Fee waiver dates will not backdate a different route application from 8 October 2026
21 Sep 2026
If you asked for a fee waiver and then apply on a different visa route, check your dates now. From 8 October 2026, a change to paragraph 34G of the Immigration Rules stops the date of your fee waiver request from being used as the date of a later application on a different route. One legal analysis puts it this way: "From 8 October 2026, a fee waiver request cannot be used to give an earlier application date to a later application made on a different immigration route."
This matters most if your current permission runs out while the fee waiver request is still pending. Section 3C leave can extend your stay when an in-time application is waiting for a decision. If you file a different-route application after your permission has expired, that application is not treated as in time for section 3C. The analysis explains that "a fee waiver request is not itself the substantive immigration application".
Here is the example the analysis gives. Your permission ends on 30 September 2026. You make a fee waiver request on 20 September for a family or private life route. You then submit a Skilled Worker application on 15 October 2026. The application date is 15 October, not 20 September. That is after your permission expired, so section 3C leave does not apply and you risk overstaying.
There is still a route that works. If your application is for the same route as the fee waiver request, the fee waiver date can still count, as long as you submit within 10 working days of the fee waiver decision. Applications made before 8 October 2026 are decided under the old rules.
What should you do? Check when your permission expires. Check which route your fee waiver request named. Record the date of the fee waiver decision and count the 10 working days. Do not assume a different route will inherit the fee waiver date. If your permission has already expired, get advice on overstaying before you file.
We covered the wider set of section 3C changes in an earlier post on the rule changes from 8 October 2026.
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