Home Office application fees are extremely expensive. If you’re already in the UK and applying for leave to remain, you’ll usually have to pay around £2608 per person, upfront, to apply – this is a huge amount of money to have to save every 30 months.
However, if you’re in the UK and making an application based on your human rights, but you can’t afford the fee, you might be able to apply for something called a fee waiver. If it’s granted, you won’t have to pay the Home Office application fee, and/or the Immigration Health Surcharge.
Applying for a fee waiver can seem very complex, so our lawyers have put together an information sheet about who can apply, what evidence you’ll need to provide and how to apply online.
1. What is a fee waiver?
When you apply for leave to remain (LTR), you need to pay two fees to the Home Office: the Home Office fee and the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS).
However, you can apply to the Home Office for a “fee waiver.” If this is granted, you won’t have to pay the Home Office fees and/or the IHS.
The Home Office isn’t allowed to make you pay to make a human rights claim if you can’t afford the fee. The purpose of the fee waiver is to make sure that people who can’t afford the Home Office fee can still apply for leave to remain based on their human rights.
Fee waivers are available for human rights applications. This means you can apply for a fee waiver if you can’t afford the IHS or the application fee for leave to remain:
You can apply even if you have No Recourse to Public Funds – a fee waiver is not a public fund.
However, fee waivers are not available for all applications, for example if you’re applying for indefinite leave to remain, or to register as British.
If you are applying based on your medical needs, you don’t need to apply for a fee waiver. This is because there are no fees for applications based on Article 3 ECHR (to do with medical needs).
No. It is important to remember that your leave to remain application, and the conditions of your leave, will NOT be negatively impacted if you apply for a fee waiver.
If you already have leave to remain: you must apply for a fee waiver no more than 28 days before your current leave to remain expires. Once you make a fee waiver application, all of your existing rights and entitlements will continue as if you had made a leave to remain application. This extended leave is known as Section 3C leave, under Section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971. This means that as long as you applied for a fee waiver 28 days or less before your leave expires, you don’t need to worry if you haven’t had a response from the Home Office by the time your existing leave expires.
If you do not currently have leave to remain: you must apply for a fee waiver before you apply for leave to remain.
Once you receive a decision on your fee waiver application (whether it is granted or refused), you must then apply for leave to remain within 10 working days. If you do not apply within 10 working days of the decision on your fee waiver application, any existing leave you have will come to an end. If you were granted a fee waiver, the code for redeeming the fee waiver will no longer be valid.
You can apply online, using this form. It is free to apply. If you have dependants applying with you, you will need to include their details on the same form.
Before you start to apply, read through this sample application form, to get an idea of what questions you’ll be asked.
After you submit the online application, you have ten working days to provide supporting documents (see below).
The Home Office aims to make a decision “promptly”. You should normally expect to wait around 4 weeks for a decision.
If you are granted a fee waiver, you will be given a code. You’ll need to enter this code when you make your application for leave to remain.
Can you afford to pay the fee? If you can’t, that is all you really need to show.
The Home Office guidance has lots of wording about destitution and exceptional circumstances – but you do not have to prove either of these things. You only need to show that you cannot afford the fee.
You don’t need to show that you would not be able to borrow the money from other people – the courts have found that it would be unlawful for the Home Office to require this.
A table clearly setting out your income and expenses, in a covering letter, can really help to show the Home Office that you cannot afford the fee. Make sure you explain any large or regular income or expenses on your bank statements. For irregular income or expenses, you can provide an average based on the last six months. The table might look something like the below:
| Income | £ per month | Expenses | £ per month |
| Wages | Rent | ||
| Benefits | Bills | ||
| Total | Food | ||
| Clothing | |||
| Total |
Evidence is key to a successful fee waiver application.
When you submit your fee waiver application online, a “Documents checklist” will be generated, telling you which documents you need to provide. You will need to provide these within ten working days. Generally, this includes:
Evidence of your childcare responsibilities, e.g. if this means you must work part-time.
A cover letter or statement explaining why you cannot pay the fee is not mandatory, but it is useful. In a cover letter you can explain your income, expenses and any other factors which make it difficult for you to afford the fees. You can also give detail about anything it isn’t possible to explain on the online application form. You can submit your cover letter along with your supporting documents.
There is no right of appeal against a fee waiver decision, so you must make sure you make a strong application backed with lots of evidence. If you are refused, you do have a few options:
JCWI is calling for simple, accessible routes to regularisation, including affordable application fees.