A realistic japa budget for a single Nigerian professional runs from about ₦543,000 for the cheapest route (Rwanda) to over ₦31.8 million for the most expensive (the United States), with the cheapest credible route into a high-income country — the UK Skilled Worker visa — sitting around ₦4.6 million for the visa alone, according to Japa Calculator's *State of Japa 2026 Q2* report, which traced every figure to an immigration ministry, professional body, or published fee schedule. But the visa fee is the smallest part of the real number. Once you add flights, a rent deposit, and three months of living costs before your first foreign paycheck clears, the honest all-in figure for the most common remote-worker routes (UK, Canada, EU digital nomad visas) lands between ₦8 million and ₦20 million for one person.
Most people who japa don't undershoot because they're careless. They undershoot because they only ever price the visa.
An emergency fund answers "what happens if my income stops." A japa fund answers a different question: "what does it cost to relocate my life while my income is *already* interrupted by the move itself?" These are not the same pool of money, and treating them as one is the single most common mistake in relocation planning, according to DeyWithMe's breakdown of what Nigerians actually need to japa — people prepare for years, save a number that sounds large in naira, and land abroad with less than two months of rent covered because the currency conversion reality only hits once they're standing in it.
A japa fund has five distinct buckets, and none of them substitute for the others:
- Visa and immigration fees — application, health surcharge, biometrics, medical tests, language exams
- Flights — often one-way, sometimes for more than one person
- Rent deposit — usually first month plus last month, or a damage deposit, paid before you've earned a cent locally
- Settling-in costs — a phone line, transport card, basic furniture, winter clothing if relevant
- Three months of living runway — because most jobs pay a month behind, and freelance/remote income takes time to re-establish in a new tax and banking system
Your emergency fund should stay untouched and separate. Your japa fund is a project budget with a deadline.
The two most common formal routes for Nigerian professionals remain the UK Skilled Worker visa and Canada's Express Entry, and they price out very differently:
UK Skilled Worker visa: the visa fee itself is roughly £1,420, plus the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) at about £3,105 for a 3-year visa, plus an IELTS UKVI test (~₦120,000) and a TB test (~₦45,000). If your employer sponsors and covers the visa and IHS — common for skilled-worker sponsorship — your out-of-pocket cost can drop to roughly ₦5–8 million; if you're covering it yourself, budget ₦12–20 million total before your first UK paycheck.
Canada Express Entry: there's no employer sponsorship requirement, but you must show proof of funds — currently about CAD $15,263 for a single applicant — sitting in your account, separate from what you'll actually spend. Total relocation cost (fees, flights, first month) for Canada runs ₦6–25 million depending on city and family size, per Japa Calculator's Canada cost breakdown.
Digital nomad and remote-work visas (Portugal, Spain, and similar): these are increasingly relevant for Nigerians who already earn in USD from remote clients. Portugal's D8 visa requires proof of monthly income around €3,680 (four times the national minimum wage) sustained over the prior three months, plus savings of about €11,040. Spain's digital nomad visa requires roughly €2,850+ in monthly income. These routes don't need an employer sponsor, but they do need *documented, consistent* remote income — which is exactly the kind of number Kampe's spendable view is built to show clearly across currencies.
A one-way Lagos–London flight runs roughly ₦825,000–₦975,000 depending on season and airline; Lagos–Toronto and Lagos–US routes typically cost more once you account for layovers. Book this line item separately from your visa fund — flight prices spike in the weeks after visa approval, when everyone books at once, and a fund that assumed off-peak pricing gets short fast.
This is the number that catches people who saved carefully for everything else. In the UK, first month's rent plus a deposit in London can require ₦5.4–7.2 million upfront, with a one-bedroom averaging around £1,800/month in the capital (Manchester and Birmingham run 30–40% cheaper). In Canada, landlords typically want first and last month's rent upfront in Ontario, or a half-month damage deposit plus first month in British Columbia — on a $2,000/month unit, that's roughly $4,000 CAD before you get keys, and Toronto averages closer to $2,480/month for a one-bedroom.
The trap: proof-of-funds money for your visa application and rent-deposit money are often the *same naira* in people's heads, but they serve different purposes — proof of funds proves solvency to an immigration officer; rent deposit is cash you actually hand over on day one. Budget them as two separate pools.
Beyond rent, budget groceries, transport, a local SIM, and incidentals for three full months — long enough to receive your first paycheck, get any freelance invoices re-routed to a local or multi-currency account, and absorb the inevitable one-off costs (a doctor's visit, a missing kitchen item, a transit pass you didn't know you needed). Nairaseed's honest breakdown of japa costs makes the same point from the other side: the people who land "doing well" on social media rarely show how close to zero their account was on landing day — the difference between struggling and stable in month one is almost always this runway, not the visa itself.
- UK Skilled Worker (self-funded, London): visa + IHS (~₦6.5M) + flight (~₦900K) + rent deposit (~₦6M) + 3 months runway (~₦3–4M) ≈ ₦16–17M
- Canada Express Entry (Toronto): proof of funds (~₦16–17M, largely returned to use post-landing) + flight (~₦1M) + rent deposit (~₦2.5M) + 3 months runway (~₦3–4M) ≈ ₦22–25M in funds you must be able to show and then live on
- EU digital nomad visa (already remote, USD-earning): no visa-sponsorship fee, but income must already clear ~€2,850–3,680/month before you apply, plus ~€11,000 in savings and a modest flight + deposit budget — often the cheapest formal route for someone already freelancing or on remote payroll
These are illustrative, not quotes — always verify current fees against the official visa authority and current NGN exchange rate before committing, since both move.
The reason so many people undersave isn't lack of discipline — it's that visa fees, rent deposits, and living costs sit in different currencies, get quoted at different exchange rates, and are tracked (if at all) across scattered notes and screenshots. A japa fund only works if you can see, in one place, how close your USD/GBP/EUR savings and NGN savings actually get you to each of the five buckets above — at today's rate, not the rate you assumed six months ago.
That's a read-only planning problem, not a banking one: Kampe aggregates the accounts and balances you already hold — naira, dollar, and manual entries — into one honest number with the FX rate and source shown, and lets you set a savings goal (like "₦17M by March") and see the real monthly amount needed to get there. It doesn't move your money or hold funds; it just makes sure the number you're saving against is the real one, not the one that sounded fine a year ago.
Don't ask "how much does it cost to japa" as if there's one answer. Price your specific route's visa fees, your specific city's flight and rent deposit, and three real months of living costs — separately from your emergency fund — and you'll land with a number that's closer to ₦8–25 million than the ₦2–3 million most conversations start with. The gap between those two numbers is exactly the gap between landing settled and landing scrambling.