United Kingdom
Life in the UK Test cost and the full citizenship bill
Enter your household and the number of sittings: the calculator adds every official fee from the Home Office table. The test is the smallest line; this page explains the others.
Official cost of the application
£1,889
| Naturalisation fee | £1,709 |
| Citizenship ceremony | £130 |
| Life in the UK test | £50 |
Fees are paid to the government when you apply; this site takes no fee and passes no application.
The Life in the UK Test costs £50 each time you sit it, paid by card when you book on gov.uk, and a retake after a fail is paid again at the same price. It is only one line of the bill. Under the Home Office fees table in force from 8 October 2026, naturalisation as a British citizen costs £1,709 and the citizenship ceremony £130, so one adult who passes the test the first time pays £1,889 in official fees. Someone who still needs indefinite leave to remain first adds £3,226 for that application. Registering a child as a British citizen costs £1,000 per child, and an adult registration £1,540. Taking biometric information is free. gov.uk sets no limit on the number of attempts at the test, so the main way to keep the total down is to book only when your practice scores are steady. Costs without an official tariff, such as an English test or translations, are not estimated here: add them yourself in the calculator.
What a retake adds to the bill
Test fees paid
£100
| Fee per sitting | £50 |
| Naturalisation + ceremony + tests | £1,939 |
Each sitting is paid again; gov.uk sets no limit on the number of attempts.
Questions, dates and fees by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How the questions and dates are built
Every official fee in one table
All amounts below come from the Home Office immigration and nationality fees table that applies from 8 October 2026. They are the fees charged by the government; nothing here is a service charge of ours, and this site does not take any payment.
| What you pay for | Fee | Who pays it |
|---|---|---|
| Life in the UK Test, each sitting | £50 | anyone not exempt, aged 18 to 64 |
| Naturalisation as a British citizen | £1,709 | each adult (18 or over) |
| Citizenship ceremony | £130 | each adult, added to the application fee |
| Indefinite leave to remain | £3,226 | only if you do not hold it yet |
| Registration as a British citizen, child | £1,000 | each child registered |
| Registration as a British citizen, adult | £1,540 | adults on a registration route |
| Biometric information | £0 | given after you apply |
The test: small fee, repeated if you fail
The test is the cheapest item, but it is the only one you can end up paying several times. gov.uk lets you rebook as many times as you need and charges each time. Two sittings take the bill for one adult from £1,889 to £1,939. The small calculator under the summary shows the effect of each extra attempt, and the pass mark page explains what a fail means in practice.
Money can also be lost before the test starts. You must cancel at least 3 days ahead to be refunded, and there is no refund if you arrive without the right original ID or decline the photo taken at the centre. Check your ID against the list on gov.uk when you book, not the night before.
Naturalisation and the ceremony
For an adult, the naturalisation fee of £1,709 and the ceremony fee of £130 are paid together when you apply, which is why gov.uk quotes them as a single amount of £1,839. The same figure applies on the route for someone with indefinite leave to remain and on the route for the husband, wife or civil partner of a British citizen. Your local authority organises the ceremony; the standard ceremony is covered, while a private one may cost more and is priced by the council.
Before you pay, make sure you are eligible on the date the Home Office receives your form: residence, absences and the waiting period after settlement all count. The British citizenship page works out that date from your trips abroad.
Settlement first, if you do not have it
Most people naturalise after indefinite leave to remain, which carries its own fee of £3,226 per person. If you already hold it, or settled status, there is nothing more to pay for it. Settlement and citizenship need the same Life in the UK Test pass, so one sitting can serve both.
Children
Children under 18 are not naturalised but registered, at £1,000 each, on a separate application. gov.uk adds that a £130 ceremony fee is due if the child turns 18 during the process, and that a fee waiver may be possible for a child whose family cannot afford the fee. A child born in the UK after a parent was granted indefinite leave to remain may already be British, in which case no registration is needed. Children are also exempt from the test itself, as the exemption page explains.
A worked example for a family
Two adults who already hold indefinite leave to remain, who each pass the test the first time, and who register one child pay £1,709 and £130 twice, two test fees of £50, and £1,000 for the child: £4,778 in official fees. The calculator at the top of the page gives the same result for these inputs and updates it for your own household.
What the calculator leaves to you
Some costs have no official tariff on these pages: an English language test if you need one to prove your English, certified translations of documents, travel to the test centre or to your biometrics appointment, and help from an adviser if you choose to use one. They vary from one person to the next, so we do not guess them. Enter them in the field for other costs you expect and they are added to the total.