Life in the UK Test: free mock tests, marked at 18 out of 24

From the test to a British passport: five stages

The Life in the UK Test is often the first task people tackle, but it sits inside a longer path. Most applicants go through the same five stages, and each one has its own rule, its own document and its own calendar. Knowing them early avoids the two most common setbacks: booking the test far too late, and applying for citizenship a few weeks too soon. Each stage below comes with a small calculator; the pages linked from it go into the detail.

1. Learn the handbook and measure yourself

The test samples any part of the handbook, so revision works best chapter by chapter, with corrections after each answer, before moving to full mocks under time. The chapter practice serves sets of ten from one chapter; the timed mock rehearses the 45 minutes; the numbered tests keep the same questions each time so that progress shows. The estimate below turns your practice rate into a rough chance of reaching 18 on the day, assuming each answer is right at that rate.

2. Book the test, then sit it

Booking is done on the official gov.uk service and nowhere else: you need an email address, a debit or credit card and accepted ID, and the name you book with must match that ID exactly. The test must be booked at least 3 days ahead, and the £50 fee comes back only if you cancel at least 72 hours before. On the day you bring the same original ID, your photo is taken and you answer on a computer. A pass gives you a unique reference number for your application; a fail means booking and paying again, as many times as you need. Our booking guide and test-day page go step by step.

3. Show your English at B1

The English requirement is separate from the Life in the UK Test, and both must be met. For citizenship it means speaking and listening at level B1: nationals of a list of majority English-speaking countries meet it by their passport, a degree taught in English can count, and everyone else passes an approved secure English language test with one of four providers in the UK. A result is valid for 2 years from the date it was awarded, unless you already used it for settlement. The English requirement page and the finder of approved centres, 83 of them in 28 towns on the current Home Office list, cover the detail.

4. Wait for the right date

Most applicants naturalise under section 6(1): 5 years in the UK, at most 450 days abroad in that time and 90 in the last 12 months, and indefinite leave to remain or EU settled status held for 12 months. The husband, wife or civil partner of a British citizen applies under section 6(2), with 3 years, 270 days and no wait after settlement. The period is measured backwards from the day the Home Office receives your application, and only whole days abroad count. Enter the date you were granted settlement below for the end of the waiting period; the full date calculator adds every trip and checks all the conditions together.

5. Apply, pay, attend the ceremony

The naturalisation application is made online. Since 8 October 2026 the Home Office charges £1,709 for the application and £130 for the ceremony, paid together, so £1,839 per adult; an optional priority service adds £500 and usually brings a decision within 30 working days instead of the usual 6 months. Biometrics must follow within 45 days of applying. Once approved, you have 90 days from the invitation to attend a ceremony, where you take the oath or affirmation and the pledge and receive your certificate; only then are you British and able to apply for a passport.

The handbook, chapter by chapter

The handbook has five chapters, and our bank follows them so that you can see where your gaps are. The chapter on history covers the widest span, from the Stone Age to the end of the twentieth century, with many names and dates; the chapter on modern society mixes festivals, sport, the arts and inventions; the last chapter covers Parliament, elections, the courts in the three legal systems and everyday duties such as tax and driving. The test has no quota per chapter that gov.uk publishes, so our mocks take from each chapter in proportion to the bank.

Two habits make revision faster. First, learn the history by period rather than as a list of dates: once you know that the Tudors came after the Wars of the Roses and before the Stuarts, a question about the Spanish Armada answers itself. Second, read the explanation of every question you miss, not only the right option: the explanation states the fact behind the question, and a related fact is often what the real test asks. Our study plan turns the days left before your test into a number of questions a day.

What this site does, and what it does not

Everything here runs in your browser. The mock tests, the date calculator and the cost tools need no account and send nothing anywhere; a link you share carries only the test number or the dates you typed. We take no fee, place no booking and send no application: those happen only on gov.uk. The calculators judge the rules that can be measured, such as days abroad, waiting periods and fees; good character, the intention to live in the UK and any discretion are decided by a Home Office caseworker on the whole file.

Every figure on the site is read from one file of rules and fees taken from gov.uk, dated, and checked again each month against the Home Office fees table. When a rule changes, that file changes and every page follows. Two changes are announced but not yet in force on 25 October 2026: English at B2 for settlement on many routes from 26 March 2027, while citizenship stays at B1; and the "earned settlement" reform, consulted on until 12 February 2026, with no final rule published yet. The changes page follows both.

Every page of the site