How much does it cost to get permanent residency in the UK? Apart from £3,226, are there any other fees?

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

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

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

£3,226 This amount was set by the fee schedule starting April 8, 2026, an increase of £197 from the previous £3,029. In the October fee schedule update, the line for permanent residents within the country 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 price within the UK ranges 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 the 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. If a family of three applies simultaneously, it will cost £9,678. The English and knowledge of life tests for the whole family are charged separately (children under 18 are not subject to these two requirements). There are indeed free cases, but that is another set of eligibility criteria: those applying for settlement under Appendix Victim of Domestic Abuse may be exempt from fees if they can provide evidence of inability to afford them, and this is unrelated to the regular route.

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

The rush service page for GOV.UK clearly states two tiers: 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 applications, but it says usually 30 working days for settlement and naturalization applications; the £1,000 Super Priority is the one that gives results by the next working day after biometric collection. Both options are charged per person, so a family of four buying Super Priority would pay £4,000.

My judgment is that the £500 option is the least cost-effective of the three options for settlement application. The standard service level of the regular category is 6 months, which is indeed much shorter, but it does not provide a definite date and also does not address the needs of those who are in urgent situations. For those with strict time pressure (changing jobs, buying and transferring property, family surgery), directly go for £1,000; others should not spend a penny, keeping 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 extra segment of licensing that truly expands the budget.

A few scattered lines 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 are charged separately, with commercial pricing ranging from tens to hundreds of pounds. If you upload all materials in advance in your account, 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 temporarily do not meet the requirements, the result is not just a delay in permanent residency for a few months, but instead requires purchasing a new work visa sponsorship first. According to the fee schedule starting from April 8, 2026, the application within the country for CoS to renew the Skilled Worker visa for those with more than three years is £1,865 (£1,235 for jobs on the Immigration Salary List, £628 for Health and Care category), plus three standard categories IHS £1,035×3＝£3,105, totaling nearly five thousand pounds, and during this period, the £3,226 has not been saved at all. 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 are not 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 more stable to pay after confirming your English results, Life in the UK results, and absence days, rather than paying first and then submitting additional documents.

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

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