Applying for Year 7 Place From Abroad: 2027 Entry Rules

The Common Application Form (CAF) is the single council form on which a family ranks its Year 7 preferences, and a family living abroad can use it: DfE guidance says councils “should consider the application as adequate proof of an intention to move or return to the area”. For September 2027 entry the closing date is Saturday 31 October 2026 at most of the councils quoted below and Monday 2 November 2026 in Kent.

Leading Tuition prepares children for UK 11+ entry from abroad: tuition can be one to one, and families outside the UK can take the whole programme online. This guide covers the council form that comes before any test.

Which council receives the form when you live abroad?

Paragraph 2.3 of the School Admissions Code 2021 says that, whichever schools parents name, “the CAF is required to be returned to the local authority in the area that they live (the ‘home’ authority)”. The Code’s glossary defines a child’s home local authority as “the local authority in whose area the child resides”. A family abroad resides in no English council area, so the working answer comes from DfE’s guidance on applications from overseas children (last updated 28 March 2024) and from each council’s own pages.

DfE says a local authority “should not refuse an application made from overseas … on the grounds that the applicant does not currently live in its area”, and that a school “cannot refuse to admit a child until the school to which the parents have applied is full”. It adds that “nothing in legislation prevents a local authority from co-ordinating an application from a family living in another country or posted overseas but moving or returning to England or the UK so that the child will be living in the area when they start school”. If a council refuses to co-ordinate such an application, DfE says, “an admission authority for the school would have significant difficulty in being able to lawfully apply its admission arrangements”.

Councils then publish their own routes. The table gives what each says to a family living abroad for the September 2027 transfer, in its own words and with its conditions. The last column links the guide that carries that area’s test dates and school rules.

Buckinghamshire’s two pages point two ways for a family abroad. One says not to send the application to Buckinghamshire if you live outside it; the other says a family that lives overseas but will move to Buckinghamshire before the child starts secondary school should submit to Buckinghamshire with its overseas address. Which applies to a given family is for the council to say. Write to the admissions team before the closing date, quote the page you are relying on, and keep the reply with your papers. The same step suits Redbridge, whose arrangements and application page are quoted in its row, Kent, whose scheme is worded for Kent residents, and any council whose pages differ.

Service families and Crown servants returning from overseas follow a separate paragraph of the Code, 2.21, covered further down. For the wider picture of an expat return, the guide for expat families returning to UK grammar schools covers the curriculum gap and the timing of the move.

What counts as proof that you are coming back?

DfE leaves the evidence to the councils. Its guidance says admission authorities and local authorities “can decide what evidence they require from parents to show that they intend returning or moving to the area, but this might include” a mortgage or rental agreement for a property in the area, deeds for a property in the area, a letter from an employer showing a transfer date to the area, and registration with a local GP. A council “can reasonably request the evidence” so that the admission authority “holds sufficient information to determine the application”, and the Code says the CAF “must allow parents to provide their name, their address (including documentary evidence in support)”.

The lists differ from council to council, and some are worded for a particular year or for residents. The table gives each with its scope.

Buckinghamshire’s list is evidence for after the move, which is why its page tells an overseas family to apply first on the overseas address and send the proof later. A signed tenancy, flights or an employer’s letter are the kind of papers that Sutton and DfE name as evidence of an intended move. The area guides above hold the catchment and distance rules of individual schools; this page stays with the form.

Which address goes on the form, and what does an overseas address do to priority?

DfE says the application “should be processed whether or not the family is able to provide a permanent address”. The address still matters to ranking. If a parent cannot provide evidence of a return before the new school year, DfE says, admission authorities “could apply a catchment area policy or distance tie-break, if they have such admission criteria, using the parents’ place of residence at the point the application is made”. If that is another country, it “might give the child a lower priority for admission if the admission authority operates a catchment area or if the child is tied for the final place available with other applicants”.

Each council says which address it ranks and when a UK address takes over.

Five councils (Barnet, Buckinghamshire, Kingston, Lincolnshire and Sutton) give the same starting point in different words: the address where the child actually lives when the form goes in. They differ on the point at which a UK address takes over. Barnet recalculates once the family has “arrived and taken up residence locally”; Kingston waits until the family is “habitually resident” and has proved arrival, naming a boarding pass or an immigration stamp as acceptable evidence; Buckinghamshire needs the family to be “physically resident”, and for most of its grammar schools the move-by date for the first round was 1 September 2026. Redbridge words it differently. The address must be where the child “normally lives, on the closing date for your application, and is expected to live in September 2027 and beyond”, and its Note 11 uses residence at the point of application only where “a parent is unable to provide evidence of a return”. Ask Redbridge in writing how that applies to a family abroad.

