Immigration health surcharges and application fees have recently increased significantly. You can apply for a fee waiver application if you cannot pay the Home Office application fee and the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS). Before deciding on your request for a fee waiver, Home Office decision-makers must take into account your circumstances. Home Office or UKVI may waive the Home Office charge, the IHS, or both fees.
My Legal Service’s highly qualified immigration lawyers offer free general immigration advice. Kindly make an appointment with our experienced immigration lawyer today for more information.
Who can qualify for a fee waiver application?
Only immigration applications based on human rights are qualified for fee waiver requests.
The following applications are among those that qualify for a fee waiver:
- FLR (M) route under five years and partner route under ten years.
- Private and family route (FLR)
- Applications for authorization to stay under the parent route for five and ten years.
- Requests for flexible leaves.
- Those who already have discretionary leave may extend it further.
- Victims of slavery or human trafficking.
- Domestic violence victims who are granted leave to remain or spousal entrance clearance.
Also Read: What Are Exceptional Circumstances On Family Applications?
Criteria for a fee waiver application?
The Home Office’s most recent fee waiver policy, issued on 5 March 2021, appropriately represents the situation in light of recent case laws. A candidate needs to provide one of the following:
- They are not able to pay all or some of the fees.
- They are already in poverty (cannot meet essential or accommodation needs).
- If they paid all or part of the fees, they might become impoverished instantly or be in imminent danger of doing so.
- The basic needs of their child cannot be covered by their income.
How can You submit a request for a fee waiver?
Before submitting a request for permission to remain, fee waiver requests must file online.
What happens when the request for a fee waiver is approved?
If your request for a fee waiver is approved, you will have 10 working days to submit your request for an absence leave to use the fee waiver code. The code for the fee waiver will expire after ten working days.
Also Read: What are the FLR / DLR / HRO forms?
What happens if the request for a fee waiver is rejected?
If the fee waiver request is denied, but the applicant still has legal permission to stay in the UK, they will have 10 working days to provide additional supporting documentation.
They will have an additional 10 working days to submit the visa application if this is approved. The applicant will have 10 working days to submit the visa application and pay the Home Office fee and IHS in full if the fee waiver application is rejected. Therefore, there must be enough time to review the fee waiver application. Otherwise, applicants face the risk of outstaying their visas.
Let’s say that when the fee waiver application submits, the applicant’s leave to remain has already expired. If such happens, the application will return as invalid, and a new visa application with the correct money must be submitted.
Conclusion:
You can get skilled advice on immigration law and your immigration status from legal agents like our immigration and visa law business. You can instruct a lawyer handling immigration and visa matters to submit a Home Office Fee Waiver application.
Caseworkers at the Home Office are encouraged to reject insufficient applications, such as those that lack the required supporting documentation. All required documentation must be provided for your application to be approved.
You must provide the appropriate documentary evidence, which might be a challenging administrative effort. A legal counsel can help ensure that your application complies with the intricate UK immigration regulations.