Childcare for Visa Holders: What You Can Use

Start with the condition on your permission

This is the fact that decides most of what follows, so it comes first. UK funded childcare splits into two kinds:

• Hours with no immigration condition. The 15 hours a week for all 3 and 4 year olds in England is set out on GOV.UK with no nationality, status or income test attached to it at all.
• Schemes that test your status. The working-parent hours in England and Tax-Free Childcare across the UK both do.

For the second kind, GOV.UK says you must have a National Insurance number and at least one of the following: British or Irish citizenship; settled or pre-settled status, or an application for it waiting for a decision; or "permission to access public funds - your eVisa or UK residence card will tell you if you cannot do this". If you have a partner, they need a National Insurance number too.

Permission to work or study in the UK is normally granted with a no recourse to public funds condition. That condition does not meet the requirement above, so it rules out both the working-parent hours and Tax-Free Childcare for as long as it applies. Your eVisa states whether your permission carries it. If you later get indefinite leave to remain (settlement) or British citizenship, the condition goes and these schemes open up.

Sources: GOV.UK, Free Childcare for Working Parents: check you are eligible and GOV.UK, Tax-Free Childcare: check if you are eligible.

England: the 15 hours every family can use

GOV.UK states that "all 3 to 4-year-olds in England can get 570 free hours per year", usually taken as 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year, at nurseries, pre-schools and childminders. It starts from the term after your child's third birthday, on 1 January, 1 April or 1 September.

The GOV.UK page for this entitlement sets no immigration condition, no nationality condition and no income condition. It is available whatever your permission says about public funds. Read it at GOV.UK, 15 hours free childcare for 3 to 4 year olds.

England: the working-parent hours, 9 months to 4 years

GOV.UK: "If your child is aged 9 months to 4 years old you can get 30 hours per week of free childcare for 38 weeks of the year." You must live in England. This scheme has three sets of conditions, and all of them apply.

The immigration condition

A National Insurance number, plus British or Irish citizenship, settled or pre-settled status (or an application waiting for a decision), or permission to access public funds. This is the condition set out at the top of this guide, and it is the one that most often stops a visa holder using this scheme.

The earnings condition

You, and your partner if you have one, must each expect to earn at least the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage for 16 hours a week on average. GOV.UK gives that as an amount over the 3 months after you apply: £2,643.68 before tax if you are 21 or over, £2,256.80 if you are 18 to 20, and £1,664 if you are under 18 or an apprentice.

The income cap

You cannot get it if you or your partner expect an adjusted net income, including foreign income, over £100,000 for the current tax year.

When to apply

You can apply from when your child is 23 weeks old. The hours then start on one of three dates in the year, depending on when the child turns 9 months:

• Turns 9 months between 1 September and 31 December: hours from 1 January, apply by 31 December.
• Turns 9 months between 1 January and 31 March: hours from 1 April, apply by 31 March.
• Turns 9 months between 1 April and 31 August: hours from 1 September, apply by 31 August.

GOV.UK also says that if you are getting the working-parent hours or Tax-Free Childcare, "you have to confirm if your details are up to date every 3 months". Apply and reconfirm through the childcare account on GOV.UK, Free Childcare for Working Parents.

England: 15 hours for some 2 year olds, including families who cannot claim benefits

This is the route most often missed by families on a visa, because it exists for them. GOV.UK says: "If your immigration status says you cannot claim benefits, you may still get free childcare for your 2 year old."

The published household income limits are:

• £26,500 for families outside London with one child
• £30,600 for families outside London with two or more children
• £34,500 for families in London with one child
• £38,600 for families in London with two or more children

You also cannot have more than £16,000 in savings or investments. Separately, families who do claim benefits can get the same 15 hours through Universal Credit with a household income of £15,400 a year or less after tax, or through Income Support, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, or the guaranteed element of Pension Credit. A child with an education, health and care plan, or who gets Disability Living Allowance, or who is in care or has left care, also qualifies.

The conditions are on GOV.UK, free childcare for 2 year olds if you get extra support. Applications go through your local council.

Tax-Free Childcare

Tax-Free Childcare is a UK-wide scheme. GOV.UK: "For every £8 you pay into the account, the government will top it up by £2." The top-up is capped at £500 every 3 months, up to £2,000 a year, or £1,000 every 3 months and up to £4,000 a year if your child is disabled. Your child must be 11 or younger, or 16 or younger if they are disabled.

