Full list of categories HE Wales

This category covers people who are British Citizens, or otherwise settled, and who move from the UK to the EEA/Switzerland, then return to the UK.

If you started your course before 1 August 2021:

Special note: For academic years that start on or after 1 August 2021, you are only allowed to use this category if you previously qualified under one of the following categories for the same course (or for a course you have transferred from):

• Those who are 'settled' in the UK and have exercised a 'right of residence' in the EEA and/or Switzerland
• EU nationals (or British Citizens), and family
• EU nationals in the UK
• EEA/Swiss workers, and family
• Child of a former EEA migrant worker
• Child of a Swiss national
• Child of a Turkish worker

This is because of regulation 4(9)(b) of the Higher Education (Qualifying Courses, Qualifying Persons and Supplementary Provision) (Wales) Regulations 2015. 

First, check you are not ruled out by the 'Special note' above. If you are not ruled out by the 'Special note' above, and you started your course before 1 August 2021, then in order to qualify for 'home' fees under this category, you must meet all of the following criteria:

(a) you are settled in the UK; and

(b) you left the UK and exercised a right of residence before 11pm on 31 December 2020, having already been settled in the UK;

Note: The meaning of having "exercised a right of residence" is very limited. It only covers two groups.
First, British Citizens and their family members who went to the EEA and/or Switzerland exercising European rights of free movement as workers or self-employed people, or as students or self-sufficient people.
Second, people with the European right of permanent residence in the UK, who either went elsewhere in the EEA and/or Switzerland exercising European rights of free movement as workers or self-employed people, or as students or self-sufficient people or went to the state in the EEA/Switzerland of which they or their family member was a national.

and

(c) you are ordinarily resident in the UK on the day on which the first term of the first academic year actually begins; and

(d) you have been ordinarily resident in the EEA and/or UK and/or Switzerland and/or the overseas territories and/or Gibraltar for the three years preceding the first day of the first academic year of the course; and

(e) in a case where the ordinary residence referred to in (d) above was wholly or mainly for the purposes of receiving full-time education, you have been ordinarily resident in EEA/Switzerland/UK/Gibraltar immediately before that three-year period.

If you started your course on or after 1 August 2021:

This category has been replaced. Do not read the information about this category given here. Instead, look higher up the page for information about the new categories. All of categories A to I have been replaced.

If you started your course before 1 August 2021:

Special note: For academic years that start on or after 1 August 2021, you are only allowed to use this category if you previously qualified under one of the following categories for the same course (or for a course you have transferred from):

• EU nationals (or British Citizens), and family
• EU nationals in the UK
• EEA/Swiss workers, and family
• Child of a former EEA migrant worker
• Child of a Swiss national
• Child of a Turkish worker
• Those who are ‘settled’ in the UK and have exercised a ‘right of residence’ in the EEA/Switzerland

This is because of regulation 4(9)(b) of the Higher Education (Qualifying Courses, Qualifying Persons and Supplementary Provision) (Wales) Regulations 2015. 

First, check you are not ruled out by the 'Special note' above. If you are not ruled out by the 'Special note' above, and you started your course before 1 August 2021, then in order to qualify for 'home' fees under this category, you must meet all of the following criteria:

(a) on the first day of an academic year of your course, you must be:

• an EU national; or
• a British Citizen; or
• the relevant family member of an EU national, and that EU national is in the UK as a self sufficient person, student, or worker; or
• the relevant family member of a British Citizen;

and

(b) you must have been ordinarily resident in the EEA and/or UK and/or Switzerland and/or the overseas territories and/or Gibraltar for the three years before the first day of the first academic year of the course (if you do not meet this requirement, see the Special Provision below); and

(c) the main purpose of your residence in the EEA/UK/Switzerland/overseas territories/Gibraltar residence area must not have been to receive full-time education during any part of the three-year period (if you do not meet this requirement, see the Special Provision below).

Special Provision about the residence requirement

You do not have to meet the Category C (b) or (c) criteria (above) if:

1) you are the relevant family member of a:

• EU national, and that EU national is in the UK as a self sufficient person, student, or worker; or
• British Citizen, and that British Citizen has exercised a right of residence under EU law in an EU member state for more than three months as a self-sufficient person, student, worker, or a family member accompanying one of these types of people;

and

2) your relevant family member has been ordinarily resident in the EEA and/or UK and/or Switzerland and/or the overseas territories and/or Gibraltar for the three years before the 'first day of the first academic year of the course' that you are studying.

