How much does British permanent residency cost? In addition to £3,226, are there any other fees?

How much does it cost to get permanent residency in the UK? The only three official costs that can be checked are: £3,226 for the domestic permanent residency application fee, Life in the UK Test £50, and the B1 speaking and listening test around £160. Together, they add up to over £3,400, which is unavoidable once you reach the submission stage.

The rest are all multiple-choice questions, and the two people's total expenditures differ by several thousand pounds, with the difference almost entirely in the multiple-choice questions.

Three hard currencies for permanent residency, plus one that doesn't need to be paid.

£3,226 This amount is set by the fee schedule starting from April 8, 2026, an increase of £197 from the previous £3,029. During the October fee schedule update, the domestic permanent residency line was not changed again.

The price of B1 varies among different providers. The GESE Grade 5 of Trinity is £160 starting from April 1, 2026; for IELTS Life Skills B1, the common domestic prices in the UK range from £150 to £209, varying according to the city where the test center is located. There is no priority between the two exams, but the score of Life in the UK has no expiration date, while language scores have recognition conditions to be verified, so the timing of spending these two amounts is not equivalent.

The line in the official fee table says "Indefinite leave to remain — main applicant and dependants £3,226," which sounds like a package deal for the main applicant and family members. In fact, it is £3,226 per person, including one for the spouse and one for each child. There is no discounted rate for minors, nor is there a maximum family total. Applying for a family of three at the same time would cost £9,678. The English language and knowledge of life test fees are charged separately for all three people (children under 18 are not subject to these requirements). There are indeed free cases, but that is another set of eligibility criteria: applicants for settlement under Appendix Victim of Domestic Abuse can get a fee waiver if they can provide evidence of inability to pay, and this is unrelated to the regular route.

£500 tier and £1,000 tier, the difference is not 500 pounds

The expedited service page for GOV.UK clearly states two options: Priority £500, Super Priority £1,000, both added on top of the application fee.

The time limit sentence is easy to skip. The £500 Priority service promises 5 working days for general visa, but it says usually 30 working days for settlement and naturalization applications; the £1,000 Super Priority is to get the result before the next working day after collecting biometric information. Both levels are charged per person, so a family of four buying Super Priority would be £4,000.

My judgment is that the £500 option is the least cost-effective of the three options for settlement application. The standard service for the regular category is 6 months, which is indeed much shorter than 30 working days, but it does not provide a definite date and also does not address the needs of those who are really in a hurry. For those with strict time pressure (changing jobs, buying and selling property, family surgery), directly choose £1,000; others don't spend a penny, keep this money as the risk fund mentioned later.

Urgent processing only affects the speed of the decision, not the review standards. When there are gaps in the documents, £1,000 often gets you a faster request for additional documents.

It's the additional licensing that truly expands the budget

A few scattered notes first:

Life in the UK does not require re-payment of £50, and there is no discount for multiple times. Biometric data collection is at UKVCAS service points. Core service points have free appointment slots, but popular cities' slots are quickly booked up. Additional service points and VIP time slots charge extra, with commercial pricing ranging from tens to hundreds of pounds. If you upload all materials in your account in advance, you will not incur on-site scanning fees. This step is easy to miss.

The real big part is elsewhere.

If the number of absences exceeds the limit when reaching five years, or if the salary and job conditions are temporarily not met, the result is not just a few months' delay in permanent residency, but rather needing to purchase a new work visa sponsorship first. According to the fee schedule effective from April 8, 2026, the application within the country for renewal of Skilled Worker with more than three years is £1,865 (£1,235 for positions on the Immigration Salary List, £628 for Health and Care band), plus three standard bands IHS £1,035×3＝£3,105, totaling nearly five thousand pounds, and during this period, the £3,226 payment has not been saved even a single penny. Therefore, the priority of the budget should be: first ensure that the five years are not compromised, and then consider whether to expedite.

People who are out of the country for 永居计算器 days can use the XX0YY app to calculate the number of absences in each 12-month rolling window by day, then plan their trip; if unsure whether they have already exceeded the limit, spend £5 on justiscript.com to get a written response from a UK-qualified lawyer within 24 hours, which is much cheaper than buying a new license.

Also list the next step's fees: applying for naturalization after permanent residency is £1,709, and the citizenship ceremony is £130. These two fees must be at least 12 months apart from the permanent residency fee, so they don't need to be prepared at the same time.

All fees are calculated based on the standard on the day of online submission, and old prices will not be recognized when the fee schedule is updated. £3,226 will not be refunded if the application is rejected or deemed invalid, so it is much safer to pay after confirming your English results, Life in the UK results, and absence days.

This document is for reference only. For specific issues, please consult a licensed attorney.

[Data source] Home Office immigration and nationality fees (8 April 2026 / 8 October 2026 fee table): www.gov.uk/government/publications/visa-regulations-revised-table/home-office-immigration-and-nationality-fees-8-april-2026 ; Get a faster decision on your visa, settlement or citizenship application: www.gov.uk/faster-decision-visa-settlement ; Pay for UK healthcare as part of your immigration application: www.gov.uk/healthcare-immigration-application/how-much-pay

Dealing with a UK legal matter? JustiScript can help