Visas to come to the UK are incredibly expensive. People moving to the UK to live with a partner or another loved one have to pay thousands of pounds in application fees before they even set foot in the country.

There is a system where people who cannot afford application fees can apply for something called a 'fee waiver,' so they don't have to pay the application fee. But until recently, it was nearly impossible to get a fee waiver when applying for a visa to enter the UK.

This left many people struggling in a Catch-22 situation for years: unable to enter the UK because of not being able to pay the visa application fee, and unable to get a waiver for the application fee because of being outside the UK. 

Now, following intervention from JCWI, the Home Office has changed those cruel rules. People applying for their first visa to come to the UK can now apply for a fee waiver. This means that people can no longer be barred from joining loved ones in the UK just because they can't afford the application fee.

We have written a simple guide to how to apply for a fee waiver for your first visa.

Read the guide

This is great news for families struggling to be together because of huge visa costs. 

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