ILR charges are calculated based on which day? The application fee should be verified against the latest standard of IHS.

"how much does it cost to apply for ILR now?" "the standard fee is £3,226 per person, and the permanent residency application itself does not charge IHS."

This is the current standard as of September 24, 2026. Those who still need to apply for a limited visa, the general annual fee for the Immigration Health Surcharge IHS is £1,035, and the discounted annual fee is £776, with applicable categories specified otherwise. The permanent residency application fee adjustment in April 2026 cannot be directly applied to IHS, and the two fees need to be checked separately.

Another date that determines the budget: when the complete application is submitted.

Home Office "Guidance on Application Validity, Amendment, Cancellation and Withdrawal" section "Fee Payment and IHS", four layers of requirements are written continuously: the fees due must be fully paid; the fee applies on the day of the application; amendment applications are subject to the amendment date; price changes during the review period do not make the original application invalid. These sentences need to be separated to clearly see how payment, submission, and fingerprinting affect each other.

ILR application fee of £3,226, IHS has separate rules

"Full payment required" corresponds to the various statutory fees required for this application. As shown in the current fee schedule Home Office, starting from April 8, 2026, the standard ILR application fee will increase from £3,029 to £3,226, an increase of £197 per person. This amount is the application fee; choosing expedited services, registering for exams, or purchasing other services may result in additional costs. When budgeting, it is recommended to list the statutory application fees and the services you choose separately, so that when multiple amounts appear on the payment page, it is easier to see what each fee corresponds to. This article discusses the standard fee application; those who are eligible for exemptions or special routes should check according to their own route.

IHS General annual fee was adjusted to £1,035 in February 2024. No official basis was found for the adjustment of these two annual fees in conjunction with the ILR charges in April 2026 during this review.

The £776 discount applies to students, family members of students, applicants under the Youth Mobility Scheme, and individuals under 18 years old at the time of application. The annual fee is the pricing unit, and the total amount due also depends on the duration of the visa, with periods less than a year usually calculated in half-year units. The official guidance example is: applicable standard rate, visa period of 16 months, IHS charged for 18 months, totaling £1,552.50. Additional visa periods before or after work or study may also be included, so the budget should be calculated based on the visa duration. The annual fee remains unchanged, but the total bill may still vary depending on the approved stay duration.

Finish the draft, but the billing date is not yet confirmed.

The current "Immigration Rules" Part 1 paragraph 34G(3) stipulates: For general online applications not involving a request for fee waiver, the date of formal online submission is the application date; changes to the application are subject to separate provisions.

Saving the draft of the form and partially filling it cannot replace the official submission record. When verifying the fees, you can put together the application submission confirmation page, the payment receipt, and the collection appointment letter: the submission confirmation is used to identify the application date; the receipt is used for accounting; the appointment letter is used to arrange the on-site visit. For applications that have been correctly submitted and fully paid, the fingerprint collection will take place after the fee adjustment, and the payment date will not be pushed back separately. Only those who have created a draft but have not yet submitted it formally need to recalculate according to the standards applicable at the time of actual submission, and cannot rely on the amount seen when starting to fill out the form.

IHS There is another date distinction: the guidance for case review clearly determines the applicable rate based on the submission date of the complete visa application. Paying in advance IHS itself cannot fix the rate.

In practice, IHS payment may occur before the completion of the entire visa application. If there is a formal price adjustment exactly between the two steps, the old payment receipt can only prove how much was paid, not that the entire application was submitted at the old rate. In such cases, verifying the submission status of the complete application is more useful than just checking whether the bank card was charged. This refers to the fee rules; whether you can apply for permanent residency on that day still requires independent verification of eligibility.

Change the application in the middle, need to re-check the price

"Change application is considered separately from the change date" applies to variation: the original application has not yet been decided, and the applicant changes to another application. For example, if the renewal is still being reviewed, it will be changed to ILR after meeting the conditions.

There is a set of rules that need to be viewed side by side. The current "Immigration Rules" Part 1 paragraph 34GB states that for a variation application that meets the requirements, the application date is considered as the original application date; the fee guidance clearly states that the fees paid are calculated according to the fee rate on the day of the variation application. These two rules have their own purposes, and the retention of the date does not mean that the original price is also retained. Taking the 2026 April price adjustment that has already been implemented as an example: someone submitted a renewal application before the price adjustment, and then changed to a permanent residency application with the standard fee after the adjustment, the permanent residency fee is still calculated as £3,226 applicable on the day of the variation, and cannot use the original renewal submission date to revert to £3,029.

The old application is pending decision, which is a key prerequisite for the amendment procedure. Once a decision has been made, the new application will be processed according to the new application procedures and cannot use the aforementioned arrangement.

The UK government's "Vary your immigration application" requires that existing pending applications be mentioned in the new form, and the reference number of the application should be provided. The fee for the new application should be paid according to the process, and the refund for the old application will be handled separately. When preparing documents, retain the numbers of both applications, submission confirmation, and all receipts, which will help distinguish between payments related to the original application or the variation application, and also make it clearer to the UKVI which payment needs to be verified.

Price adjustment during the trial does not mean that the difference needs to be compensated.

The guidance further states that price adjustments during the review period will not render the original application invalid. The application was correctly and fully paid according to the application date, and there is no need to make up the difference just because a new price later appears.

When receiving notice of arrears payment, it is still necessary to verify the notice itself. The amount due may relate to the license period, applicable rate, or previous underpayment, and it cannot be assumed that the notice is not applicable just because "I have already submitted". The UK government's payment instructions state that for applications within the country, the outstanding amount must be paid within 10 working days after receiving the notice, while for applications outside the country, it is 7 working days. If not paid on time and in full, the application will be rejected. You can first check the application number, the annual fees used in the calculation, and the license duration, then proceed according to the notice.

If you have questions about the reason for the payment, you should verify with UKVI; during the verification period, pay attention to the deadlines required by the notice, and do not assume that the time has been suspended on your own.

Putting these four sentences together, my judgment is: it's not worth doing just to fix the old fee. First renew the visa and then change to permanent residency. It's not worth it. Changing the effective date of the fee means this arrangement cannot guarantee saving on the permanent residency increase, and it also requires handling two payment records. Those who indeed need to renew their visa to maintain their status and later qualify for permanent residency may consider changing after verifying the path; those who already meet the conditions for permanent residency should proceed according to the current application's effective date and existing fees. The cost comparison should be based on the actual applications that will occur. If the official only updates the page without announcing new rates applicable to you and the implementation arrangements, there is no need to change your application plan just because of the update date.

This article is for reference only. For specific issues, please consult a licensed attorney.

[Data Source] Home Office "2026年4月8日起 Immigration and Nationality Fee Schedule"; "Guidance on Application Validity, Changes, Cancellation and Withdrawal" - Fees Section; "Immigration Health Surcharge Case Guidance" - Rates and Calculation Section.

Double-check the day's fees and application status before submitting, as the applicable amount may vary if it crosses the effective date of the price adjustment.

Dealing with a UK legal matter? JustiScript can help