Losing home student status

[Movingon2023]

I have been troubled by this the whole weekend and hope the wise mumsneters can make me see some perspectives..

We are a family of 4. Me and dh originally from an Asia country but have lived here for 20+ years under the indefinite leave to remain (ILR) status. In fact our entire working life is in the UK. Our children are born here and have dual nationalities (our home country and British)

Dh's company is looking to expand into Asia and he is offered a post in our home country! We are at the final stages of negotiation and planning. All seems good, we get to be closer to our wider families, kids learn more about their roots. Dc1 is nearly secondary school age. The plan is for the kids to come back here for university then decide for themselves where they want to settle, UK or home country.

All seems good, until I found out that the children will lose their home student status when they come back for uni. It means we suddenly have to find another £180k to make up the shortfall for 2 children (using Oxford uni fees for calculation) . Apparently we need to be ordinary resident in the UK for 3 years prior to uni in order to qualify. Apparently a lot of expats are caught out and end up having to pay international fees. I know rules is rules but it still seems unfair when we have paid tens of thousands of tax every year for 20 years.

The purpose of this thread is to see if there is anyone in the similar situation and how things turn out for you. Also I am hoping if there is anyone working in the student admission/fees department who can shed some light on how I can increase my dc chances of retaining that home student status.

I have read carefully into the rules and all websites say in case of any dispute, it is judged case by case. The following are some of the factors they look at:

1. Property in the uk: we have a couples, which will be rented out
2. Paying UK tax: nothing after we move to asia, expect council tax for the rental house

3..history in the uk: as mentioned, we lived here for 20+ years

1. Ties in the uk: no family nor relatives in the UK
2. Frequent trip back to the uk: we intend to visit once a year
3. Fixed term job posting: dh's company can word it clearly in the contract that the job oversea (I.e. my home country) is fixed term, says 7 years.
4. Having only work visa in the country of the job post, so as to emphasise that the only place we can go after the job finishes, is back to the UK: unfortunately, we don't need a work visa to work in our home country , also there is no restriction to stay back after the expat job finishes.

I think that is all. Sorry it is such a long post. Thank you in advance ☺

I don't have direct experience but a friend was in a similar position. One DC went to a UK university and I'm fairly sure paid international fees because of the lack of residency.

Bear in mind that your children might not want to go to a UK university if they've spent much of their lives in another country. My friend's children spent most of their childhoods living in Asian countries - the UK isn't 'home' to them, they feel a greater affinity to Asia. And if you're paying international fees, it opens up opportunities to study in other English-speaking countries (eg Australia, Canada) or even English-taught degrees in non-English-speaking countries.

I work at a uni and handle appeals in this area. The rules are pretty clear - https://www.ukcisa.org.uk/Information--Advice/Fees-and-Money/England-HE-fee-status read the ‘long residence’ section.

Ultimately you would need to return to live in the UK at least 3years before uni.

The rules are set by the government, universities do not have any discretion or scope to be sympathetic. Just to note that a child attending a UK boarding school for 3yrs prior to uni does not count as a home student because the child is in the uk only for the purposes of education rather than being ordinarily resident.

Would it count as residency if kids came back for boarding school (eg for A levels and then take a gap year working in uk to make up the three years)- is this something you would consider...?

Ps this is a long way off but be aware that international fees also apply for post grad, and it can be very difficult to get a funded post grad place as a non home student

Oops I see pp has said no to boarding school idea

@SmiteTheeWithThunderbolts my kids are near secondary school age and uk maybe more home to them..
@SOWK does having an expat contract make any difference?
@MotherOfCrocodiles that won't work, explained by @SOWK
Thank you for a your input

One of my siblings fell foul of this. They ended up returning to the UK as a family for three years before uni. Their child had to take a gap year after sixth form.

It all depends on the Uni. Ds1 was in a similar situation - 3 unis offered home status no question, 1 Uni was querying it and didn't get back to us in time to accept the place so we had to let it go

@chopc interesting! Are the uni all of similar ranking and reputation iykwim?
Were you abroad on expat contract?

