Immigration solicitor fees: legal costs and the Home Office fees on top
Immigration applications and First-tier Tribunal appeals against Home Office immigration decisions (excluding asylum) are one of the services for which an SRA regulated firm in England and Wales that publicises the work as part of its usual business must publish prices on its website. In practice our scan finds price information for at least one service on only a small minority of firm websites overall: the current figure is on the statistics page. Immigration costs are also easy to underestimate, because the solicitor's fee is only one part of the bill. Here is how the pieces fit together.
What immigration solicitors typically charge
- Advice-only consultations. A one-off session to review your situation and options is often charged at around 100 to 250 pounds plus VAT per hour.
- Visa applications. Full preparation and submission of a visa application (for example a partner, work or student route) is commonly quoted from around 1,000 to 3,000 pounds plus VAT, depending on the route and how complicated the evidence is.
- Settlement and citizenship. Published fees for indefinite leave to remain and naturalisation applications tend to sit in a similar range, often towards the upper end where the immigration history is complicated.
- Appeals. Representation in a First-tier Tribunal immigration appeal usually costs more than an application, because it involves hearing preparation and advocacy. Many firms quote these case by case.
These are typical ranges from published fee pages, not quotes. A simple application with clean evidence sits at the bottom of a range; refusals in your history, gaps in evidence or dependants added to the application push the fee up. Always ask which factors the firm treats as making a case complex.
The Home Office costs that come on top
Whatever the solicitor charges, the government's own fees are paid in addition, and for many routes they are larger than the legal fee. At the time of writing (fees last rose in April 2026):
- Application fees. These vary by route. Naturalisation as a British citizen costs 1,709 pounds, plus around 130 pounds for the citizenship ceremony. A partner visa application costs 2,064 pounds from outside the UK, or 1,407 pounds from inside it, per applicant including each child.
- Immigration health surcharge. Many temporary visa routes require this on top: currently 1,035 pounds per person per year of the visa, or 776 pounds a year for students, their dependants, Youth Mobility Scheme applicants and under 18s. Part-year periods are charged under Home Office rules, and some applications are exempt, including visitor visas, indefinite leave applications and eligible Health and Care Worker applications. On a multi-year visa this is often the single biggest cost.
- Optional priority processing. Where available, a priority decision typically costs an extra 500 pounds and super priority 1,000 pounds, per applicant.
Fees change, so check the current figures on gov.uk before budgeting. A good fee page or quote will separate the solicitor's fee from these third party costs so you can see the true total.
What the firm's website must already tell you
Where a firm publicises, as part of its usual business, immigration applications or First-tier Tribunal immigration appeals (excluding asylum, and excluding publicly funded work), the SRA Transparency Rules require the firm's website to show the total cost or an average or range with the basis for the charges, what is included and what is not, likely disbursements and their cost (for immigration work that means identifying the Home Office fees, the health surcharge, interpreters or translators and other third party costs relevant to the route, and saying whether they are included or payable separately), whether VAT applies and the amount, the key stages and typical timescales, and the experience and qualifications of the people doing the work and their supervisors. Where relevant, the firm must also explain when clients may have to make payments under any conditional fee or damages-based agreement. The rules cover the listed services a firm publicises; they do not automatically cover every immigration advice service.
Immigration is the area where the gap between the solicitor's fee and the total cost is largest, so a fee page that quotes a single headline figure without identifying the likely Home Office fees and health surcharge is not giving you the full picture the rules are designed to provide.
How to compare quotes
Ask each firm the same questions in writing: the fixed fee or estimate for your specific route, exactly what it includes (checking evidence, completing the forms, cover letter, chasing the decision), whether the Home Office fee, the health surcharge and any biometric or priority fees are extra, and what the firm charges if the Home Office asks for more information or refuses the application. Also check who will actually handle your case and their qualifications: the rules require firms to publish this. The solicitor prices guide has a template email you can adapt, and the legitimacy checks guide matters here too, because immigration applicants are a frequent target for fake firms.
See whether a firm publishes what the rules expect
You can run a free SRA website check on any firm you are considering: our scanner reads the public pages and reports whether it found price information, the clickable SRA badge and complaints information. The transparency statistics show how firm websites across England and Wales compare.
This guide is general information for England and Wales, not legal advice or immigration advice. Fee figures are typical market ranges from published fee pages and government fees current at the time of writing; check gov.uk for today's figures. Website findings are automated, come from public pages only, and are not a legal opinion.