Moving to the UK from Nigeria: Complete Guide

Visiting: a Visitor Visa, Not an Electronic Travel Authorisation

Nigeria is on the Home Office visa national list, so Nigerian citizens need a Standard Visitor visa for a short trip. The £20 electronic travel authorisation is for people who are not visa nationals, and it is not an option on a Nigerian passport. A 6-month Standard Visitor visa costs £135, and longer-validity visitor visas cost £506 for 2 years, £903 for 5 years and £1,128 for 10 years. A decision usually takes 3 weeks.

Visa Routes for Nigerian Nationals

Student Visa

The Student visa costs £558, and a decision usually takes 3 weeks from outside the UK. You need a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies from a licensed UK institution, and you must show you can cover your course fees plus £1,529 a month for living costs in London or £1,171 a month outside London, for up to 9 months. The money must have been held for 28 days in a row, and day 28 must be within 31 days of applying.

After your degree, the Graduate route gives 2 years of unsponsored work, or 3 years after a PhD. For applications made on or after 1 January 2027 the standard length falls to 18 months. From there some people switch to a Skilled Worker visa.

Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker Visa

The Skilled Worker visa requires a UK employer with a sponsor licence, a job at degree level (level 6 of the regulated qualifications framework) for a new application, and a salary of at least £41,700 a year or the going rate for the job, whichever is higher. Some applicants qualify at the lower £33,400 threshold. A job on the Immigration Salary List uses that lower threshold and a lower fee, but the full going rate for the job still applies. See the salary threshold guide.

The Health and Care Worker visa is a lower-cost version for qualified health and adult social care staff. It costs £324 for up to 3 years or £628 for longer, and it is exempt from the immigration health surcharge. Its salary rules are lower than the general Skilled Worker threshold. A decision usually takes 3 weeks from outside the UK.

Care workers cannot apply from outside the UK. The care worker (occupation code 6135) and senior care worker (code 6136) jobs are on the Health and Care Worker list only for people who are extending, updating or switching to the visa from inside the UK. A person switching from another visa must have been working legally in the job for the sponsor for at least 3 months, and in England the employer must be registered with the Care Quality Commission.

UK Ancestry Visa

Nigeria is a Commonwealth country, so the UK Ancestry route is open to Nigerian citizens aged 17 or over who have a grandparent born in the UK, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man, or born before 31 March 1922 in what is now Ireland. You must be able to work and plan to work in the UK, and support yourself without public funds. It costs £726, lasts 5 years, allows any work including self-employment, and a decision usually takes 3 weeks from outside the UK. You cannot switch into it from inside the UK on another visa. See the Ancestry visa guide.

Spouse and Family Visa

The Spouse visa is for people joining a partner who is a British citizen or has settlement. The UK sponsor must meet the £29,000 financial requirement. You will need evidence that the relationship is genuine and must meet the English requirement at A1 level at the first application, A2 at the extension after 2 years 6 months, and B1 at settlement. A decision usually takes 12 weeks from outside the UK.

Nigerian Document Requirements

Document Legalisation

Nigeria is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so Nigerian documents cannot be apostilled. They are legalised the older way: authentication by the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja, and then, for some documents, legalisation by the British High Commission. Documents not in English need a full translation.

Nigeria Police Force Certificate

A police certificate is not needed for every route. The Home Office asks for one for Skilled Worker and Temporary Worker applications in certain jobs, mostly in healthcare, education, therapy and social services, and for some other routes. Where it is needed, apply to the Criminal Investigation Department of the Nigeria Police Force at Force Headquarters in Abuja, or at a State Criminal Investigation Department, with your passport, photographs and fingerprints. It is sometimes called a Police Extract or Police Clearance Certificate. GOV.UK publishes no fee or processing time for it. Check the GOV.UK criminal records checks guidance for how to apply from Nigeria.

Financial Documents

• Money held in naira is converted using the exchange rate published by OANDA for the date of the application.
• Money held by a parent or other family member on your behalf needs a signed letter of consent and evidence of the relationship.
• The 28-day rule applies to the Student visa and to most sponsored work routes: the required amount must have been in the account for 28 days in a row, ending no more than 31 days before you apply.
• A false document or a false statement in an application is a ground for refusal in Part 9 of the Immigration Rules, and can lead to later applications being refused for up to 10 years.

Tuberculosis Test

Nigeria is on the Home Office list of countries where a tuberculosis test is needed. The test applies if you are coming to the UK for 6 months or more, have lived in Nigeria or another listed country for 6 months or more, and were living there within the last 6 months. It also applies to a fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner on a family visa, and to a Returning Resident visa, even for a shorter stay.

