UK Dependant Visa: Bringing Your Partner and Children

Many people come to the UK alone first, then want their family to join them. That is possible on some visas. It is not possible on others. The rules changed in 2024 and 2025, and a lot of old advice online is now wrong.

The short answer: if you are on a Skilled Worker visa in most jobs, a Health and Care Worker visa in a health job, or a Global Talent visa, you can bring your partner and children. If you are a student on a taught course, a care worker, a seasonal worker, or on the Youth Mobility Scheme, you generally cannot.

This guide explains who counts as a dependant, which routes allow them, what you must prove, what it costs, and how a dependant can reach settlement.

Who counts as a dependant

On UK work and study visas, a "dependant" means:

• Your husband, wife or civil partner.
• Your unmarried partner, if you have lived together in a relationship for at least 2 years.
• Your child under 18, including a child born in the UK during your stay.
• Your child aged 18 or over, but only if they already have permission to be in the UK as your dependant.

Your parents, your brothers and sisters, and other relatives are not dependants on these routes. They would need their own visa.

Which routes can bring dependants

This is the part people get wrong most often. Check your own route in this table before you spend any money.

The care worker restriction, explained plainly

If you are sponsored as a care worker or senior care worker, you cannot bring a partner or child to the UK. GOV.UK says this directly.

There are only a few exceptions. You can still have dependants if:

• You have been continuously employed in the UK as a care worker or senior care worker, on a Health and Care Worker visa or Skilled Worker visa, since before 11 March 2024.
• You are applying for a child born in the UK.
• You are the only living parent responsible for your child, and you are applying for your child to stay in the UK.
• Your child's other parent is also sponsored as a care worker or senior care worker, and you are applying for your child to stay in the UK.

Separately, the care worker route closed to new applications from overseas on 22 July 2025. So a person outside the UK can no longer be sponsored into this role at all. Be careful with any agent who tells you otherwise.

The student restriction, explained plainly

A student can bring a partner and children only if one of these is true:

1. You are a government sponsored student and your course is longer than 6 months.
2. You are a full time student on a PhD, another doctorate, or a research based higher degree.

For courses that started on or after 1 January 2024, a taught postgraduate course is no longer enough. If you are doing a one year taught masters, you cannot bring your family. This surprises many people, so plan around it before you accept an offer.

What you must prove

The relationship

You must show that the relationship is real and continuing. Useful evidence includes your marriage or civil partnership certificate, your child's birth certificate showing both parents, and, for an unmarried partner, proof that you have lived together for at least 2 years, such as joint bills, a joint tenancy, or bank statements at the same address.

The money

On the Skilled Worker route, you must show extra money for each family member, on top of the £1,270 you must show for yourself:

• £285 for your partner
• £315 for your first child
• £200 for each additional child

So a partner and one child means £600 extra. The money must sit in the account for 28 days in a row, and day 28 must be within 31 days of the date you apply. If your employer agrees to cover these costs, you may not need to show the money yourself.

On the Student route, each dependant must show £845 a month for a course in London, or £680 a month outside London, for up to 9 months.

On the family visa as a partner, the rule is different. You and your partner usually need a combined income of at least £29,000 a year. You may be able to use savings instead.

Accommodation and English

You must have somewhere suitable for your family to live. On work and study routes, dependants do not normally have to pass an English test. On the family visa as a partner, the applicant does have to show a knowledge of English, and later, at the settlement stage, must reach level B1 in speaking and listening.

What it costs

Each dependant makes a separate application and pays a separate fee. Nobody travels free.

• Skilled Worker dependants pay the same fee as the main applicant, for the same length of time. From outside the UK that is £819 for up to 3 years, or £1,618 for more than 3 years. From inside the UK it is £943 and £1,865. If the job is on the Immigration Salary List, the fee is £628 or £1,235.
• Student dependants pay £558.
• Global Talent dependants pay £766.

On top of the fee, every dependant pays the immigration health surcharge (IHS). This gives them access to the NHS. It is:

• £1,035 per year for most adult dependants.
• £776 per year for anyone under 18 at the time of applying, and for students and their dependants.

You pay the whole surcharge up front, for the full length of the visa. For a family, this is usually the biggest single cost, so add it up before you apply.

The settlement (ILR) application later has its own fee, which is set by the Home Office and changes most years. Check the current amount on GOV.UK before you budget. The Life in the UK Test costs £50 each time you sit it.

How long it takes

Applying from outside the UK, a decision on a work or study dependant application usually takes about 3 weeks. A family visa as a partner usually takes about 12 weeks from outside the UK. Paying for a priority service can make it faster, where that service is available.

What a dependant can do in the UK

Once here, a dependant on a work route can:

• Work, in almost any job. The one main exception is that they cannot work as a professional sportsperson or coach.
• Study.
• Travel abroad and come back.

A dependant cannot claim most benefits, which the rules call "public funds", and cannot claim the State Pension.

This matters for family budgets. A dependant partner is usually free to take a full time job, so household income can be much higher than the main applicant's salary alone.

The dependant's own path to settlement

A dependant is not stuck as a dependant forever.

On the main work routes, a dependant partner can normally apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) after 5 continuous years in the UK. Children can usually be included. On the family visa as a partner, the earliest you can apply to settle is after 5 years living in the UK on that route.

At the settlement stage, an adult dependant will usually need to:

• Pass the Life in the UK Test, if they are aged 18 to 64.
• Meet the English language requirement, normally B1 in speaking and listening.
• Keep their continuous residence, which means not spending too long outside the UK.

So a dependant's own clock is running from the day they arrive. Keep every travel date, and start preparing for the Life in the UK Test early. It is not a test you can pass by reading the handbook once the week before.

Before you apply

Check three things, in this order. First, does your route allow dependants at all. Second, do you have the extra money in the account, held for long enough. Third, can you afford the fees and the health surcharge for everyone, paid up front. If any of the three is a no, fix it before you apply, because the fees are not refunded if you are refused.