UK visa fees are set far above what it costs to process them. On settlement (Indefinite Leave to Remain) the Home Office charges £3,226 against an estimated ~£523 to process — a markup of about 517%. Below is the full route-by-route table of fee versus estimated unit cost, compiled from GOV.UK fee schedules and the fees impact assessments.
Compiled & reviewed by Sunaree Ko, Founder · Sources: GOV.UK, Migration Observatory, House of Commons Library
Most UK visa fees are set well above the Home Office's estimated cost to process the application. The biggest gap in cash terms is settlement (Indefinite Leave to Remain): a £3,226 fee against an estimated ~£523 unit cost, a surplus of about £2,703 — roughly a 517% markup. A study visa is the opposite end of the scale, at £558 on an estimated £266 cost (a £292 surplus, ~110%). The table below sets out the fee, the estimated unit cost to process, the cash surplus and the percentage markup for the main routes.
This is the headline table: the application fee, the Home Office's estimated unit cost to process, the cash surplus (fee minus cost) and the percentage markup, for the main UK visa routes. Click Copy table to paste it into a spreadsheet or article (with a link back, please).
| Visa route | Applicant fee | Est. cost to process | Markup £ | Markup % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Visitor (6 months) | £135 | ~£30* | ~£105 | ~350%* |
| Skilled Worker (≤3 yrs, out of UK) | £819 | ~£186* | ~£633 | ~340%* |
| Study (Student visa) | £558 | £266 | £292 | ~110% |
| Spouse / Partner (entry clearance) | £2,064 | ~£523* | ~£1,541 | ~295%* |
| Naturalisation (citizenship) | £1,709 | ~£575† | ~£1,134 | ~197%† |
| Settlement (ILR) | £3,226 | ~£523 | £2,703 | ~517% |
Fees are the GOV.UK Home Office immigration & nationality fees effective 8 April 2026 (main applicant). Estimated costs to process: Study (£266) and Settlement/ILR (£523) are the Home Office unit costs as reported by the Migration Observatory (2026). * Visitor, Skilled Worker and Spouse unit costs are indicative — the per-application figures are buried in the fees impact assessments and not published in a single table; the visitor and work estimates are derived from route-level cost-recovery data (see method) and rounded. † The citizenship unit cost has been cited at about £372 historically and around £575 more recently; we show the higher figure. Markup % = surplus ÷ cost. Always confirm fees at GOV.UK.
Bars show markup as a percentage of the estimated cost to process. A 100% markup means the fee is double the cost; a 517% markup means the fee is about six times the cost.
The percentage markup is largest on the cheapest routes, but the cash surplus per application is largest on the settlement and citizenship routes — the applications the Home Office expects migrants to benefit from most, and where it sets fees furthest above cost.
Indefinite Leave to Remain is the most expensive single application in the UK immigration system, at £3,226 from 8 April 2026 (up from £3,029). The Home Office's estimated unit cost to process it is about £523, so the surplus is roughly £2,703 per applicant — a markup of about 517%, or put another way, the fee is about six times what it costs to decide. Because most families pay ILR for several members, the cash gap multiplies quickly. See how the fee got here in our UK visa fee history 2010–2026.
Becoming a British citizen by naturalisation costs £1,709 from 8 April 2026, plus a £130 citizenship-ceremony fee — £1,839 in total. The estimated unit cost to process has been cited at about £372 historically and around £575 more recently, implying a surplus of roughly £1,100–£1,340 per application. A 2019 parliamentary petition asked the Home Office to cut the citizenship fee to the £372 unit cost; the Home Office declined, saying it sets fees above cost to reduce the system's reliance on general taxation.
The Skilled Worker visa is the clearest published example of route-level profit. In 2023/24, the Home Office received about £438 million from Skilled Worker applications and spent around £109 million running the route — a surplus of roughly £329 million, according to figures cited from the National Audit Office. That is fee income of about four times the cost of running the route, broadly consistent with the per-application markup in the table. See our Skilled Worker visa guide for the current fees and requirements.
Until 2003, UK immigration fees only had to cover the administrative cost of processing an application. Since 2004, the Home Office has been allowed to set fees above cost and use the surplus to subsidise the wider immigration and borders system — enforcement, asylum, refugee resettlement and the rest. Its UK Visas and Immigration arm aims to recover more than twice what it spends. Total visa and immigration fee income was about £3 billion in 2024/25, around 37% of the £8 billion the department spent on the immigration, asylum and border system that year (the Immigration Health Surcharge, over £2.4 billion in the same year, is separate and goes towards the NHS).
Whether the surplus is a "profit" is a matter of definition — it is recycled into the immigration system rather than returned to the Treasury as general revenue. But for an applicant, the figure that matters is the same: the fee you pay is several times what it costs the Home Office to decide your case.
The markup is one part of the total cost of a UK visa from Thailand — on top of the fee you may also pay the Immigration Health Surcharge, VFS service charges and certified-translation costs. For the full breakdown in baht, see our UK visa cost from Thailand (in baht) and the headline UK visa statistics for Thai nationals. The fee level is fixed by the Home Office and is the same for every nationality; it is not something an applicant can negotiate.
This page compares two published numbers for each route: the application fee and the Home Office's estimated unit cost to process. The fees are exact and current; the unit costs vary in how precisely they are published.
Primary sources — all free, under the Open Government Licence or open access:
Last updated: June 2026. Next update: when the next Fees Regulations and impact assessment are published (typically each spring). The pound figures and unit costs quoted here should always be confirmed at GOV.UK before relying on them.
UK Visa From Thailand (2026) "How Much the Home Office Makes on Each UK Visa (Markup by Route)". https://ukvisafromthailand.com/en/uk-visa-fee-profit-markup — fees: GOV.UK (8 April 2026); estimated unit costs: Migration Observatory & House of Commons Library.
Last reviewed: June 2026. This page presents aggregate published figures from GOV.UK, the Migration Observatory and the House of Commons Library for information only; it is not immigration advice. Fees are exact (8 April 2026); estimated unit costs marked with * or † are indicative and rounded — the precise per-route processing costs are published only inside the Home Office fees impact assessments. Always confirm the latest fees at GOV.UK.
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Sunaree founded UK Visa From Thailand and compiles and reviews the guides and data on this site. We are a document-preparation and certified-translation service — not a law firm and not IAA-registered — and every figure is sourced from GOV.UK and published research. Read Sunaree's full bio →