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opaige.com →The all-in cost per case most immigration agencies never calculate — salaries, PI insurance, portal licensing, rejection rework — and exactly where the wholesale model saves money.
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Ask any immigration agency director what their cost per case is and you will get a number — probably £45–80. Ask their accountant the same question after a full overhead allocation and the number looks very different. This guide breaks down every cost category, shows the all-in number most agencies never calculate, and demonstrates where the comparison with a wholesale platform becomes unavoidable.
Each category below shows the annual cost and the per-case allocation at 30 cases/month — the threshold most mid-size agencies operate around.
Case Manager Salaries
Assumes 1 case manager handles 60 cases/month (optimistic). Most handle 40–50.
Annual cost
£45,000–£65,000 per FTE
Per case allocated
£62–£90
Portal Access & Software
VFS portal licensing, case management software, e-signature, document storage.
Annual cost
£12,000–£22,000
Per case allocated
£17–£31
Professional Indemnity Insurance
PI insurance scales with revenue. Calculated at £500K annual revenue.
Annual cost
£6,000–£18,000
Per case allocated
£8–£25
Compliance & Regulatory
OISC registration, regulatory training, legal review, compliance officer time.
Annual cost
£8,000–£15,000
Per case allocated
£11–£21
Rejection Rework
18–22% rejection rate requiring rework. Each rework = 2–4 hours unbilled staff time.
Annual cost
Hidden cost — absorbed in salaries
Per case allocated
£22–£45 per original case
Office / Infrastructure
Central London rates shown. Includes utilities, rates, equipment, admin staff.
Annual cost
£18,000–£36,000
Per case allocated
£25–£50
Watch what happens as each cost layer is added to the calculation.
Calculated at 30 cases/month, London-based agency, standard PI cover at £500K revenue.
In-house processing carries high fixed cost. Wholesale scales proportionally with volume.
In-house fixed costs dominate at low volume
Overhead spreads but staff cost rises
New hire triggers additional fixed cost jump
Second case manager required by this point
Scale advantages converge — both viable
Wholesale rates shown at Gold tier (£137/case × volume). In-house includes salary, PI, software, and overhead allocation.
The capacity illusion
Most agency directors believe their case managers handle 60 cases/month. The real average, after admin time, compliance checks, client communications, and rework, is 35–45. Salaries are being allocated against inflated throughput assumptions.
The rejection cost nobody budgets
At 18% rejection rate, nearly 1 in 5 cases requires significant rework. That rework time is buried in your case manager's billable hours — making every clean case more expensive than your spreadsheet shows.
PI insurance is a revenue tax, not a flat fee
Professional indemnity premiums increase as your revenue grows. At £500K revenue, standard PI cover runs £8,000–18,000/year — a cost the wholesale model transfers entirely to the platform.
Portal access is not a one-time cost
Most portal licensing is volume-priced or subscription-based. Adding a new country or visa category means another portal contract, another training cycle, another admin integration.
Run the real cost calculation for your agency
Use your actual case volume, headcount, and PI premium to see what you are really spending per case — and what the wholesale alternative costs at that volume.
How established immigration agencies can reduce processing costs and scale without adding headcount via a wholesale model.
Commission vs wholesale: the structural difference that determines who captures the margin.
15,000+ travelers approved. We review every document before the embassy does — and fix every issue first.
SwiftPass Immigration Team
Visa specialists with 10+ years of experience. We've helped 15,000+ travelers secure UK, US, Canada, Schengen, Australia, and New Zealand visas — 98.7% approval rate.
Disclaimer
This article is based on publicly available information, user reviews, government statistics, and our platform capabilities. Visa approval is ultimately decided by immigration authorities. SwiftPass Immigration is operated by SwiftPass Global LLC (EIN: 98-1841660, 131 Continental Dr Suite 305, Newark, DE 19702, USA). Not affiliated with any government agency or embassy.