You must be tested at a clinic approved by the Home Office; a test at any other clinic will not be accepted. The test is a chest x-ray, and children under 11 will not normally have one. The certificate is valid for 6 months from the date of the x-ray. GOV.UK publishes no price, because each clinic sets its own fee. Find your clinic on the GOV.UK tuberculosis test page.

English Language Requirement

English is Nigeria's official language and the language of Nigerian education, but Nigeria is not on the Home Office list of majority English-speaking countries. Being widely spoken creates no exemption. Nigerian applicants need an approved secure English language test, unless they hold a degree taught in English that UK ENIC confirms is equivalent to a UK degree. See the GOV.UK list of approved test providers. GOV.UK publishes no price for the test.

Where You Apply in Nigeria

You complete the application on GOV.UK, then book an appointment to give your fingerprints and photograph at a visa application centre. GOV.UK's find a visa application centre service lists Nigeria under VFS Global, which publishes the centres, their addresses and their opening times. GOV.UK says you must apply for the visa before you can make an appointment, and that if you do not choose a centre a centre is chosen for you.

Processing Times

These are the published service standards for applications made outside the UK. They are the same wherever you apply from.

• Visitor visa: 3 weeks
• Student visa: 3 weeks
• Skilled Worker and other work visas: 3 weeks
• Partner, spouse, parent or child family visa: 12 weeks

A faster decision can be paid for: the priority service costs £500 and the super priority service £1,000. See our processing time guides.

What It Costs

UK visa fees are set in pounds sterling and are the same wherever you apply from.

• Standard Visitor visa: £135 for 6 months
• Student visa: £558
• Skilled Worker visa from outside the UK: £819 for up to 3 years, £1,618 for more than 3 years
• Health and Care Worker visa: £324 for up to 3 years, £628 for more than 3 years, and no healthcare surcharge
• UK Ancestry visa: £726
• Family visa as a partner: £2,064 from outside the UK
• Healthcare surcharge: £1,035 a year, or £776 a year for students, their dependants and under-18s
• Settlement: £3,226 for each person
• British citizenship: £1,709 to apply plus a £130 ceremony fee, £1,839 in total
• English test and tuberculosis test: GOV.UK publishes no price for either. Test providers and approved clinics set their own fees.

For a full breakdown, see our UK visa fees guide.

What the Healthcare Surcharge Buys

Paying the immigration health surcharge does not make the National Health Service free. It puts you on the same footing as a UK resident, so you then pay what a resident pays. In England that means £9.90 for each prescription item and dental charges of £27.90, £76.60 or £332.10 depending on the treatment. Prescriptions are free in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Health and Care Worker visa is exempt from the surcharge itself, but people on it still pay for prescriptions, dental treatment and eye tests.

If an Application Is Refused

A refusal letter gives the reasons and says what, if anything, can be done next. Depending on the route that may be an administrative review, an appeal, or a fresh application. See our visa refusal guide. A previous overstay or refusal must be declared in a later application.

First Steps After Arrival

• Set up or sign in to your UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account and check your online immigration status. There is no card to collect: biometric residence permits stopped being issued at the end of 2024. To prove your status to an employer or a landlord you generate a share code, which lasts 90 days
• Apply for a National Insurance number
• Register with a GP
• Open a UK bank account
• Register for council tax with your local council in England, Scotland or Wales. Northern Ireland has domestic rates instead, collected by Land and Property Services

Voting as a Commonwealth Citizen

Nigeria is a Commonwealth country, and the rules are not the same across the UK. In England and Northern Ireland a Commonwealth citizen who has permission to enter or stay in the UK, or who does not need it, can register to vote. In Scotland and Wales any foreign national with permission to enter or stay can register for Scottish Parliament, Senedd and local elections, so the Commonwealth question does not arise there.

Path to Settlement and Citizenship

Most work and family routes lead to settlement, also called indefinite leave to remain, after 5 years. It costs £3,226 for each person and a decision usually takes up to 6 months. You need the Life in the UK test and English at B1, rising to B2 from 26 March 2027 on the Skilled Worker, Global Talent, Scale-up and Long Residence routes. After 12 months with settlement you can apply for British citizenship for £1,709 plus a £130 ceremony fee.

Nigeria allows dual nationality, so a Nigerian who becomes British does not lose Nigerian citizenship. That is a question for the Nigerian authorities, not the Home Office.

Next Steps

For official information, visit the GOV.UK immigration page.

Related guides:

• Student visa: complete guide
• Skilled Worker visa: complete guide
• Spouse visa: complete guide
• Graduate route: complete guide
• UK visa fees: complete breakdown

Questions and answers