The earnings condition and the £100,000 income cap are the same as for the working-parent hours, and so is the immigration condition: a National Insurance number and either citizenship, settled or pre-settled status, or permission to access public funds. You also have to confirm your details every 3 months.

GOV.UK states that "you cannot get Tax-Free Childcare at the same time as claiming Universal Credit or childcare vouchers". If you move from employer childcare vouchers to Tax-Free Childcare, you have 90 days to tell your employer to stop the vouchers. The GOV.UK childcare calculator compares which forms of help you may be able to get.

What counts as a public fund

The Home Office publishes the list. Universal Credit is on it, and the childcare costs Universal Credit pays come with it. Child Benefit is on it too, along with Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction and social housing.

Tax-Free Childcare and the funded childcare hours are not on that list. That is a real distinction, but it does not open them up: their own rules carry the citizenship, status or public funds requirement described above, so a no recourse to public funds condition rules them out anyway. The list is at GOV.UK, Public funds, and our guide to Child Benefit for visa holders covers the same condition from the benefits side.

Childcare is devolved: the four nations fund different things

Everything above about funded hours applies to England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own schemes, and an English answer will be wrong in three of the four nations.

Scotland

mygov.scot: "3 to 5 year olds can get up to 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare a year." That works out at roughly 22 hours a week if used across the whole year, or about 30 hours a week if used in term time only. Some 2 year olds also qualify. Councils run it, and mygov.scot states no immigration condition for the 3 to 5 entitlement; your council can confirm what it asks for. See mygov.scot, funded early learning and childcare.

Wales

The Childcare Offer for Wales gives 3 and 4 year olds up to 30 hours a week of combined government-funded nursery education and childcare: at least 10 hours of nursery education and up to 20 hours of childcare. You must live in Wales, each parent's gross income must be £100,000 or less a year, and each parent must be earning on average the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the National Minimum Wage or Living Wage, on statutory pay and leave, or enrolled on a further or higher education course lasting at least 10 weeks. The Welsh eligibility page does not set out an immigration condition; ask your local authority before assuming the English one applies. See GOV.WALES, Childcare Offer for Wales eligibility.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland funds a pre-school education place for children in the year before they start primary school. Admissions run through the Education Authority, not a council, and the Education Authority publishes the birth date range for each intake year. There is no Northern Irish equivalent of the English 30 working-parent hours. Tax-Free Childcare applies in Northern Ireland as it does everywhere else, and the Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme reduces childcare costs for eligible working parents by a further 15 per cent, but only for parents already claiming Tax-Free Childcare, so the Tax-Free Childcare immigration condition governs it as well. See nidirect, help paying for approved childcare.

What childcare costs

No official source publishes an average price for a childcare place, and this guide will not invent one. Nurseries, pre-schools and childminders are private businesses that set their own fees. Two providers on the same street can charge different amounts, and the fee depends on the hours you use, the child's age and what the provider includes.

The way to find out what you would pay is to ask the providers near you for their current fee list. What government publishes is the help, not the price: the GOV.UK childcare calculator works out which schemes you may be able to use. If you are budgeting for a move, get real quotes from real providers and put those in the budget alongside visa fees rather than a figure from an article.

Finding a place

• In England, search for funded early education places with the GOV.UK childcare finder, and read the Ofsted report for any provider you are considering.
• In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, applications go through your council, local authority or the Education Authority, using the pages linked in the section above.
• Your local Family Information Service or children's centre keeps a list of registered providers in the area.

Working as a childminder

Two separate questions decide this. The first is what your permission allows: your eVisa states the work conditions attached to it, and some permission restricts the work you can do or bars self-employment. The second is registration. In England you register with Ofsted or with a childminder agency, and GOV.UK lists not having the legal right to work in the UK among the things that stop you registering. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland register childminders through their own bodies. The England guidance is at GOV.UK, become a childminder or nanny.

Family members visiting on a visitor visa cannot work in the UK, paid childcare included. An unpaid family arrangement is not work.

Next steps

Check whether your permission carries a no recourse to public funds condition, because that answers most of this page. Check which nation's scheme applies where you live. If your child is 3 or 4 and you are in England, the 15 universal hours are open to you now, from the term after their third birthday. If your child is 2 and your status stops you claiming benefits, check the income limits for the 2 year old hours.

Related guides:

• Child Benefit for Visa Holders
• School Places for Visa Holders
• Budgeting for Immigration
• Employment Rights for Visa Holders

Questions and answers