You’ve been paying international fees for two years. Maybe three. Thousands of pounds a term, out of your own pocket, while you wait for that ILR decision. Then it finally comes through. The letter lands. You’re settled.
So what happens to your fees? Do you carry on paying the international rate until you finish, or does something change?
Something changes. And it changed more than most people realise. Since the 2024/25 academic year, getting ILR or settled status during your course can move you onto home fees from the next year. And from the 2026/27 academic year, that mid-course settled status can also unlock Student Finance England support. Tuition Fee Loan. Maintenance Loan. The lot.
But there’s a residency condition that catches people out, and a timing question that can cost thousands if you get it wrong. This guide covers both.
Quick Answer
If you get ILR or settled status during your course, you can switch to home fees from the start of the next academic year. This applies to academic years starting on or after 1 August 2024. From academic years starting on or after 1 August 2026, mid-course settled status also counts as an in-year qualifying event for Student Finance England, meaning you can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan and Maintenance Loan too. You still need to have met the 3 year UK residence rule when your course first started. Home fees are capped at £9,790 in 2026/27.
In this guide
- The old rule and why it was brutal
- What changed in 2024 and 2026
- Home fees vs student finance: two separate decisions
- Who this helps in London
- The 3 year residency trap
- Year-by-year cost example for a London student
- Pre-settled status: a different situation
- Refugee status mid-course: faster rules
- Start now or wait for ILR?
- How Wilor Education can help
- FAQs
The Old Rule: Why Getting ILR Mid-Course in London Made No Difference
Before August 2024, your fee status was locked on day one. Whatever status you held when your course started, that was your fee status for the entire degree. Three years, four years, didn’t matter.
So picture someone on a spouse visa in Lewisham. She starts a nursing degree in September 2022 paying international fees. Maybe £15,000 a year, maybe more. Her ILR comes through in March 2023. Under the old rules? Nothing changes. Still international fees for year two. Still international fees for year three. The ILR letter might as well have been a parking ticket as far as her university’s finance office was concerned.
That was the rule for everyone. ILR, settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, even British citizenship gained during a course. None of it mattered once you’d started.
What Changed in 2024 and 2026 for London Students with ILR
Two separate changes, two years apart. Both made by the Department for Education through amendments to the Education (Student Fees, Awards and Support) Regulations.
Change 1: Home fees from 2024/25
The Education (Student Fees, Awards and Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/85) changed the rules so that students who acquire settled status during their course can switch to home fees from the beginning of the next academic year. This applies to academic years starting on or after 1 August 2024.
UKCISA confirmed it plainly: “From August 2024, if you acquire ‘settled’ immigration status during your course, you might be able to switch from paying ‘overseas’ fees to paying ‘home’ fees for later years of your course.”
Cambridge, Bath, Warwick, Liverpool, King’s College London, they all updated their fee status pages to reflect this. It’s not optional guidance. It’s regulation.
Change 2: Student finance from 2026/27
Lower fees are great. But what about actually paying for them? Before 2026, even if your university moved you to home fees, Student Finance England still wouldn’t touch you. You had home fees but no loan to cover them.
The 2024 amendment regulations also made settled status an “in-year qualifying event” for student support. The IMA (Independent Monitoring Authority) confirmed this: “The requirement to be settled in the United Kingdom on the first day of the first academic year of the course is removed and the acquisition of settled status becomes an in-year qualifying event for access to student support.”
For academic years starting on or after 1 August 2026, this means you can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan and potentially a Maintenance Loan partway through your course, once your settled status is confirmed. The Lifelong Learning (Student Support) Regulations 2026 carry this forward for LLE-funded courses starting from January 2027 too.
Home Fees vs Student Finance in London: Two Separate Decisions
This is where most people trip up. They think home fees and student finance are the same thing. They’re not. The House of Commons Library makes this clear: a student may be classified as home by a provider but still be unable to access Student Finance England support.
Who decides what
| Decision | Who makes it | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Fee status | Your university | Home (capped at £9,790) or international (set by the university, often much higher) |
| Student finance | Student Finance England | Tuition Fee Loan, Maintenance Loan, grants. SFE has no discretion, follows regulations only |
So when your ILR comes through mid-course, you need to chase both decisions separately. Email your university’s fees team for the fee status change. Then contact Student Finance England about applying for support from the next academic year. Don’t wait for one to trigger the other. They won’t.