That is why the order of the steps matters for a family that cannot move before the result. The form can go in on the overseas address by the closing date; the councils above then say what has to follow, and when. The area guides give the school-level consequences: Barnet, Buckinghamshire, Kingston, Redbridge and Sutton.

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What are the closing dates, and what happens if you miss them?

The Code’s glossary gives the deadline for secondary places in the normal admissions round as 31 October, and each council publishes the dates of its own scheme. 31 October 2026 falls on a Saturday. Kingston and Kent print the weekday of their dates; for the other councils the weekday in the table is the calendar’s, not theirs. Kent’s closing date is a different day.

Late is not the same as refused. Paragraph 2.9 of the Code says admission authorities “must not refuse to admit a child solely because: a) they have applied later than other applicants”. What a late application loses is position. Redbridge’s application page places it on the waiting list for the schools named, and paragraph 1.8 of its arrangements considers it only after on-time applications “unless there is evidence to show that the application or amendment could not reasonably have been made on time”. Buckinghamshire’s page states the cost for a family on the move plainly: moving into the area “or being unaware of the deadline” is not an exceptional reason.

A family that cannot file by the date should write to the council before the closing date, not after it, and ask which late route applies to an application from abroad. The guide to relocating to the UK mid-cycle covers families who arrive after the rounds, and the guide to in-year grammar admissions after Year 7 covers the later routes.

What happens between the offer and September?

Paragraph 2.12 of the Code says all secondary offers “must be made on the same secondary National Offer Day i.e.1 March or the next working day”. Barnet, Kingston and Sutton give 1 March 2027, a Monday. Barnet and Kingston give 15 March 2027, a Monday, as the deadline to respond to a first-round offer, and Redbridge says “You’ll then have two weeks to accept the offer.”

Three sources address what happens if the child is not in school in September. DfE says that where an application is made from an address in another country, the council or school “may ask for evidence before the school year or term begins to confirm that the child now lives in the UK”, and “If the child does not attend school on the first day of term the admission authority could, in some circumstances, remove the offer and allocate the place to a child on the waiting list”. Redbridge’s arrangements say the admission authority “can remove the offer and allocate the place to a child on the waiting list, after the parent has been contacted to ascertain the situation”.

Kingston is specific about the start: “If your application from overseas is successful and we can offer a place at one of your preferred schools, your child is expected to start at the beginning of September. Failure to do so may result in the withdrawal of the offer.” It names a boarding pass or an immigration stamp as acceptable evidence of arrival.

DfE places these sentences beside paragraph 2.13 of the Code, which says an admission authority “must not withdraw an offer unless it has been offered in error, a parent has not responded within a reasonable period of time, or it is established that the offer was obtained through a fraudulent or intentionally misleading application”. Where a place is refused, DfE says, admission authorities “must offer an appeal to an independent appeal panel”.

Who checks a foreign national child’s immigration status?

DfE puts the check on parents: it is “the responsibility of the parents of foreign national children to check that their children have a right under their UK entry conditions to study at a school before applying for a place”. Admission authorities for state-funded schools “must not ask to see passports or other immigration information as a condition of admission”. DfE also says that “unaccompanied foreign national children and young people who are entering on a Child Student visa or Student visa” “cannot lawfully, under their UK entry conditions, study at a state-funded school”. Which families can use the state route at all is the subject of our guide on whether foreign nationals can attend grammar schools.

Is the route different for forces and Crown servant families?

Yes, under paragraph 2.21 of the Code: “For families of service personnel with a confirmed posting, or crown servants returning from overseas, admission authorities must: a) allocate a place in advance of the family arriving in the area (as long as one is available), provided the application is accompanied by an official letter that declares a relocation date.”

Councils add dates. Kent: “Applications will be accepted up until Monday 7 December 2026, where it is confirmed in writing by the appropriate authority that the family will be resident in Kent by 1 September 2027.” Buckinghamshire: “If we receive your application and supporting evidence by 29 January we will treat your application as timely.” See the forces families guide.

Does the form also register a child for the grammar test?

In these pages the form and the test are separate steps; the Kent and Buckinghamshire guides and the hub carry the test dates. Kent’s scheme: “If the parent chooses to name a Kent Grammar school on the SCAF for a child who has not taken the appropriate assessment, this preference will be treated as invalid for National Offer Day (Monday 1 March 2027) because the child will not have met the entry criteria.” Gloucestershire County Council: “Parents/carers must also list the grammar school(s) on their secondary school application form to their home local authority between September 2026 and the closing date of 31 October 2026”, and, on the same page, “your child will not be offered a place in a grammar school if it has not been listed on your secondary school application form.”

Reviewed 3 October 2026 against the School Admissions Code 2021, GOV.UK and the council pages linked above; weekdays checked against the calendar.

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