Nationality and residency
UK nationals
You’ll be eligible for student finance if all of the following apply:
- you normally live and work in England
- you’ve been living in the UK, the Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man for three years before starting your course
And you’re:
- a UK national or Irish Citizen, or
- have settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme, or
- granted indefinite leave to remain for other reasons
Lived outside the UK, EU, or EEA?
You can also apply if you’ve been living in the UK, the EEA, Gibraltar or Switzerland for the past 3 years and are:
- the child of a Swiss national and you have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
- an EEA or Swiss worker, or the family member of an EEA or Swiss Worker, and you have settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme or you are an Irish Citizen
- a family member of a UK National - both you and your family member must have lived in the UK, EEA, Gibraltar or Switzerland for the past 3 years
- the child of a Turkish worker and you and your Turkish worker parent were in the UK by 31 December 2020, with your parent being granted extended leave to remain beyond that date
If you’ve lived outside the UK, EU, or EEA on a temporary basis, you must have returned to the UK by the start of your course to be eligible for student finance.
You can apply if you have one of the following Home Office statuses:
- Humanitarian protection or the family member of someone with this status
- Stateless status or the family member of someone with this status
- Refugee status or the family member of someone with this status
- Calais leave or the dependent child of someone with Calais leave
- Classed as ‘leave to remain’ under the section 67 of the Immigration act or the dependent child of someone with this status
- You've been given settled status ('indefinite leave to remain') because you've been the victim of domestic violence
- You or your family member have been granted Leave to Enter or Remain under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) or the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS)
- You or your family member have been granted leave to enter or remain in the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme, the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme or the Ukraine Extension Scheme
EU nationals
Most EU, other EEA and Swiss nationals starting courses on or after 1 August 2021 will not be eligible for support from Student Finance England.
Students whose courses start before 1 August 2021 will continue to get student finance for the rest of their course. Find out more on GOV.UK.
You could also be eligible if you’ve been living in the UK for the past three years with long residence and are:
- under 18 on the first day of your course and have lived in the UK for at least seven years
- 18 or over on the first day of your course and have lived in the UK for at least half their life or at least 20 years
To be eligible for support under the long residence category, you must have limited Leave to Remain (including Discretionary Leave to Remain) and have lived in the UK for three years before the first day of your course. You must also live in England on the first day of your course.
You may be eligible for tuition fee only support if you've been living in the UK, the EEA, Switzerland or overseas territories for the past 3 years and you’re:
- an EU national or a family member of an EU national or a family member of a person of Northern Ireland and you have pre-settled or settled status under the EU Settlement scheme
- an EU national or a family member of an EU national who has resident status in Gibraltar
- an EEA or Swiss worker or a family member of an EEA or Swiss worker; or
- a child of a Swiss national or the child of a Turkish worker and you do not qualify for full support
UK nationals and their family members who have resident status in Gibraltar and lived in the UK, Gibraltar, the EEA or Switzerland for the past three years can also apply for tuition fee funding.
You may also be able to get tuition fee funding if you are a:
- family member of a UK national
- family member of a person with settled status in the UK
- family member of a person of Northern Ireland
- family member of an Irish Citizen
You must have been living in the UK and Islands for the past 3 years and your family member is resident in the UK on the first day of the first academic year of the course.
You can also apply if you are a UK national, an Irish Citizen or you have settled status in the UK and you have been living in any of the following for the past 3 years:
- the UK, Islands and/or the specified British Overseas Territories
- the UK Islands and/or Ireland
You can also apply if you have Irish Citizenship and have been living in any of the following for the past 3 years:
- the UK, the EEA, Switzerland or the Overseas Territories, and were resident in the UK on or before 31 December 2020
- the UK, the EEA, Switzerland or Gibraltar, and were resident in the EEA or Switzerland on or before 31 December 2020
You’ll need to tell us all the addresses you’ve lived at in the last five years, and send us original evidence to prove this.
- Examples of evidence you can send include:
- Council Tax bills
- utility bills
- P60s
- wage slips
- letters from HMRC
- Child Tax Credits letters
- Child Benefit letters
- tax returns
- tax calculations
- bank statements
If you were under 18 at the start of the five year period before your course starts, we can also accept:
- signed/stamped letters on headed paper from your school or college confirming dates of attendance (it must confirm the exact dates)
- a Child Benefit or Child Tax Credits award letters addressed to your parents, with your name listed on the letter
- school reports