British Overseas Territories Citizens (BOTCs)

Many British Overseas Territory Citizens (BOTCs) are also British Citizens. If this is your situation, then as a British Citizen, you will be eligible under this category provided that you meet the residence requirements at (b) and (c) above.

The easiest way to show you are a British Citizen is to have a passport that lists your nationality as 'British Citizen'. If you do not have one, then the Welsh Government has said in its Assessing Eligibility Guidance 2024/2025 (paragraph 2.17.3) that any of the following will be acceptable instead:

• a British Overseas Territories Citizen passport issued before 21 May 2002; or
• a British Dependent Territories Citizen passport issued before 21 May 2002; or
• a British Overseas Territories Citizen passport issued on or after 21 May 2002, but only if you also provide evidence that you or your parent was born in a British overseas territory, or evidence that you or your parent was registered or naturalised as a citizen (for example, as a British Subject, a Citizen of the UK and Colonies, a British Citizen, a British Dependent Territories Citizen, or a British Overseas Territories Citizen) before 21 May 2002.

If you started your course on or after 1 August 2021:

This category has been replaced. Do not read the information about this category given here. Instead, look higher up the page for information about the new categories. All of categories A to I have been replaced.

If you started your course before 1 August 2021:

Special note: For academic years that start on or after 1 August 2021, you are only allowed to use this category if you previously qualified under one of the following categories for the same course (or for a course you have transferred from):

• EU nationals in the UK 
• EU nationals (or British Citizens), and family
• EEA/Swiss workers, and family
• Child of a former EEA migrant worker
• Child of a Swiss national
• Child of a Turkish worker
• Those who are ‘settled’ in the UK and have exercised a ‘right of residence’ in the EEA/Switzerland

This is because of regulation 4(9)(b) of the Higher Education (Qualifying Courses, Qualifying Persons and Supplementary Provision) (Wales) Regulations 2015.  

First, check that you are not ruled out by the 'Special note' above. If you are not ruled out by the 'Special note' above, and you started your course before 1 August 2021, then in order to qualify for 'home' fees under this category, you must meet all of the following criteria:

(a) you were an EU national on the first day of the first academic year of the course. For this category, being a British Citizen doesn't count; and

(b) you were ordinarily resident in the UK on first day of the first academic year of the course; and

(c) you were ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for the three-year period before the first day of the first academic year of the course; and

(d) if for the three-year period, the main purpose for you residing in the UK and Islands was to receive full-time education, you must have been ordinarily resident in the EEA and/or UK and/or Switzerland and/or the overseas territories and/or Gibraltar immediately prior to the three-year period of ordinary residence in the UK and Islands.

If you started your course on or after 1 August 2021:

This category has been replaced. Do not read the information about this category given here. Instead, look higher up the page for information about the new categories. All of categories A to I have been replaced.

Special note: This category was removed and replaced on 1 August 2021 (even for people who were already on courses). If you started a course before 1 August 2021 and qualified for 'home' fees on the basis of this category then you can read about the replacement category you will be tested against for later years of your course in the category titled '3 years in UK and Islands, EUSS settled status connection', higher up the page.   

For academic years that started before 1 August 2021, in order to qualify for 'home' fees under this category, you needed to meet all of the following criteria, (a, b, c and d): 
 

(a) a requirement about the 'right of permanent residence': 

If you started your course before 1 January 2021, then the requirement was that you had the right of permanent residence in the UK under EU law (EU Directive 2004/38) on the first day of an academic year of the course. 
 
If you started your course on or after 1 January 2021 but before 1 August 2021, then the requirement was that: 

1. You had the right of permanent residence in the UK under EU law (EU Directive 2004/38) at 10.59pm on 31 December 2020; and 

2. One of the following was true on the first day of an academic year of the course: 

and 

If you started your course before 1 January 2021:

Special note: For academic years that start on or after 1 August 2021, you are only allowed to use this category if you previously qualified under one of the following categories for the same course (or for a course you have transferred from):

• EEA/Swiss workers, and family
• EU nationals (or British Citizens), and family
• EU nationals in the UK
• Child of a former EEA migrant worker
• Child of a Swiss national
• Child of a Turkish worker
• Those who are ‘settled’ in the UK and have exercised a ‘right of residence’ in the EEA/Switzerland

This is because of regulation 4(9)(b) of the Higher Education (Qualifying Courses, Qualifying Persons and Supplementary Provision) (Wales) Regulations 2015. 
 