Doesn’t answer your question but regarding your point no 2 - surely you will be paying UK tax on the income from your rental properties

@Judashascomeintosomemoney ah yes! Will do self assessment and pay tax on rental income. Not sure if that has any bearing on our case

More than 30 years ago, but I fell foul of this.
Dad left on the second day of my O levels. I ploughed them.
Became homeless not long after.
At 21 grabbed an opportunity for a job in Asia.
Returned after 3 years. Did a foundation course. Just at the point where we were looking at potential unis my local one informed me I would be charged as an overseas student due to my absence from the country. Unless I waited until I’d been back in Britain for three years. Impossible for me to consider. Dropped out of course near the end cos there didn’t seem much point continuing, and I was so disheartened. Left country again to work. Never returned.

Did consider OU but at the time there wasn’t a degree path that really floated my boat.

OU offer a master’s now I’d love to do, but the fees are huge (based on where I live) and at 55 it would be for the sake of it rather than for the need of it. There’s no higher rung for me to climb unless I leave the classroom which I have no desire to do.

Some of my friends were factually in the same position, but after seeing what happened to me they erased any mention of having been overseas prior to uni application and they all got offered places as home students. But it was a long time ago. There may be more checking these days to see where people have been resident rather than taking somebody’s word for it.

I think if you apply for British citizenship for yourselves (you are eligible) and your get it prior to leaving the country, and then your DC stay in the U.K. as students at a boarding school and only visit you on holiday, they would be classed as home students.

Problem is that you cannot leave the country for anything other than a holiday while applying to go from ILR to British citizen.

Oh and it’s currently 6mos to a year wait for British citizenship once all the application and biometrics are in with the home office.

It is really important that you maintain links to the UK once you have left so that you can show that your children have remained ordinarily resident in both places. Having a home that you do not rent out will help. Then evidence of regular trips back. We did this and was awarded 6 places with home fee status for my son.

I knew some fellow homeschoolers who kept their address officially in the UK, either homeschooled themselves or registered at the online school I sent my son to with their U.K. address. The exam season is long so one parent returned with the candidate for the entire session. Off record it was to avoid losing home student status.

But again that a good chunk of time ago so I don’t know if it would be a workable Dodgy McDodgy strategy that would work today.

I’ve just read the job is for 7yrs. That’s not a temporary job. And no, you won’t be able to come back to the U.K. as you will have lost your ILR by then.
https://www.gov.uk/returning-resident-visa

But they’re not going to be home students are they. You’re trying to manipulate the rules to benefit from the uk taxpayer when you won’t have been living here and paying tax. Universities are desperately unfounded - why not sell one of your multiple rental properties to cover the fees if you want your DC to benefit from something you haven’t been paying towards?

You’d have to show that you are ordinarily resident in both countries while your DH works his new job in Asia.

@WorkingItOutAsIGo we have been paying tax for 20 years and once the oversea posting ends, will return to the uk and continue paying tax diligently. I am just doing my calculation to see if we need to reject this job offer

@AlienatedChildGrown can you tell me more about this online school please? Have you got a link? Tia

Attending a UK boarding school does not count the main residence is non UK.

The school was Interhigh. There are also other now I think.
https://kingsinterhigh.co.uk/

Be aware though, the school knew nothing of the private conversations I was having in other arenas. Based on my experience of them they would have given short shrift to anybody asking for help in pulling a Dodgy McDodgy with official residence v real residence.

Try joining some expat groups in the area where you might be heading to see if any more up to date tips are doing the rounds.

But can you just return in 7 years? Won't you have lost your ILR?

I think you need to decide which is more important to you, maintaining the option to send your kids to UK university or the move overseas. It sounds like there are a lot of benefits to the move and your kids may not even want to go to uni here. But if you are really keen on that option, then I would probably not risk the move, they change these rules all the time as well.

If we return for visit every year , hopefully that will keep the ILR alive , especially since we have expat contract to reason the absence.
We could come back 3 years prior to dc1 is due to start uni , but I try my best to avoid moving them around too much

Not by itself, but it counts towards if. If student is

• British citizen (tick)
• parents are British (OP should sort this, if they’ve had ILR as long as OP says they are eligible to apply)
• job is temporary (OP should sort this down from the 7yr thing)
• and school holidays are spent in Asia and U.K. with most of holidays spent in UK in
• a U.K. residence the parents maintain and
• parents maintain links with U.K. and spend significant time in U.K. over the year as well (OP could maybe arrange this)

then the student would be considered ordinarily resident in the U.K.