Who This Helps Most in London
This change matters most if you’re already studying, or about to start, on a visa route that leads to ILR. In London that’s typically:
- Spouse or partner visa holders who reach ILR after five years. This is the biggest group we see
- Family members of Skilled Worker visa holders who get ILR when the main applicant does
- People on the 10-year long residence route who finally hit ILR after a decade
- Anyone whose settlement application is being processed while they study
It also applies to EU, EEA and Swiss nationals under the EU Settlement Scheme. But EUSS settled and pre-settled status have their own routes into home fees that already existed, so the 2024 change is less transformative for that group. If you’re EU, check your specific EUSS category rather than relying on this guide alone.
The 3 Year Residency Trap London Students Miss
Here’s the catch. Getting ILR mid-course only helps if you already met the residency requirement when your course started. For most categories, that means being ordinarily resident in the UK for the three years before the first day of your course’s first academic year.
Warwick’s guidance says it bluntly: “Being subsequently resident in the UK for the three years during a course will not enable you to meet this criteria in later years of your study.”
Two people, same visa, very different outcome
Fatima moved to Hounslow in 2021 on a spouse visa. She started her degree in September 2026. By then she’d been in the UK for five years. She met the three-year residency rule on day one. When her ILR comes through in spring 2027, she can switch to home fees and apply for SFE support from year two.
David moved to Croydon in late 2024. He started his degree in September 2026 too. Only about two years of UK residence at the start. ILR mid-course won’t fix that. He didn’t meet the residency test when the course began, so the switch doesn’t apply.
Short holidays abroad usually don’t break the three-year residence. But spending six months or more outside the UK can. The test is about where your normal life is, where you live and work. Keep records of your travel dates. You’ll need them.
Year-by-Year Cost Example at a London University
Take Fatima from above. Three-year nursing degree at a London university. She meets the residency rule. Her ILR is granted in spring of year one.
| Year | Fee status | Tuition cost | Student finance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 (2026/27) | International | £15,000+ (varies by university) | None, paid out of pocket |
| Year 2 (2027/28) | Home | £9,790 (capped) | Can apply for Tuition Fee Loan + Maintenance Loan |
| Year 3 (2028/29) | Home | £9,790 (capped) | Full SFE support continues |
If she’s living away from her parents in London and qualifies for the maximum Maintenance Loan, that’s up to £14,135 a year for living costs in 2026/27, depending on household income. So the difference between year one and year two isn’t just the fee drop. It’s going from paying everything herself to having most of it covered by loans she only repays when earning above £25,000.
Pre-Settled Status During Your Course in London: A Different Situation
Pre-settled status is not the same as settled status for this purpose. Don’t treat them as interchangeable.
With pre-settled status, you can often get home fee status and the Tuition Fee Loan. But the Maintenance Loan is harder. You usually need to prove you’re an EEA migrant worker or self-employed in the UK, or that a qualifying family member is. That means showing payslips, employment contracts or self-assessment records alongside your EUSS evidence.
The automatic upgrade to settled status
Since April 2026, the Home Office has been automatically upgrading pre-settled status holders to settled status where it can verify 30 months of tax or benefit activity within the last 60 months. If this has happened to you, check your eVisa. You might already have settled status without knowing it, and that changes your Student Finance England position entirely.
If your pre-settled status expires and you haven’t been upgraded, you lose your fee status protection. Don’t let it lapse without checking.
Refugee Status Granted Mid-Course in London: Faster Rules
Refugee status and humanitarian protection work differently and more generously than ILR for this purpose.
They’ve been treated as in-year qualifying events for student support for longer than settled status has. So if you’re granted refugee status during your course, you may be able to access SFE support partway through the year you receive it, not just from the next academic year.
Refugees and people with humanitarian protection also don’t face the usual three-year residence wait. The residency trap that catches ILR applicants doesn’t apply here.
Asylum seekers who are still waiting for a decision can’t get SFE funding. But some London universities offer sanctuary scholarships that can bridge the gap. University of East London, London Met, Birkbeck and others run them. Ask directly.
Start Now or Wait for ILR? Honest Advice for London Adults
This is the real question. And there’s no single right answer because it depends on your timeline.
