This study employs ethnographic methods to explore citizens' experiences applying for welfare services through digital self-services, highlighting the challenges that vulnerable citizens face when dealing with administrative burdens and their various strategies to overcome them. The primary objective is to present citizens' lived experiences of administrative burdens within the context of digital self-services and illustrate the impact of these burdens on their access to fundamental rights and services. Through participatory observations, we uncover citizens' encounters with administrative burdens during self-service applications and their strategies to mitigate these burdens while presenting their experiences of compliance, learning, and psychological costs. We offer recommendations for redesign based on the identified burdens and strategies. Our findings reveal that while self-services may present administrative burdens for vulnerable citizens in difficult life situations, efforts to alleviate these burdens can reduce inequalities and strengthen social fairness.