The UK Global Talent visa is an unsponsored work visa whose fees are set by the Home Office and published on GOV.UK. For digital technology applicants, the cost falls into three parts: a £561 endorsement fee assessed by Tech Nation at Stage 1, a £205 visa fee at Stage 2, and the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), which is usually £1,035 per year for each person applying. Every family member who joins you pays their own application fee and their own surcharge — which is why the true family total is routinely two to four times the figure most guides quote.
Source: GOV.UK — Global Talent visa, checked 5 July 2026. Fees rose from £716 to £766 in April 2025. Always verify the current amounts before applying.
What will the Global Talent visa cost your family?
Choose your family size, visa length and route below. The calculator uses only the published GOV.UK figures above — nothing estimated, nothing marked up.
If the interactive calculator does not appear, your browser has JavaScript switched off — the worked examples below cover the most common scenarios using exactly the same figures.
| Household | Application fees | IHS (5 years) | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single applicant | £766 | £5,175 | £5,941 |
| Applicant + partner | £1,532 | £10,350 | £11,882 |
| Applicant + partner + 1 child | £2,298 | £15,525 | £17,823 |
| Applicant + partner + 2 children | £3,064 | £20,700 | £23,764 |
Application fees: £766 per person (main applicant pays £561 endorsement + £205 visa; each dependant pays a £766 application fee). IHS: usually £1,035 per person per year. Source: GOV.UK, checked 5 July 2026.
How much does the Global Talent visa cost in total for 2026?
For a single applicant on a five-year visa, the total government cost in 2026 is £5,941 — £766 in application fees plus £5,175 in Immigration Health Surcharge. Since the April 2025 fee rise, the endorsement fee stands at £561 and the visa fee at £205, a combined £766, up from £716 previously.
Here is the sentence most guides leave out: the Immigration Health Surcharge represents roughly 87 per cent of the five-year government cost of a UK Global Talent visa — the application fees are the small part. Any budget built around the £766 headline figure will be wrong by a factor of nearly eight for a single applicant, and by far more for a family. A family of four applying for five-year visas pays approximately £23,764 in UK government fees before a single pound of professional help.
The good news is that this money buys something structurally valuable: a visa with no sponsor, no job-offer requirement and no employer holding your status. If you are currently sponsored, our guide to switching from Skilled Worker to Global Talent sets out why many senior engineers consider the cost well spent.
How much is the IHS — and can I pay less?
The Immigration Health Surcharge is usually £1,035 per year for each person applying, and it is paid in full, up front, at the visa stage — £5,175 per person for a five-year grant. You can legitimately pay less up front by choosing a shorter visa: GOV.UK allows applicants to select a shorter grant and pay proportionally less IHS at the outset.
A three-year grant, for example, costs £3,105 in IHS per person instead of £5,175 — a meaningful difference for a family of four. The trade-off is a later extension, with its own fees at whatever rates then apply. For Exceptional Talent applicants the shorter grant can be a natural fit, because indefinite leave to remain is available after three years as a leader; Exceptional Promise applicants need five years as a potential leader, so a short first grant simply defers cost rather than removing it. If you are unsure which route describes you, read Talent vs Promise before deciding your visa length.
What does each dependant cost?
Each dependant — your partner or a child — pays a £766 application fee plus their own Immigration Health Surcharge. Only the main applicant pays the £561 endorsement fee; dependants join at the visa stage. On a five-year visa, that means a partner alone adds approximately £5,941 over five years — effectively the same as a second main applicant.
This is the arithmetic that catches families out. Every additional person multiplies the largest cost line, the IHS, by the full length of the visa. Two children on a five-year grant add over £11,800 between them. None of this is negotiable and none of it is refundable in the ordinary course, so the sensible order of operations is: establish that the main application is likely to succeed first, then commit the family fees.
Timing matters too. Endorsement decisions usually arrive within 5 to 8 weeks, and the visa stage takes about 3 weeks from outside the UK or up to 8 weeks from inside it — see our processing time guide for how the stages sequence for a family moving together.
What do lawyers charge on top?
Traditional immigration law firms typically charge £4,500 to £9,000 plus VAT for solicitor-led handling of a Global Talent visa application — on top of every government fee above. For a family of four, that puts the all-in cost of the lawyer route in the region of £30,000.
Endorsa works differently. Our fees are fixed and published on the services and pricing page, we never mark up or handle your government payments, and every engagement can begin with a £200 Fit Assessment that is credited to any package you go on to buy. The endorsement is where applications fail — usually on presentation, not talent — so the money that matters is the money spent getting Stage 1 right. Our full cost guide compares the help options line by line.
Know your total. Now check your odds.
£200 before you risk £766 in government fees — credited to any package. A written, scored go/no-go verdict before your family budget is committed.
Is the £561 endorsement fee refundable if I am refused?
No. If your Stage 1 endorsement is refused, the £561 endorsement fee is not returned, and reapplying means paying it again. Under the combined process — where you apply for endorsement and visa at the same time — a linked visa application is rejected rather than refused if the endorsement fails, and that visa fee is refunded; but the endorsement fee itself is spent either way.
This is the financial logic behind checking eligibility before applying. The visa is reported to be approved around 99% of the time once endorsed, while the digital-technology endorsement is reported to pass around 1 in 4 applicants* — the gate is Stage 1, and the £561 is the stake. A £200 Fit Assessment that tells you honestly whether your evidence is ready is cheaper than one speculative endorsement fee, and it is credited to any package if you proceed. If the worst has already happened, our guide to the 28-day endorsement review explains your options; and if you work at a consultancy and are worried your employer type is the problem, start with our services-company eligibility page.
*Figures reported by applicants and advisers; the Home Office does not publish official route-level statistics. Treat as indicative, not guaranteed.
Frequently asked questions
For a single applicant on a five-year visa, government fees total £5,941: £561 endorsement plus £205 visa (£766 combined) and £5,175 Immigration Health Surcharge at £1,035 per year. Figures verified against GOV.UK on 5 July 2026 — always confirm the current amounts before applying.
Each dependant (partner or child) pays their own £766 application fee plus their own Immigration Health Surcharge, usually £1,035 per year for each person applying. Over a five-year visa, a partner alone adds approximately £5,941. Figures verified against GOV.UK on 5 July 2026.
Yes, to a degree. You may choose a shorter visa grant — for example three years rather than five — and pay proportionally less IHS up front, because the surcharge is charged per person per year of the visa. The trade-off is that you will need to extend later. Verify current IHS rules on GOV.UK.
No. If your Stage 1 endorsement is refused, the £561 endorsement fee is not returned, and reapplying means paying it again. Under the combined process, a linked visa application is rejected rather than refused and that visa fee is refunded — but the endorsement fee itself is spent. This is precisely why a low-cost eligibility check before applying makes financial sense.
No. The £561 endorsement fee is paid once, by the main applicant only. Each dependant pays a £766 application fee for their own visa plus their own Immigration Health Surcharge. Verify current dependant fees on GOV.UK.
Traditional immigration law firms typically charge in the range of £4,500 to £9,000 plus VAT for solicitor-led handling of a Global Talent visa application. Endorsa's fixed fees are published on our services and pricing page, and the £200 Fit Assessment is credited to any package.
Related reading: the full cost guide, processing time, Talent vs Promise, success rate & rejections, switching from Skilled Worker, refused — the 28-day review and all pain points.
Last updated: 5 July 2026. All fees verified against GOV.UK on 5 July 2026 — always verify before applying.