ILR due within a few months of your course start? Wait. Seriously. One year of international fees is a lot of money for the sake of a few months. Starting one intake later as a home student from day one saves you thousands and makes you eligible for SFE from the start.
ILR still two years away, and you meet the 3 year residency rule? Starting now can work. You pay international fees for year one, then switch from year two. It’s expensive up front but you don’t lose two years of your life waiting.
Not sure you meet residency? Don’t start on international fees hoping it’ll sort itself out. It won’t. Get the residency question answered first.
ILR application pending with no decision date? Look at January and April intakes. Plenty of London universities run them, and a later start date gives your Home Office application more runway. The “first day of the academic year” is defined differently depending on when your course starts: 1 September, 1 January, 1 April or 1 July.
How Wilor Education Helps London Students Navigating Status Changes
The regulations are clear enough when you read them slowly. The problem is applying them to your actual situation, because every case is different. Your visa type, your residence dates, when your ILR might come through, which academic year your course falls in, whether you meet the old rules or the new ones. One wrong assumption and you’re paying thousands you didn’t need to.
What we do
Residency timeline check. We map your arrival date, visa grants and travel history against the three-year test. You get a clear answer on whether you qualify, before you start a course or before you contact your university about a switch.
Timing your start date. If your ILR is coming soon, starting one intake too early can cost you a full year of international fees. We line up your visa timeline with course start dates so you don’t pay a penny more than necessary.
University fee reassessment. When your ILR arrives, we help you contact your university with the right evidence, in the right format, before their internal deadline passes.
SFE application support. Getting the student finance application right when your status changed mid-course takes more evidence than a straightforward application. We know what SFE asks for in these cases because we deal with them regularly.
Ongoing support. Status questions don’t stop after the switch. We help with reapplications for subsequent years, additional support like Childcare Grant or DSA, and anything else that comes up.
All free. No fees, no obligation.
Waiting on ILR and unsure when to start?
One conversation can save you months of back-and-forth and thousands in unnecessary fees. We check everything before you commit.
ILR and Settled Status During Your Course: FAQs for London Students
If I get ILR in year one, do I get a refund on international fees?
No. The switch applies from the start of the next academic year. Fees already charged for the current year stay as they are. No university is required to backdate the change.
Can I get a Maintenance Loan once I switch to home fees?
For academic years starting on or after 1 August 2026, yes. Settled status gained mid-course now counts as an in-year qualifying event for SFE support, including the Maintenance Loan. What you get depends on your individual assessment.
Does a pending ILR application count?
No. You need the actual grant of ILR or settled status. An application in progress, even one that’s been waiting months, doesn’t change your fee status or unlock student finance.
What counts as “ordinarily resident” for the 3 year test?
It means the UK is where your normal life is. Where you live, work and keep your home. Short holidays abroad don’t break it. But extended periods living or working abroad can. The three years must be before the first day of the first academic year of your course.
Does this apply to postgraduate courses?
Similar changes apply to postgraduate master’s and doctoral loans under their respective regulations. The principle is the same: settled status gained mid-course can unlock home fees and student support from the next academic year.
Timing and process
Who decides if I qualify for home fees, my university or SFE?
Your university decides fee status (home or international). Student Finance England separately decides whether you get loans and grants. You need to contact both. One doesn’t trigger the other.
Is there a deadline to tell my university about my new ILR?
Each university sets its own cut-off for fee reassessments. It’s often earlier than the start of the next term. Contact your fees team as soon as your ILR or settled status is confirmed. Don’t wait.
Can my child benefit if my ILR comes through while they’re studying?
Only if the child themselves gets ILR or settled status. A parent getting ILR doesn’t automatically change the child’s fee status unless the child is also granted settled status.
Related Guides for London Students
Student FinanceLifelong Learning Entitlement Explained: Second Degree Funding in London 2027
Based on the Education (Student Fees, Awards and Support) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (SI 2024/85), the Education (Student Fees, Awards, Support and Loan Repayments) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, UKCISA guidance, House of Commons Library research briefings CBP-10708 and CBP-9756, Cambridge and Warwick fee status guidance, and the IMA’s regulatory assessment. All checked September 2026. This is general information, not immigration or financial advice. Your fee status and funding are assessed individually.