When a parent visits from Nigeria: healthcare in the UK for visitors

What is free for a visitor

• Seeing a GP. NHS England's rule is that everyone can register with a GP surgery, including as a temporary patient when visiting from abroad, without ID, proof of address or proof of immigration status. The consultation is free.
• Accident and emergency, until the moment the person is admitted to a ward or given an outpatient appointment, after which charges start. NHS 111 is free.
• Family planning, treatment for the infectious diseases on the regulations' list, and treatment for the effects of violence or torture.
• NHS prescriptions are £9.90 an item in England for 2025 to 2027; people aged 60 and over pay nothing.

What is charged, and how

• Hospital treatment, inpatient or outpatient, is charged to visitors from outside the EEA at 150% of the NHS national tariff. The test is whether the person is ordinarily resident in the UK; a visitor is not.
• Since October 2017 hospitals must take payment for the estimated full cost before non-urgent treatment. Urgent and immediately necessary treatment is never withheld, but is billed afterwards. Every trust has an Overseas Visitor Manager who asks for a passport and proof of address.
• The Immigration Health Surcharge is paid by people on visas of more than six months; it does not apply to visitors and does not make them exempt.

The unpaid bill and the next visa

• If an NHS bill of £500 or more is unpaid two months after the invoice date, the trust notifies the Home Office and the debt goes on the person's immigration record.
• The Immigration Rules say an application may be refused where NHS charges of at least £500 are outstanding. The record is cleared once the debt is paid in full or an instalment plan is agreed.
• For a family that expects a parent to visit every year, this is the practical risk: one A&E admission, one unpaid invoice, one refused visa.

Insurance for the stay

• The Standard Visitor visa does not require medical insurance; the government's own document guide lists travel insurance among things not to send.
• Most Nigerian travel policies fit a holiday, not a long visit: one large Nigerian insurer's plan takes people up to age 74 at issue and pays for a maximum of 92 days a trip, with pre-existing conditions excluded or limited. A parent of 68 with high blood pressure staying five months needs a policy built for that, and a written quote.
• The three things that decide whether a policy is any use for this trip are whether it pays for a pre-existing condition, whether it pays NHS charges directly to the hospital, and whether the policy length matches the visa length. Only the insurer can answer them for a given policy.

The visa itself, 2026

• Standard Visitor visa fees from 8 April 2026: £135 for six months, £506 for two years, £903 for five years, £1,128 for ten years. A decision usually takes three weeks; apply up to three months before travel.
• The Home Office does not publish a Nigeria line in its headline visa summary. Press analysis of its data put Nigerian visitor visa refusals at 33.5% in 2024 and 38.6% in 2025, so evidence of ties to Nigeria and of who is paying matters.
• A private GP appointment in London costs £69 to £155 for a short consultation (2026 fees), which for a one-off check is often cheaper than the uncertainty.

Before they fly, and when they go home

• Bring three months of medicines in original packaging with the prescription, and a one-page summary of conditions and doses. Register with a GP as a temporary patient in the first week.
• The health record kept during the visit (readings, any new prescription, any hospital letter) should go home with them. A Kinship Plan keeps one record in the member's name that the family and the Kinkeeper can read from either country, so what the UK GP found is in front of the doctor in Lagos.

Questions people ask

Related

• Keeping one health record for a relative abroad
• Your own health when you split time between the UK and Nigeria