The implication of Fee Waiver on ILR settlement

Good afternoon, esteemed professionals.

I would appreciate your guidance regarding an immigration matter.

I was granted a Skilled Worker visa in 2022 through employment with a private hospital, where I worked until March 2025. I then moved to an NHS Trust, remaining on a Skilled Worker visa. However, my new employer issued me with only a one-year Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS), assuring me that it would be renewed approximately 60 days before its expiry.

Unfortunately, from 9 April 2025, the minimum salary threshold for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship increased to £25,000. When my visa was due to expire in March 2026, my annual salary was £24,937, which was £63 below the required threshold. An NHS pay increase was scheduled to take effect on 1 April 2026, which would have increased my salary to £25,690. However, there was a gap of only 15 days between my visa expiry and the implementation of the salary increase.

I approached my NHS Trust for assistance in finding a solution that would enable me to meet the salary threshold before my visa expired, but unfortunately, my request was unsuccessful. As a result, I had no option but to submit a fee waiver application in order to maintain my lawful stay in the United Kingdom.

I was deeply disappointed that my NHS Trust was unable to support me during such a critical period. Consequently, I applied for another NHS position, which I successfully secured, and my new NHS Trust has now issued me with a Certificate of Sponsorship.

My main concern is whether the period during which my fee waiver application was pending will count towards my qualifying continuous residence for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK.

I would be grateful for any immigration professional advice or insight.
Thank you in advance.

3C leave
Regardless of whether the fee waiver request is granted or refused, the applicant will benefit from 3C leave if:

•they had valid permission when the fee waiver request was submitted, and which has expired by the time the fee waiver request is decided
•the applicant makes a valid application for permission within 10 working days of the date of the fee waiver decision
•the permission application that is submitted is the one for which the fee waiver request was made

Submission of a further fee waiver request within the 10 working day window will not extend the applicant’s 3C leave.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... plications

The key sentence you will want to look at is the underlined one.

zimba wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 12, 2026 1:26 am

3C leave
Regardless of whether the fee waiver request is granted or refused, the applicant will benefit from 3C leave if:

•they had valid permission when the fee waiver request was submitted, and which has expired by the time the fee waiver request is decided
•the applicant makes a valid application for permission within 10 working days of the date of the fee waiver decision
•the permission application that is submitted is the one for which the fee waiver request was made

Submission of a further fee waiver request within the 10 working day window will not extend the applicant’s 3C leave.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... plications

Therefore, if the fee waiver is successful, to maintain continuous leave, you have to make the application that you made the fee waiver for. And fee waivers do not apply to Skilled Worker applications. It applies to human rights applications, typically on a 10 year pathway.

Therefore, if your fee waiver application is successful, you will end up out of the Skilled Worker pathway.

@zimba, would you know if a fee waiver application can be varied to a Skilled Worker application while it is undecided?

To the best of my knowledge, a fee waiver application is not an application under the Immigration Rules. And one can only vary applications under the Immigration Rules. Therefore, if a fee waiver application is in train at the Home Office, the OP's pathway out of the Skilled Worker pathway seems almost certain. What are your thoughts?

@secret.simon

You are correct that such an application is not an application for leave to remain, so variation of leave is meaningless. However, there is a much bigger issue with what the OP has done. If the OP claimed on his fee waiver application that he intends to apply for a human rights application, he could be accused of deception by the UKVI which could have potentially serious consequences.

The freemovement.org.uk website has an article that covered the risks of doing this in detail:

The application form itself asks applicants to choose which of those categories they will be applying under. If a person does not intend to apply in any of them then but still selects one and submits the fee waiver application then that is likely to amount to the use of deception.

Article: https://web.archive.org/web/20250919083 ... plication/