22/09/2026
Fee Waiver request in Statement of Changes (HC 584).
The Statement of Changes (HC 584) dated 3 September 2026 introduced an important change in the rules for making immigration applications after fee waiver requests. This is essentially an amendment to Immigration Rules paragraph 34G(4) and will come into effect from 8 October 2026.
Make the change easy in Bengali
If someone previously requested Fee Waiver, the application date of the next immigration application could be considered as the date of Fee Waiver request under certain conditions.
The new rules have made the matter more strict and clear.
From 8 October 2026:
After receiving the Fee Waiver decision for the immigration route for which you have requested Fee Waiver, you have to apply for the same route.
The application must be submitted within 10 working days after receiving the Fee Waiver decision. Then the date of the original Fee Waiver request can be taken as the application date.
The most important change is that if you apply for another immigration route after making the Fee Waiver request, you will no longer be able to retain the previous date of the Fee Waiver request. In that case, the date of submitting the new application will be the application date.
an example
Suppose:
1 October 2026: An applicant requested Fee Waiver for Appendix FM / Human Rights route.
20 October 2026: Fee Waiver decision received.
If he then applies for the same route within the stipulated time, then the application date can be considered as 1 October subject to fulfilling the necessary conditions.
But Fee Waiver was done for Human Rights/Family route, and later applied in other route, then according to the new rules, 1 October is no longer available as application date. The day you submit the application for the new route will be the application date.
Why has the Home Office made this change?
The Explanatory Memorandum of the Home Office directly states that some applicants were trying to vary the application to another non-human-rights route by extending section 3C leave using the Human Rights application/Fee Waiver process. The purpose of the new rule is to prevent such practices.
Another important point:Relevant applications/claims made before 8 October 2026 will generally be decided in accordance with the Immigration Rules effective on 7 October 2026 - Statement of Changes -Transitional provision is given.