home or international fees?

i would like to go back to uni ... and i am wondering if i have to pay student or home fees.

i came here on a visit visa june 2006- oct2006 then went  home and got fiancee visa for 2 weeks then came back to uk in oct 2006. i am now married and settled in the uk and i have ILR

my understanding is 3 years residency by the time one starts the course. so say i start this sept 2009 , i should have been resisident here in sept 06. but i was on a visitor  visa back then.

so am i considered as international student?

thanks guys!

im not sure if i posted this in the right forum....

You might try the Visas board, but there's a chance that people simply don't have an answer for you.  I would think that you wouldn't be able to count your time as a visitor towards legal residence, therefore you would not have the three years until October 2009.  What that would mean for your student fees, I haven't a clue. 

aha thanks! i will try and post it in the visas section .

You might try the Visas board, but there's a chance that people simply don't have an answer for you.  I would think that you wouldn't be able to count your time as a visitor towards legal residence, therefore you would not have the three years until October 2009.  What that would mean for your student fees, I haven't a clue. 

I didn't post a reply because I didn't know the answer, although I too would guess that the visitor time doesn't count (you have to be 'ordinarily resident' for 3 years and you can't be 'ordinarily resident' as a visitor). In terms of student fees, you would probably either want to wait until after you become eligible before starting the course or you'd likely have to start off paying the higher international fees and then go down to paying home fees once you are eligible (I'm not entirely sure how it all works though).

This may be a moot point by now, but I think you're safe... uni in the UK doesn't start until late October - three years since you were here on a fiancee visa.

You could always phone the international student office at your uni or the registry office.  They may know how to calculate it as I think they determine which fee schedule you're on.

This may be a moot point by now, but I think you're safe... uni in the UK doesn't start until late October - three years since you were here on a fiancee visa.

This is actually not universally true - every UK university has its own start dates, which generally range from early September to early October. It will depend which university the OP wishes to go to as to what date the term starts. It could be that the university year doesn't start until October, or it might start in the first couple of weeks of September.

Oh, ok. All the schools I applied to started at the end of October, so I just assumed. It shouldn't be a problem if the OP is a little patient, though: the home fees are worth waiting for.

I would write to then financial assessment office(s) of the uni(s) you applied to with your query regarding eligibility for home fees from 'X' start date with copies of your various visas, as each university seems to assess in different ways, and then you have something in writing - that's what I did and I used it as evidence when my university tried to overcharge me at a later date.

Oh, ok. All the schools I applied to started at the end of October, so I just assumed. It shouldn't be a problem if the OP is a little patient, though: the home fees are worth waiting for.

Just wanted to clarify the date thing so that no one got confused . I think it's more of an exception rather than a rule that all of your schools start so late (end of October) because I've never heard of a UK university term starting later than the first week of October - most schools have 10-week terms (apart from Oxford and Cambridge who cram everything into 8 weeks), which end 1-2 weeks before Christmas, so a term starting at the end of October and running for 10 weeks would still be in session on Christmas Day!

My youngest brother will be starting university this year and depending on which one he ends up at, he will either be starting on September 17th or September 22nd. On the other hand though, looking at the websites for the universities that my other brother and I attended, their terms start on September 28th, September 29th and October 6th this year (Bristol, Loughborough and Exeter universities, respectively).

just fyi, for home/international fees, the actual start date of the university term generally doesn't matter- for the autumn term, you normally need to qualify for home fees by September 1 of that year.  This is according to the UKCISA guidance, but I agree with mapleleafgirl that clarifying the situation with the university concerned is the way to go in these situations.

I absolutely agree with springhaze.  Also, some universities are now semesterised, with two 15 week semesters, and beginning early in September.

Vicky

so am i considered as international student?

Well, for "home" fee status, you will need to show the uni that you were Ordinarily Resident in the UK since 1 Sept 2006, and that may not be so easy.  The simplest solution would be to delay the start of your studies until at least January 2010, at which point you would have the required 3 years OR before the first day of the first academic year.

If you are determined to start this coming autumn, I advise that you get a good sense of what OR means and whether you have a good case to argue for "home" fees:

http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/student/info_sheets/ordinary_residence.php

just to clarify, as I'm also applying for this fall, even if you are a full UK citizen you cant qualify for home fees for 3 years? that really sucks if so.