If you are unable to afford the Home Office fees required to submit a human rights-based immigration application, you may be eligible to apply for a fee waiver. A successful fee waiver means that some or all of the fees are waived, allowing you to submit your application without the financial barrier of upfront costs.
As of 8 April 2026, the standard application fee for a 30-month extension under the family or private life route has increased to £1,407 per person. When combined with the Immigration Health Surcharge of £2,587.50 per person for the same period, the total cost for a family of four can exceed £15,000. For households in financial hardship, a fee waiver application can make the difference between being able to regularise immigration status and being unable to apply at all.
Fee waivers are available for specified human rights-based immigration applications where the applicant cannot afford to pay the required fees. Applications are submitted online to UK Visas and Immigration before the main immigration application is made.
An important principle governs how fee waiver requests are assessed: decision-makers are required to consider the total amount payable, which includes both the immigration application fee and the Immigration Health Surcharge together.
The waiver operates as follows:
You may be eligible to apply for a fee waiver if you fall into one of the following categories:
In addition to meeting the above category requirements, you must also demonstrate that you are unable to afford to pay the fee. This may apply if:
When submitting a fee waiver application, you will need to provide evidence of your identity and your financial circumstances.
Identity documents — you will be required to upload a copy of one of the following:
Financial evidence — you will need to provide information about your household’s income, expenditure, and overall financial situation. This may include:
You may also be asked to provide financial information relating to your partner or dependants as part of the assessment.
A fee waiver does not have to apply to every member of a family unit. The following arrangements are possible:
When assessing a fee waiver request, the Home Office takes into account a number of factors:
Affordability and destitution — the primary consideration is whether the applicant is unable to meet the fees without being left without adequate housing or the means to cover essential living needs.
Imminent risk of destitution — an applicant does not need to be currently destitute to qualify. A fee waiver may be granted where the evidence shows that, whilst the applicant’s situation is currently just about manageable, paying the fee would tip them into destitution. This includes situations where:
A child’s particular needs — where there are children in the household, the Home Office is required under section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 to treat the welfare of any child in the UK as a primary consideration. If the applicant’s income is insufficient to meet a child’s essential and particular needs, this must be directly considered as part of the fee waiver assessment.
A fee waiver application may be refused in the following circumstances:
Providing full, honest, and consistent information is essential. Inaccuracies or omissions in a fee waiver application can result in refusal and may also affect the underlying immigration application.
If the fee waiver is granted — once a successful decision is received, you will have 10 working days to submit your main immigration application. This period runs from the date the decision is received, not the date it is issued. It is important to act promptly and have all documentation for the main application prepared in advance so it can be submitted within the available window.
If the fee waiver is refused — applicants who held valid leave at the time of the fee waiver application will be informed that they do not qualify and given 10 working days to provide further evidence in support of their eligibility. If the additional evidence is accepted and the caseworker is satisfied that the applicant qualifies, a further 10 working days will be granted to submit the main immigration application.
The Home Office does not publish a fixed processing standard for fee waiver applications. In practice, most decisions are currently being reached within four to eight weeks of submission, though applications can take several months in periods of high volume or where cases require additional assessment.
Given the tight 10-working-day window that applies once a decision is issued, it is strongly advisable to have all documentation for the main immigration application fully prepared before the fee waiver decision is received.
The family and private life application fee — covering applications on forms FLR(M) and FLR(FP) — increased from £1,321 to £1,407 with effect from 8 April 2026. Applicants should ensure they are using the correct current fee figures when assessing their situation or preparing supporting financial evidence.
