the European Economic Area and Switzerland (EEA) coming to the U.K. for longer than six months to work, study, or join their family in the UK.
Tier 4 Students and migrants under the Tier 5 Youth Mobility Scheme that had a slightly discounted rate of £300 per year will also see an increase in their charges to £470 per year.
IHS was introduced by the UK government in April 2015 urging migrants to make a fair contribution towards the costs of NHS. Initially, migrants outside of the EEA applying for more than six months of UK stay had to pay additional fees of £200 per year along with their application.
IHS was subsequently increased from £200 to £400 per year of visa on 8 January 2019. The increase was covered in our earlier article on NHS Fee increase.
Those applying for visitor visas or indefinite leave to remain (ILR) are exempt from paying the immigration health surcharge.
