Northern Ireland: FE fee status

When the circular or regulations refer to a 'child', there is no requirement for the 'child' to be below a certain age. Therefore, the 'child' can be over 18, or over 21. There is also no requirement for the 'child' to be dependent on the 'parent' (or anyone else).

The regulations simply state that:

"'parent' includes a guardian and any other person having parental responsibility and 'child' is to be construed accordingly".

You can read a Government explanation of what 'parental responsibility' is. If a person is already 18 then 'parental responsibility' cannot usually start if it has not already been established.

The EEA is a larger area than the EU (see below). It is made up of all the countries in the EU plus:

• Iceland
• Liechtenstein
• Norway (including Svalbard)

For categories where the residence area includes the EEA, the residence area is made up of all 30 countries in the EEA including the whole of the island of Cyprus (that is, including Northern Cyprus).

You are an EU national if you are a national or citizen of one of the following:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Republic of Cyprus (but not the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus)
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland (extra note: the territory of Finland includes the Aland Islands)
• France (extra note: the territory of France includes the French Overseas Departments of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, French Guyana, Reunion and Saint-Martin)
• Germany (extra note: the territory of Germany includes Heligoland)
• Greece (The Consular Office of the Greek Embassy in the UK confirmed for us that "anyone who holds a passport / ID card issued by the Greek Government would be a Greek national who is registered with the Greek Municipal Authorities. This would include those whose documentation describes them as Greek nationals of Hellenic descent. Any such person is, therefore, an EU national [...] unless [...] nationality has been revoked in accordance with Greek law".)
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal (extra note: the territory of Portugal includes Madeira and the Azores)
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain (extra note: the territory of Spain includes the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Ceuta, and Melilla)
• Sweden

Special note about the UK, for students starting their course before 11pm on 31 December 2020:

An 'implementation period' followed the UK’s exit from the EU on 31 January 2020, which meant that until 11pm on 31 December 2020, for fees assessment purposes, the UK was still treated as part of the EU. During the implementation period, Gibraltar was treated as part of the territory of the UK.

You are ordinarily resident in the relevant residence area (which depends on the category and its qualifying conditions) if you have habitually, normally and lawfully resided in that area from choice. Temporary absences from the residence area should be ignored and therefore would not stop you being ordinarily resident. It has also previously been successfully argued in the UK courts that an individual can be ordinarily resident in more than one place at the same time; individuals wishing to demonstrate this would have to be living a lawful, normal and habitual residence in each of the areas in question.

If you can demonstrate that you have not been ordinarily resident in the relevant residence area only because you, or a family member, were temporarily working outside the relevant residence area, you will be treated as though you have been ordinarily resident there.

Where a category includes a condition that the main purpose of your residence must not have been to receive full-time education, a useful question to ask is: "if you had not been in full-time education, where would you have been ordinarily resident?". If the answer to this question is "outside the relevant residence area" this would indicate that the main purpose for your residence was full-time education. If the answer is that you would have been resident in the relevant residence area even if you had not been in full-time education, this would indicate that full-time education was not the main purpose for your residence in the relevant area.

See Ordinary residence case law for how the UK courts have debated issues of ordinary residence.

'Overseas territories' is not defined in the Northern Ireland circular or in the relevant FE regulations. However, elsewhere, where the terms 'British Overseas Territories' and 'EU Overseas Territories' are used, they are generally understood to mean the following:

British overseas territories

• Anguilla
• Bermuda
• British Antarctic Territory
• British Indian Ocean Territory
• British Virgin Islands
• Cayman Islands
• Falkland Islands
• Gibraltar
• Montserrat
• Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands
• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
• St Helena and Dependencies (Ascension Island and Tristan de Cunha)
• Turks and Caicos Islands

Overseas territories of EU member states

• Aruba
• Faroe Islands
• French Polynesia
• French Southern and Antarctic Territories
• Greenland
• Mayotte
• Netherland Antilles (Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten)
• the Territory of New Caledonia and Dependencies
• Saint-Barthélemy
• St Pierre et Miquelon
• Wallis and Futuna Islands

We will seek clarity from Northern Ireland's Department for the Economy as to how it wishes colleges to use these terms.

'Settled' means being both ordinarily resident in the UK and without any immigration restriction on the length of your stay in the UK. The regulations take this definition of 'settled' from immigration law (section 33(2A) of the Immigration Act 1971).

You have no immigration restriction on the length of your stay in the UK if you fall into one of the following groups. This list is not exhaustive.

Indefinite Leave to Enter/Remain (ILE/ILR)

If you have Indefinite Leave to Enter (ILE) or Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK, you have no immigration restriction on the length of your stay in the UK.

If you have been given ‘settled status’ under the EU Settlement Scheme, then you have ILE or ILR. That means you have no immigration restriction on the length of your stay in the UK. It is important to note that if you have only been given ‘pre-settled status’ under the EU Settlement Scheme, then you do not have ILE or ILR.

If you have ILE or ILR in Jersey, Guernsey, or the Isle of Man, then this is considered to be ILE or ILR in the UK whenever you are in the UK.

British citizen

If your passport describes you as a ‘British citizen’, you have no immigration restriction on the length of your stay in the UK.

Right of Abode

If you have a Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode in the UK in your passport, you have no immigration restriction on the length of your stay in the UK.

Republic of Ireland citizen

If you are a citizen of the Republic of Ireland, you have no immigration restriction on the length of your stay in the UK. You are also an EU national.

Where status is not ‘settled’

You do not have settled status if you:

• have a time limit on the length of your stay in the UK, as shown by your current immigration permission (you have 'limited leave'); or
• are exempt from immigration control, for example you are living in the UK as a diplomat or a member of their household/family (there is an exception to this if you are a non-UK national serving in the British armed forces [see above]); or
• have a type of British passport that does not give you British citizenship, for example British National (Overseas), and you do not have Indefinite Leave.

The area of residence described as UK and Islands consists of:

• Northern Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland (the United Kingdom, or 'UK'); and
• Channel Islands and Isle of Man (the 'Islands').