UK Visa Fees from Nigeria: Full Cost Breakdown for 2026

The total cost of a UK Skilled Worker visa from Nigeria is not on any single government page. The Home Office shows you the application fee. VFS Global shows you their service charges. The NHS shows you the Immigration Health Surcharge. Add the TB test, the Ecctis assessment, the bank attestation stamp, and the POSSAP police certificate — and by the time you're ready to submit, you've spent more than most Nigerians earn in six months, before a single pound reaches the UK.

Here is every cost, in order, so you can budget accurately from day one.

The Application Fee (Paid to the Home Office)

The UK Skilled Worker visa application fee depends on whether your role qualifies for a lower-fee category such as the Immigration Salary List and how long you plan to stay.

For the standard Skilled Worker route in 2026:

• Up to 3 years: £819 per person
• More than 3 years: £1,618 per person

If your role falls under the Health and Care Worker visa — which covers eligible nurses, doctors, and allied health professionals, while overseas social care worker recruitment is excluded under the July 2025 change — the fee is lower: £324 for up to 3 years and £628 for more than 3 years. Health and Care visa holders are also exempt from the Immigration Health Surcharge, which is the bigger saving.

These fees are paid online when you submit your application on the GOV.UK system. Payment is by credit or debit card, and the charge is in GBP. At an exchange rate around ₦1,850 per pound, a standard 3-year visa application fee alone is roughly ₦1.5 million.

The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS)

The IHS is a separate charge, paid at the same time as the application fee, that gives you access to the NHS during your stay. It is not optional for Skilled Worker visa holders outside the Health and Care category.

The 2026 IHS rate is £1,035 per year for adults and £776 per year for applicants under 18.

For a 3-year Skilled Worker visa, that is £3,105 for the main applicant. Adult dependants generally pay the same annual rate, while dependants under 18 pay £776 per year. If you bring a spouse and one child under 18, the three-year IHS total is £8,538 before a single document is prepared.

This is the number that shocks most Nigerian applicants who budget only for the application fee. The IHS payment is made through the IHS portal before you finalize your GOV.UK application — you cannot proceed without the IHS reference number.

In naira terms at an approximate rate of ₦1,850 per pound, the IHS for a single 3-year applicant is approximately ₦5.7 million. Combined with the current application fee, the government-only cost before touching any Nigerian process is about £3,924, or roughly ₦7.3 million at that rate, for one person.

For your detailed cost planning, the step-by-step Nigeria → UK Skilled Worker Guide breaks down each payment stage and the order in which fees must be paid.

VFS Global Service Charges

VFS Global manages biometric appointments and document handling in Nigeria on behalf of UKVI. Their fees are additional to the Home Office fees.

Standard charges in Nigeria:

• VAC service fee: The regular Abuja and Lagos Ikeja centres may be free to use, while a mandatory user-pay service fee can apply at another centre or for a particular route; confirm the current charge when booking
• Premium Lounge access: ₦50,000–₦80,000 (Lagos Victoria Island or Ikeja). This buys you a quieter environment plus the ability to submit corrected or missing documents until 16:00 on the same day — which functions as a practical insurance policy against document errors
• Priority Visa upgrade: £500, applied during the GOV.UK application process. Targets a decision in 5 working days instead of the 15-working-day standard target
• Super Priority: £1,000 for a decision by the end of the next working day, where available
• Keep My Passport service: ₦35,000–₦50,000. Useful for professionals who need to travel to Ghana, Rwanda, or the UAE while UKVI is processing their file
• Port Harcourt centre access: £150 surcharge just to use the Port Harcourt application centre, regardless of visa category

The Premium Lounge is often worth the ₦50,000–₦80,000 for the safety net it provides. A caseworker rejecting a set of scans is not hypothetical — UKVI has refused applications based on illegible copies of Nigerian bank statements.

Nigeria-Side Costs

These are the costs you incur in Nigeria before the VFS appointment.

TB test (required in the applicable cases for stays over 6 months) Applicants who have lived in Nigeria or another listed country for 6 months or more and were there within the last 6 months generally need the test, subject to the current exemptions. It must be done at a Home Office-approved clinic. IOM Nigeria charges:

• Adults (11 years and above): $94 USD
• Children under 11: $49 USD

IOM clinics are located in Ikeja (Lagos), Asokoro (Abuja), and Benin City. Private options such as Q-Life Family Clinic on Victoria Island charge around ₦120,000 for adults. IOM fees are quoted in USD but paid in Naira before the examination at the UN exchange rate.

Nigeria Police Force Character Certificate (POSSAP) The official fee on the POSSAP portal (possap.gov.ng) is approximately ₦30,000. Expedited processing that compresses the timeline from 21 days to roughly 7 business days costs up to ₦100,000.

Ecctis qualification assessment (if using degree for English language proof) The Ecctis Qualification and Language Service costs £210 plus VAT — approximately ₦450,000 at current rates. Processing takes 20 working days and is non-refundable if your university registry does not respond within that window. This is one reason many Nigerian applicants take the IELTS or Pearson SELT instead, which costs approximately ₦104,000–₦116,000 and removes the dependency on a university registrar responding to a foreign email.

Bank statement attestation For Nigerian bank evidence, a branch-attested statement on official bank stationery may make verification easier. If you use an electronic statement, follow the current UKVI evidence instructions and obtain any bank letter or stamp requested. Banks typically charge ₦2,000–₦5,000 per statement.

University transcript (if required) Fees vary by institution. UNILAG, ABU, and other federal universities charge between ₦5,000 and ₦25,000 for official transcript requests sent directly to a foreign body.

Total Estimated Cost

For a single applicant on a standard 3-year Skilled Worker visa, a realistic total looks like this:

This is for one person, without dependants, on a standard (non-health) visa. Add a spouse and the total climbs by roughly £3,900+ for the second IHS + application fee alone.

What Can Reduce the Cost

Two legitimate cost-reduction strategies exist for Nigerian applicants.

First, if your role qualifies for the Health and Care Worker visa, the application fee drops by more than half and the IHS is waived entirely — a saving of over £3,000 per person on a 3-year visa.

Second, if your UK employer certifies maintenance on your Certificate of Sponsorship, you do not need to show personal savings of £1,270 in your bank account. This removes the 28-day savings requirement and, indirectly, reduces the document burden and the risk of a bank statement-related refusal.

Neither of these eliminates the upfront cost, but for a single professional on a 3-year visa, the difference between a Health and Care visa and a standard Skilled Worker visa is about £3,600 in government fees before exchange-rate effects — worth confirming your SOC code eligibility before you begin.

The Nigeria → UK Skilled Worker Guide includes a full payment timeline and Nigerian-specific budgeting worksheet so you know exactly when each fee is due and in which currency it needs to be paid.

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