Home Fee / Internation Fee Status

HS2008

Hi,
I am hoping someone here might have been in a similar situation or knows how this works.
I am applying for UK undergraduate entry in 2026, and will be getting ILR on 10 October 2026 which is about 4–5 weeks after most universities start the academic year (usually around 1 September). I have been living and studying in the UK for the past six years, so I meet the ordinary residence requiremen but won’t have ILR on the exact day the academic year starts.

Does anyone know if I would be classed as a Home or International student in this situation? And if you have ve been through something similar in recent years, did your university let you switch from international to home fees once ILR was granted?

Any experiences or advice would be really appreciated!

Reply 1

Kuriknowsbest98

Original post

by HS2008

Hi,
I am hoping someone here might have been in a similar situation or knows how this works.
I am applying for UK undergraduate entry in 2026, and will be getting ILR on 10 October 2026 which is about 4–5 weeks after most universities start the academic year (usually around 1 September). I have been living and studying in the UK for the past six years, so I meet the ordinary residence requiremen but won’t have ILR on the exact day the academic year starts.
Does anyone know if I would be classed as a Home or International student in this situation? And if you have ve been through something similar in recent years, did your university let you switch from international to home fees once ILR was granted?
Any experiences or advice would be really appreciated!

You need to have ILR on the first day of your course to be classed as a home student. Because you’ll get ILR a few weeks after the course starts, most universities will list you as international at first.
Some universities allow students to switch to home fees after getting ILR, but others don’t change fee status once the course has begun. Email each university to check their policy on fee reviews.

Reply 2

McGinger

Original post

by HS2008

Hi,
I am hoping someone here might have been in a similar situation or knows how this works.
I am applying for UK undergraduate entry in 2026, and will be getting ILR on 10 October 2026 which is about 4–5 weeks after most universities start the academic year (usually around 1 September). I have been living and studying in the UK for the past six years, so I meet the ordinary residence requiremen but won’t have ILR on the exact day the academic year starts.
Does anyone know if I would be classed as a Home or International student in this situation? And if you have ve been through something similar in recent years, did your university let you switch from international to home fees once ILR was granted?
Any experiences or advice would be really appreciated!

Unless you have ILR at the start of the course you will be charged International fees - and usually Unis wont change a fee status once you have started your degree. So the best option may be to secure your place and then defer for a year so that when you do start the course you would definitely have Home status.