The total cost of British citizenship in 2026: every fee itemised
Becoming a British citizen by naturalisation costs around £2,150 in 2026 for a typical adult applicant. That covers the £1,839 Home Office fee (a £1,709 application fee plus a £130 citizenship ceremony fee), the £50 Life in the UK test, an approved B1 English test at roughly £150–£200, and your first adult British passport at £102. If you can reuse English evidence from your settlement application, the total drops to about £1,991. Every figure below is taken from the current Home Office fees table (8 April 2026 version) and live GOV.UK pages.
- Naturalisation fee: £1,839 — £1,709 application + £130 ceremony, paid together
- Life in the UK test: £50 per attempt — you pay again for each retake
- B1 English (SELT): ~£150–£200 — Trinity GESE Grade 5 costs £160; IELTS Life Skills B1 is similar
- First adult passport: £102 online (£115.50 by paper form)
- Biometrics: free at a standard UKVCAS core service point
- Typical total: £1,991–£2,251 — before the ILR stage, which most people pay for first
The full fee stack, itemised
| Item | Cost (2026) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Life in the UK test | £50 | Per attempt — retakes cost £50 each time |
| B1 English test (SELT) | £150–£200 | Trinity GESE Grade 5 is £160; often reusable from ILR |
| Naturalisation application | £1,709 | Home Office fee, non-refundable if refused |
| Citizenship ceremony | £130 | Charged with the application, £1,839 combined |
| Biometrics appointment | £0 | Free UKVCAS core appointment; paid slots optional |
| First British passport | £102 | Online adult application; £115.50 by paper form |
| Typical total | £2,151 | Assuming one test pass each and a £160 SELT |
The realistic range is £1,991 to around £2,300: the low end assumes you are exempt from the English test or can reuse a qualification, while retakes, a paper passport form or a paid biometrics slot push you towards the top.
The Home Office fee: £1,839 all in
The headline cost is the naturalisation fee itself. On the current fees table it is £1,709 for the application plus £130 for the citizenship ceremony, collected together as £1,839 when you apply. It is worth knowing that almost none of this reflects processing cost — the estimated unit cost to the Home Office is a fraction of the fee — and that it is not refunded if your application is refused. That is why it pays to get the residency calculation, absences and good character declarations right before you submit, not after.
Biometrics are handled through UKVCAS after you apply. A core service appointment is free; paid appointments at premium locations or out-of-hours slots typically cost extra but are entirely optional. Since 6 July 2026 there is also an optional £500 Priority Service for naturalisation, targeting a decision within 30 working days of biometric submission — available on new applications only, and worth adding to your budget if speed matters.
The two tests: Life in the UK and B1 English
Before applying you must pass the Life in the UK test, which costs £50 per attempt. There is no limit on retakes, but each one is another £50, so a few pounds of preparation is the cheapest insurance in the whole process — our guide to what the Life in the UK test costs and how to avoid paying twice covers the booking rules in detail.
You also need to prove English at B1 level or above. If you took an approved SELT for your settlement application, you can normally reuse it — a qualification that has expired still counts for citizenship if it was accepted when you settled. If you need to sit one, the two accepted options are Trinity GESE Grade 5 (£160) and IELTS Life Skills B1 (around £150–£170), both speaking-and-listening tests taken at UK centres. Degree-holders taught in English and nationals of majority-English-speaking countries are exempt.
Don't forget the ILR stage most people pay first
Citizenship is usually the second of two expensive steps. Most applicants must first hold indefinite leave to remain, which costs £3,226 per person on the same fees table — and that is before its own Life in the UK test and English requirement, which is why the tests are usually already done by the citizenship stage. We have broken that stage down separately in our guide to how much ILR costs, so don't double-count: the ~£2,150 citizenship figure above assumes ILR is already paid for. Across both stages, a single adult typically spends £5,200 or more on the final two steps to a British passport.
Home Office fees are usually uprated each April — the figures here come from the 8 April 2026 fees table and may rise again in April 2027. Always check the live GOV.UK fees table before you budget or apply, and remember the £1,839 naturalisation fee is not refunded if you are refused.
Optional extras: solicitors and premium services
None of the following is required, but they appear in many people's totals. Immigration solicitors typically charge £500–£1,500+ for a straightforward naturalisation application — worth considering if you have complex absences, past overstaying or anything touching the good character requirement, but unnecessary for clean, well-documented cases. Paid biometrics appointments and document-scanning assistance add £50–£150 depending on location. Some SELT providers sell retake insurance (Trinity's Exam Protect is £35). Budget for these only if your circumstances genuinely call for them — for most applicants the DIY total of roughly £2,000–£2,300 is the real number.