Budgeting for UK Immigration: The Published Fees, and What Has No Published Price

What the Government Charges

These are the figures in the Home Office fee table, which is the only place these prices are set. Each is per person: a dependent partner or child pays the same application fee as the main applicant.

Application fees

• Skilled Worker visa, from outside the UK: £819 for 3 years or less, £1,618 for more than 3 years. If the job is on the Immigration Salary List, £628 or £1,235.
• Skilled Worker visa, applying from inside the UK to extend or switch: £943 for 3 years or less, £1,865 for more than 3 years.
• Family visa as a partner, parent or child: £2,064 from outside the UK, £1,407 from inside.
• Student visa: £558, inside or outside the UK.
• Settlement, which is called indefinite leave to remain: £3,226.
• Becoming a British citizen as an adult: £1,839, made up of £1,709 to apply and a £130 ceremony fee. Registering a child as a British citizen is £1,000.

Settlement carries no fee, and no healthcare surcharge, for someone who holds refugee status or humanitarian protection.

The healthcare surcharge

The immigration health surcharge is £1,035 a year for most people and £776 a year for students, their dependants, people on the Youth Mobility Scheme, and anyone under 18 on the date they apply. It is paid up front for the whole length of the permission, and part-years are rounded up: 18 months to 2 years is charged as 2 years. No surcharge is payable on a settlement application.

Optional charges, set by the Home Office

• The priority service is £500 on top of the application fee, for a decision usually within 5 working days — 30 working days for a family visa from outside the UK and for citizenship applications.
• The super priority service is £1,000, for a decision by the end of the next working day. It cannot be used for citizenship applications.
• The Life in the UK test is £50: 24 questions in 45 minutes, needed for settlement and for citizenship. GOV.UK says you do not take it again if you have already passed it, so most people pay once. People under 18 or aged 65 and over are exempt. A retake costs £50 again.
• Giving your fingerprints and photograph carries no fee. GOV.UK says "there's no fee for this" on the settlement and citizenship pages. See our note on what biometrics costs.

Adding the Published Side Up

This is arithmetic on published figures, not an estimate. It assumes one adult, no dependants, and that the fees do not change over the years — which they will, because the fee table is reissued.

Skilled Worker, first grant of 3 years, from outside the UK

• Application fee: £819
• Healthcare surcharge, 3 years at £1,035: £3,105
• £3,924

Extension inside the UK for a further 2 years

• Application fee: £943
• Healthcare surcharge, 2 years at £1,035: £2,070
• £3,013

Settlement after 5 years

• Application fee: £3,226
• No healthcare surcharge is payable
• Life in the UK test: £50
• £3,276

Citizenship, a year later

• Application fee: £1,709
• Ceremony fee: £130
• £1,839

Published total from first visa to British citizenship: £12,052 per person. The partner route runs higher because its application fee is larger and its grants are shorter. Our complete fees guide has the full table.

Money you must show, but do not spend

Separate from the fees, some routes ask you to hold a balance. A Skilled Worker needs £1,270 held for 28 days unless the sponsor certifies maintenance or you have been in the UK 12 months. A student needs £1,529 a month for London or £1,171 a month for elsewhere, for up to 9 months. That money is not a charge — it is evidence — but it has to be in the account on the day.

The Costs Nobody Official Publishes a Price For

These are real, and they are the ones you will see quoted with confident numbers elsewhere. No public authority sets or publishes any of them. We name who does set each price instead of guessing at it.

• An immigration solicitor or adviser. The firm sets its own fee. The Immigration Advice Authority regulates who may give immigration advice, not what they charge. You can find a regulated adviser on GOV.UK and ask for a quote before instructing. See what advice costs and doing it yourself or using an adviser.
• The Secure English Language Test. GOV.UK names the approved providers — Trinity College London, the IELTS SELT Consortium, LANGUAGECERT, Pearson and, outside the UK, PSI Services — and publishes no price for any of them. Each provider sets its own fee, which differs by test level and by country. GOV.UK does say that if you book through a third party, their fee should be no higher than the price on the provider's own website.
• Certified translations. The rules say what a translation must contain, not what it may cost. The translator sets the price.
• The tuberculosis test. The GOV.UK page lists the approved clinics and the countries where a test is needed, and gives no price. The clinic sets it. The certificate lasts 6 months from the date of the x-ray.
• Postage, couriers and certified copies. Set by the post office, the courier or whoever certifies the copy.
• Travel. Getting to a visa application centre, a test centre or a tuberculosis clinic, and the flight to the UK afterwards. Set by the carrier, and different every day.
• Rent, a deposit and furniture. The landlord sets the rent, and the deposit follows from it. What is regulated is how the deposit is held, not how large it is: in England and Wales it must be protected in a government-approved scheme within 30 days. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own schemes.
• Childcare, school uniforms and supplies. The nursery, childminder or school supplier sets the price. Free early-years hours exist, but the amount and the eligibility rules are different in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and most of them count as public funds — so a no recourse to public funds condition affects what you can claim.

The same list, route by route, is in our guide to the costs beyond the visa fee.

Living Costs Are a Separate Question

Rent, energy, food and transport are not immigration costs and are not published as national prices. Some parts of them are set by a public body — the minimum wage and the income tax bands by GOV.UK, the energy price cap by Ofgem, prescription and dental charges by the health service — and those are in our guide to the cost of living. The rest is set by a landlord, a supermarket or an operator, and varies by street.

Two conditions shape what a household on a visa can fall back on. Most work and family permissions carry a no recourse to public funds condition, so most benefits are unavailable while it applies. And paying the healthcare surcharge does not make health care free: GOV.UK says you still pay for prescriptions, dental treatment, eye tests and assisted conception. In England a prescription is £9.90 an item and dental charges are £27.90, £76.60 or £332.10 by band. Prescriptions are free in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

What a Refusal Costs

• The application fee is not refunded.
• The healthcare surcharge is refunded in full if the application is refused, or withdrawn before a decision.
• Applying again costs the full fee and surcharge again. There is no rule limiting how soon or how often you can apply.

Related Guides

• UK visa fees in full
• The costs beyond the visa fee
• The immigration health surcharge
• What immigration advice costs
• Cost of living in the UK

Questions and answers