Visa Cost Breakdown
How Much Does a UK Work Visa Cost from Nigeria? Full Budget Breakdown
Landing a sponsored UK job offer is the hard part. Working out what the move will actually take out of your account is the part most Nigerians underestimate. Here is every payment you can expect, from the clinic in Lagos to your first month's rent in the UK.
Three separate pots of money
Almost every nasty surprise in this process comes from mixing up three different pots. First, the paperwork you pay for before you even apply: passport, English test, TB screening, document checks. Second, the money that goes straight to the UK Home Office: the visa fee and the immigration health surcharge. Third, the money that gets you there and keeps you fed until your first salary lands.
Every official Home Office charge is set in pounds sterling. Your naira cost therefore shifts every time the exchange rate shifts, which is why two people who applied three months apart will quote you completely different totals. The naira figures below use a rough rate of about ₦2,000 to £1 purely as an illustration — check the live rate before you plan anything.
Fees are also reviewed regularly, with increases usually landing in the spring. Treat everything here as a planning guide and confirm the exact amount on GOV.UK in the same week you apply.
Before you apply: passport, English test, TB screening
A valid passport with enough remaining validity is the starting point. Renewal through the Nigeria Immigration Service currently sits in the region of ₦50,000 for the five-year booklet and around ₦100,000 for the 64-page ten-year version, plus transport and the time you lose chasing appointments.
Nigeria is not treated as a majority English-speaking country for UK visa purposes. Most applicants must either sit an approved Secure English Language Test (IELTS for UKVI, Pearson PTE Home, LanguageCert and a few others) or prove a degree taught in English, which usually means paying Ecctis for a confirmation letter. Budget roughly £150–£250 for a SELT in Nigeria, and a similar range for an Ecctis assessment. Health and care roles often accept an employer-led English check instead — ask before you book a test you may not need.
A tuberculosis certificate is compulsory for Nigerian applicants and must come from a clinic approved by the Home Office. Expect something in the range of ₦100,000–₦200,000, payable in naira, and confirm the current fee directly with the clinic. The certificate is valid for six months, so do not take the test years in advance.
If your job involves children or vulnerable adults — teaching, healthcare, social care — you will also need a Nigerian police criminal record certificate. That one is comparatively cheap, but the processing time can be weeks.
The visa application fee itself
This is the headline number, and it depends on which route you are on and how long your sponsorship lasts. For a standard Skilled Worker visa applied for from outside the UK, the fee has recently been around £769 for a grant of up to three years and roughly double that for longer than three years.
There are two discounted bands worth knowing about. Jobs on the Immigration Salary List attract a lower fee, and the Health and Care Worker visa is cheaper again — in the region of £304 for up to three years. If your offer is in the NHS or adult social care, check whether your employer is sponsoring you on that route rather than the standard one.
Biometrics are collected at a VFS Global visa application centre and the standard enrolment is covered by your fee. Since the UK moved to digital eVisas, there is no longer a separate residence permit card to collect or pay for, though you will need to create a UKVI account.
The immigration health surcharge: the hidden giant
This is the payment that wrecks most budgets. The immigration health surcharge (IHS) gives you access to the NHS, and it is charged per person per year of your visa — paid upfront, in full, before your application is submitted. The adult rate has been £1,035 a year, with a lower rate of £776 a year for children.
On a three-year Skilled Worker visa that is over £3,100 for one adult. On a five-year grant it is more than £5,000. It dwarfs the visa fee, and the money leaves your account in one hit.
The important exception: people granted a Health and Care Worker visa are exempt from the surcharge, and so are their dependants. That single difference can mean a gap of several thousand pounds between two Nigerians moving to the UK in the same month.
Optional extras that quietly add up
Priority processing is sold at the visa centre as an add-on for a faster decision, typically a few hundred pounds extra. It is genuinely useful if your employer has a fixed start date, but it is not required and it does not improve your chances of approval.
Then there are the small VFS services: courier return of your passport, SMS updates, prime-time appointments, lounge access. Individually they look minor; together they can add the equivalent of ₦60,000–₦150,000.
Do not forget travel. If you live in Kano, Enugu or Port Harcourt and your appointment is in Lagos or Abuja, factor in flights or road transport plus a night in a hotel. Also budget for certified translations or notarised copies if any of your documents need them.
