The fee waiver is submitted first, the leave to remain application second. If your visa is about to expire and you can’t afford the Home Office fee and the immigration health surcharge, you need to request a waiver first, then submit the main application.
How the fee waiver works
A fee waiver is a request to be exempted from paying the Home Office fee and the immigration health surcharge for a leave to remain (FLR) application. It’s submitted if you cannot afford these payments.
Along with the application, you provide bank statements for the last six months. The Home Office reviews the documents and decides whether you would genuinely be left without funds if forced to pay the fee and the health surcharge. If the Home Office approves your request, you’ll be given a code that is used when submitting the main application instead of payment. If refused, you’re given 10 days to pay the fees and submit the leave to remain application.
Order of submitting documents
You can submit a fee waiver before your current visa expires. After submitting the fee waiver application, you get section 3C protection, which allows you to stay in the country lawfully while the Home Office makes its decision.
Once the fee waiver is decided — this can take from two weeks to four months — you’ll have 10 days to submit the leave to remain application. It must be exactly the same FLR application that was linked to your fee waiver request. If you submit a different application (for example, for skilled worker), you’ll lose section 3C protection and become an overstayer, even if the fee waiver was approved.
Deadlines and consequences
The ten-day deadline is critical. If you don’t submit the leave to remain application within 10 days of the fee waiver decision, you’ll become an overstayer and lose your legal status.
After submitting the leave to remain application, you must undergo a biometric scan. This makes your application valid.
The main mistake
People often confuse the order of steps and try to submit the main application before the fee waiver decision is made, or they change the application route after the fee waiver is approved. This is wrong. A fee waiver is always tied to a specific application — leave to remain or another status that was indicated when it was submitted. Changing the route means the fee waiver is no longer valid.
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