The House of Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee (SLSC) has found that UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) has been charging international students more than the law actually prescribes.
International students who paid the student or child student entry clearance fee to UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) after Autumn 2023 might be entitled to a partial refund due to an issue with updating government regulations.
We are encouraging students affected to write to the Home Office asking for a refund - and to log it with us.
We will track the numbers so we can map out how we think the Home Office is responding. This does not guarantee that anyone will get a refund - but is a good first step for us to take to pressure them to pay the refunds.
There is a five-year refund window from the date of payment, not the date of your visa expiration! This means if you’ve been affected, you still have a chance to request a refund – but it may take a while to be processed, so submit as soon as you can.
What happened?
The Student visa entry clearance fee used to be £363. In October 2023, UKVI raised it to £490. Then in March 2025, they raised it again to £524. But both times, they made a drafting error in the law. The fee was never legally updated. On paper, in actual UK law, the fee is still £363. The House of Lords confirmed this. Parliament officially said the Home Office charged us more than it was legally allowed to.
How Much could you be entitled to?
If you paid Autumn 2023 – March 2025. You were charged £490 instead of £363 and are therefore may be entitled to a £127 refund.
If you paid March 2025 – April 2026. You were charged £524 instead of £363 and are therefore may be entitled to a £161 refund.
How to claim your refund:
- Locate your visa application number. You will need either your GWF number or UAN. Both can be found on your visa decision letter, your BRP card correspondence, or any email confirmation you received from UKVI when your application was submitted.
- Download this refund template and fill in your details to the [text in brackets].
- Use the UK VISA AND IMMIGRATION complation form here
- Choose the option that best fits your case. If the form does not allow you to explain the overcharged Student visa fee issue under “Refunds”, choose “Something else”.
- Complete your details, including your name, email address, date of birth, Unique Application Number, and any other Home Office reference numbers.
- When you reach the complaint text box, paste in the refund request wording, with your own details completed. It may help to use plain text only, removing unusual punctuation, dashes or special characters if the form rejects the submission.
- Upload supporting documents, including your Home Office decision email, your payment confirmation email, and a copy of your completed refund request.
- Fill out this form to let us know you have requested a refund.
- Keep screenshots or copies of the full submission, any acknowledgement, and any response from UKVI.
- If UKVI refuses your request, keep the refusal. You may then need to escalate this as a complaint about the handling of the issue, rather than simply repeating the original refund request.