Money you must show but do not spend
Separate from fees, most Skilled Worker applicants must prove they hold at least £1,270 in personal savings, held for 28 consecutive days ending no more than 31 days before the application. It is evidence of maintenance, not a payment — the money stays yours.
Many sponsors are able to certify maintenance on your Certificate of Sponsorship instead, which removes the requirement. Ask your employer directly rather than assuming, because moving £1,270 into an account and leaving it untouched for a month takes planning.
A word on sponsorship costs: the Certificate of Sponsorship fee and the Immigration Skills Charge are the employer's responsibility, and the skills charge cannot legally be passed on to you. If an agent or a 'recruiter' asks you to pay for a Certificate of Sponsorship, treat that as a red flag.
Flights, luggage and your first month in the UK
A one-way economy ticket from Lagos or Abuja to a UK airport typically runs between roughly £500 and £1,200 depending on the airline, the route and how close to Christmas or August you travel. Extra luggage allowance is worth pricing in advance rather than at the check-in desk.
Arrival is where people get caught out. Private landlords usually want a deposit of up to five weeks' rent plus the first month upfront, and rent outside London commonly falls somewhere around £600–£1,100 a month for a modest flat or room. Add transport, a phone contract, food and winter clothing.
A realistic cushion for the first four to six weeks is £1,500–£2,500 for a single person, more if you arrive with family. Some employers — particularly in care and hospitality — offer temporary accommodation or pay for your flight. Get any such promise in writing before you count on it.
Sample totals: what it really comes to
Single applicant, standard Skilled Worker visa, three years: visa fee around £769, health surcharge around £3,105, TB test and English test around £300 combined, flight around £700, first-month cushion £1,800. That lands near £6,700 — roughly ₦13 million at an illustrative ₦2,000 to the pound.
Single applicant, Health and Care Worker visa, three years: visa fee around £304, no health surcharge, same £300 of tests, flight and cushion as above. That is closer to £3,100, or around ₦6 million. The route matters more than anything else on this list.
Bringing a spouse and one child on the standard route? Each dependant pays their own visa fee and their own surcharge, so expect to add somewhere near £7,000 in Home Office charges alone, plus their TB tests and tickets. Many families go in stages for exactly this reason — the main applicant travels first and applies for dependants later.
How to bring the cost down safely
Push for a role on the Health and Care Worker route or on the Immigration Salary List if your skills fit, because the saving is in thousands, not hundreds. Ask every prospective employer plainly what they cover: some reimburse the visa fee, the surcharge or the flight after a qualifying period.
Avoid double spending. Do not book an English test before confirming whether your degree or an employer check will satisfy the requirement, and do not take the TB test until your timeline is firm. Pay all official charges through GOV.UK and the official visa application centre, never into a personal account.
Finally, be sceptical of anyone guaranteeing a visa, a job or a refund. No agent controls Home Office decisions, and the only free, reliable source of current fees is the UK government's own website.
Common questions
What is the single biggest cost on a UK work visa from Nigeria?For most people it is the immigration health surcharge, not the visa fee. At around £1,035 per adult per year, paid upfront for the whole visa length, a three-year grant means over £3,100 in one payment. Health and Care Worker visa holders are exempt, which is why that route is so much cheaper overall.
Can my employer pay the visa and health surcharge for me?Yes, an employer can choose to pay or reimburse your visa fee, surcharge and flight, and some do — often with a clawback clause if you leave early. It is not a legal requirement, so ask in writing before you accept. Separately, the Immigration Skills Charge is the employer's cost by law and must never be passed to you.
Do I definitely need IELTS to apply from Nigeria?Not always. You need to prove English at the required level, and a degree taught in English (usually confirmed by Ecctis) can satisfy that instead of a test. Some health and care employers also use their own approved assessment. Confirm what your sponsor and the Home Office accept before paying for an exam.
Why do naira estimates for the same visa differ so much online?Because the fees are fixed in pounds and the exchange rate is not. An article written at one rate can be out by millions of naira a year later, and Home Office fees themselves are revised periodically. Always work from the pound figure on GOV.UK and convert it at today's rate.
This article is general information for planning purposes only, is not immigration advice, and fees and rules change — always confirm current requirements and amounts on the official GOV.UK website before applying or paying anything.