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 ☺

Lots of Dual/Multi National Brits work abroad with no visa in a country of one of their other nationalities and their DC are still home students.

It’s not true to you have to be on a visa to be considered an expat. It mostly depends on the employment contract.

OP do a consult with an immigration solicitor, it can be done.

Be aware that you loose your indefinite leave to remain if you stay overseas for more than 2 years. Only way to avoid this is British citizenship. Remember the (evil) government can change rules too on returning workers.

The 3 years rule for university applied to me despite being British and paying taxes whilst overseas. No exceptions I was told told despite it being for teacher training (pgce) - I never did become a teacher

Lots of Dual/Multi National Brits work abroad with no visa in a country of one of their other nationalities and their DC are still home students.

Yes I know that. I was commenting on someone saying Gov and military get their advice on how to keep their kids a UK fee payer for free - they don't get any free advice - their kids are mostly always regarded as home fee payers. OP is in a completely different situation as they're not abroad for UK Gov reasons.

That was me, and I was in a bit of a hurry but was talking more about companies that are under U.K. military or Gov contracts who send Brits abroad. Not the actual officers and diplomats and such. That’s my fault for not being very clear.

I think there is a good few posters posting incorrect information.

You really need proper advice.

We worked overseas for 15 years and still got home fee status for our daughter even though we had sold our home in the UK. We were genuinely employed as expats, (pensions, employers, etc remained in the UK), contract stated job was expat and post would return to UK, we had 'Temporary work visas' in host country, employers paid for accommodation, flights home, schooling, health care etc in host country.

We visited the uk once or twice a year.

OP, it doesn't sound as though your husbands work contract is an expat contract so I think you would struggle. BUT GET PROPER ADVICE!

Uni's have wised up to this.

I honestly would get legal advice on the ILR. Given the length of posting and the fact that it's in your home country, you run a very high chance of losing it. This renders home fees moot.

the whole scenario is really not clear cut one way or the other and this could be a very expensive gamble.

What happens if the whole family, being British, lives long-term in the UK but at some stage the parents go to live abroad and the kids go to boarding school? They have not “come to the UK solely for the purposes of education”. Do the kids retain Home student status?

No they don't.

It depends. You can be ordinarily resident in two countries and home student status depends on where you (the student) and at least one parent are ordinarily resident. The question asked is where would you, the student, be if you were not in FT education? And if there is a regular habit of living in the U.K. in a settled way, for long or short duration, then that can under certain circumstances mean you are ordinarily resident in the U.K. and have Home student status. For the parent, it depends on their living patterns too, and if they split their time between the two countries in a regular pattern and maintain close ties with the U.K. they too can be ordinarily resident in both countries.

Your and your parent’s legal domicile can be the U.K. or the other country…as you can only have one domicile,

They can be a tax resident of just the other country or both the U.K. and the other country.

It’s best to get legal advice from an immigration solicitor on this as they know the case law and guidance.