British permanent residence fee ILR 2026: £3,029 rises to £3,226, how to spend £1,000 urgently

After five years of hard work, I was finally qualified to apply for British permanent residence (ILR/Indefinite Leave to Remain). When I clicked on the GOV.UK payment page, I found that the number was a bit higher than what my friend paid me last year - this was no illusion. Starting from April 8, 2026, Home Office prices will increase again.

Many people are stuck at the step of "how much money should I prepare?": Some people think it is still last year's price, some people include fees that they should not pay, and some people pay an extra thousand pounds for expedited fees in order to "get it quickly", only to find out afterwards that it is not necessary at all. Today I will show you the account for 2026 one by one.

UK permanent residence ILR application fee 2026: £3,226 per person

Let’s talk about the most important thing first. The main application fee for domestic applications for ILR and will increase from £3,029 in April 2025 to £3,226 from April 8, 2026. The increase is £197 per person.

Note the word "per person". This fee is not calculated per family, but per person who applies for permanent residence independently. As long as the spouse and accompanying adult children each submit ILR, they will each pay £3,226.

For a family of four to apply for permanent residence at the same time, the application fee for Home Office alone is close to £12,900 - this does not include the English test, Life in the UK Test, and lawyer fees. This is why "when to submit" is a real question for families.

This rate applies to most 5-year permanent residence paths: Skilled Worker (work permit), spouse/partner visa, 10-year Long Residence long-term residence path, etc., all are uniformly this number.

Remember the key points in time: the payment date is based on the "day of application submission", not the approval date. Submitted before April 8th, the old price will be charged at £3,029. Even if the approval is delayed after April 8th, the price difference will not be paid. In other words, you can save money by submitting your card before the price increase.

Do I need to pay IHS medical surcharge to apply for permanent residence in the UK?

This is the most common miscalculation in the Chinese community. Let me give the conclusion first: applies for ILR permanent residence itself, and does not need to pay IHS (Immigration Health Surcharge).

The reason is simple. IHS is a medical surcharge only paid for "limited period visa" - when you applied for a work visa or spouse visa before, did you prepay the NHS usage fee year by year according to the length of the visa? That's IHS. Permanent residence is "indefinite residence". Once you get it, you will enjoy the same NHS treatment as local residents, and naturally you will no longer have to pay annual fees.

Therefore, when submitting ILR, only the application fee of £3,226 will appear on the payment page, and will not ask you to pay IHS again. If you see that you have to submit it, it’s probably because you selected the wrong application category (for example, you mistakenly selected Leave to Remain).

By the way, a reminder to friends who are still on the way to renew: the current IHS for adults is £1,035/year for , and children and students under 18 years old are £776/year. Since the increase in February 2024, IHS has not moved again in the round of price increases in 2026. But it is still the heaviest payment in the renewal phase - if a work permit is renewed for 3 years, IHS alone will require an upfront payment of £3,105. This is also the reason why many people want to "come ashore" to live permanently as soon as possible and say goodbye to IHS completely.

UK permanent residence expedited service: How to choose between £500 and £1,000

When submitting ILR, the system will ask you if you want to expedite it. Two options:

👉 Priority Service: Approximately £500, target results within 5 working days (available in some categories).
👉 Super Priority Service (Super Priority): Approximately £1,000, results targeted for next working day.

You can use Super Priority for most categories of domestic applications. After you complete the collection of biometrics, you can usually get the decision before the end of the next working day. It sounds delicious, but I need to pour some cold water on it:

The expedited purchase is about "queuing order", not "necessary signing". Once Home Office needs to supplement materials or check your records across departments, the time limit will be automatically extended, and the one thousand pounds is usually non-refundable to . For those whose materials are defective, whose travel days are outside the limit, and whose visa history is questionable, rushing blindly will end up spending money to buy anxiety.

How to judge whether it should be urgent? In a word: The cleaner the material and the more solid the conditions, the more cost-effective it is to expedite it; the more unsure you are, the more you should first make the material solid before proceeding. A reasonable situation for expediting is when is really in urgent need of status (such as rushing to change jobs, traveling abroad for a funeral, or applying for a mortgage).

General ledger of British permanent residence and naturalization fees in 2026: settled in one go

List the expenses that are easily missed to facilitate your budgeting (the following is the current reference price, which will ultimately be subject to the GOV.UK payment page):

• ILR application fee: £3,226 / person
• Expedited (optional): Priority about £500 or Super Priority about £1,000
• Life in the UK Test: £50 / time (must take the test for most routes)
• B1 English test: about £150 From
(depending on the exam institution) • Settlement stage IHS: £0 (no payment required)

After obtaining permanent residence for 12 months, most people will then naturalize. Naturalization fees have increased from £1,605 to £1,709 in 2026. Therefore, from permanent residence to passport, the government fee for a single person is an expense that needs to be planned in advance.

There is another prerequisite that is often overlooked: if you have the money ready, you must also live in for enough time. The 5-year route requires no more than 180 days of absence within each 12-month rolling window. If you miss it by even one day, you may be rejected, and £3,226 will be wasted. Before calculating the cost, first calculate the hard threshold of "continuous residence". You can use 永居计算器 APP to calculate the number of days to leave the country and the date to meet the requirement of permanent residence to avoid getting into trouble at the last minute.

The cost of permanent residence in the UK has increased, 3 practical suggestions for applicants

First, keep an eye on the price increase node in April every year. Home Office Fees have been raised almost every year in the spring in recent years, and the 2026 round will be a general increase of 6–7%. If your residence time is close to reaching the standard, and you happen to be stuck before or after the price increase, and you can submit it before the price increase date, you will be charged at the old price.

Second, don’t waste money just for “fastness”. expediting only addresses speed, not qualifications. It is more important to prepare the hard requirements such as materials, length of residence, English and Life in the UK in advance than to rush to press Super Priority.

Third, if the family runs the business together, the general ledger must be calculated. The fee of nearly £13,000 for 's family of four is not a small amount. We need to plan the funds half a year to a year in advance to avoid finding out that we don't have enough money when the application is submitted, or being forced to split it into several applications, thereby missing the best opportunity.

Money can be saved in advance, but time cannot be made up. Calculating every expense and every day's residence record is the most reliable explanation of your five years of work. If you are not sure about your personal situation, you can add our licensed lawyers to chat on WeChat. Don’t let a small oversight ruin five years of waiting.

This article is for reference only. Fees and policies are subject to the latest announcement of GOV.UK. For specific questions, please consult a licensed attorney (OISC/SRA registered).

[Data source] GOV.UK Immigration and Nationality Charges (April 8, 2026), Free Movement, UK Parliament Research Brief

💬 Let’s chat in the comment area: When do you plan to apply for British permanent residence? Do you want to submit it before the next round of price increases, or would you rather wait until the materials are more stable? Do you want to spend a thousand pounds to rush it? How do you calculate the bill?

If you find it useful, please forward it to your friends who are also applying for permanent residence in the UK, so that you can calculate the fees and length of stay as early as possible and save yourself a pitfall. 👇