First, check that you are not ruled out by the 'Special note' above. If you are not ruled out by the 'Special note' above, and you started your course before 1 January 2021, then in order to qualify for 'home' fees under this category, you must meet all of the following criteria:

(a) on the first day of an academic year of your course you must be:

• a non-UK EEA national, or a Swiss national, and resident in the UK as a worker; or
• the relevant family member of such a non-UK EEA national worker or the relevant family member of such a Swiss worker;

and

(b) you must have been ordinarily resident in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course (unless you are an EEA or Swiss frontier worker or relevant family member of a frontier worker); and

(c) you must have been ordinarily resident in the EEA and/or UK and/or Switzerland and/or the overseas territories and/or Gibraltar for the three years before the first day of the first academic year of the course.

Note:

• If you fail to meet requirement (c), and you are the family member of an EU national (that is, excluding nationals of Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland), see category C (above) for a 'special provision' which allows an EU national to meet the residence requirement on behalf of their student family member.
  
  

If you started your course on or after 1 January 2021 but before 1 August 2021:

If you started your course on or after 1 January 2021 but before 1 August 2021, then it seems likely the criteria you need to meet in order to qualify for 'home' fees under this category remain the same, although the regulations are not clear on this yet. We will update this information when the regulations are clear.

If you started your course on or after 1 August 2021:

This category has been replaced. Do not read the information about this category given here. Instead, look higher up the page for information about the new categories. All of categories A to I have been replaced.

If you started your course before 1 August 2021:

Special note: For academic years that start on or after 1 August 2021, you are only allowed to use this category if you previously qualified under one of the following categories for the same course (or for a course you have transferred from):

• Child of a Swiss national
• EU nationals (or British Citizens), and family
• EU nationals in the UK
• EEA/Swiss workers, and family
• Child of a former EEA migrant worker
• Child of a Turkish worker
• Those who are ‘settled’ in the UK and have exercised a ‘right of residence’ in the EEA/Switzerland

This is because of regulation 4(9)(b) of the Higher Education (Qualifying Courses, Qualifying Persons and Supplementary Provision) (Wales) Regulations 2015.  

First, check that you are not ruled out by the 'Special note' above. If you are not ruled out by the 'Special note' above, and you started your course before 1 August 2021, then in order to qualify for 'home' fees under this category, you must meet all of the following criteria:

(a) on the first day of an academic year of your course you must be the child of a Swiss national, and your Swiss parent must be doing something in the UK that would have counted as "exercising a right of residence in the UK under European law" if Brexit had not happened (for example, they are a self-sufficient person, a worker, or a student in the UK); and

(b) you must be ordinarily resident in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course; and

(c) you must have been ordinarily resident in the EEA and/or UK and/or Switzerland and/or the overseas territories and/or Gibraltar for the three years before the first day of the first academic year of the course; and

(d) if for the three-year period, the main purpose for you residing in the large area described in (c) was to receive full-time education, you must have been ordinarily resident in the EEA/Switzerland/UK/Gibraltar immediately before that three-year period.

If you started your course on or after 1 August 2021:

If you started your course before 1 August 2021:

Special note: For academic years that start on or after 1 August 2021, you are only allowed to use this category if you previously qualified under one of the following categories for the same course (or for a course you have transferred from):

• Child of a Turkish worker
• EU nationals (or British Citizens), and family
• EU nationals in the UK
• EEA/Swiss workers, and family
• Child of a former EEA migrant worker
• Child of a Swiss national
• Those who are ‘settled’ in the UK and have exercised a ‘right of residence’ in the EEA/Switzerland

This is because of regulation 4(9)(b) of the Higher Education (Qualifying Courses, Qualifying Persons and Supplementary Provision) (Wales) Regulations 2015.  

First, check that you are not ruled out by the 'Special note' above. If you are not ruled out by the 'Special note' above, and you started your course before 1 August 2021, then in order to qualify for 'home' fees under this category, you must meet all of the following criteria:

(a) on the first day of an academic year of your course, you must be the child of a Turkish national; and

(b) on the first day of that academic year of your course, your Turkish national parent must:

• be ordinarily resident in the UK; and
• be, or have been, lawfully employed in the UK;

and

(c) you must be ordinarily resident in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course; and

(d) you must have been ordinarily resident in the EEA and/or UK and/or Switzerland and/or Turkey and/or the overseas territories and/or Gibraltar for the three years before the first day of the first academic year of the course.

If you started your course on or after 1 August 2021:

This category has been replaced. Do not read the information about this category given here. Instead, look higher up the page for information about the new category for ‘Brexit protected rights: Child of a Turkish worker’.