Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how decisions on fee waiver applications are communicated to applicants.

Applicants wishing to apply for an entry clearance fee waiver must do so by submitting an online application form. Once assessed, a decision on the fee waiver application is sent by email to the email address specified on the application form by either the applicant or their representative.

Applications for Leave to Remain fee waivers are mandated to be completed online, to receive a decision by email. However, in exceptional circumstances leave to remain fee waiver applications can be submitted on a paper form, in which case we will offer the applicant the choice of a paper or electronic decision.

Child Citizenship fee waiver applications can also be submitted on paper or online. These decisions may be despatched by email or post accordingly.

It is the applicant’s (or their representative’s) responsibility to monitor their email inbox and ‘spam’ folder in anticipation of our decision email.

Information on the number of applicants whose leave to remain expired following the issue of a fee waiver decision of which the applicant was not aware, is not captured. To recover this information would require a manual examination of each individual case and would thus incur disproportionate cost.