Dependants of work and student visa holders

Most long-term UK visas let your partner and children under 18 apply as dependants, with permission that runs alongside yours. But the exceptions have grown, and they now decide many families’ plans.

Who can bring family

Skilled Worker, Global Talent, HPI, Innovator Founder, GBM and Student (in limited cases) holders can sponsor a partner — married, in a civil partnership, or in a relationship akin to marriage for at least two years — and children under 18. Dependant partners receive broad work rights, which often matters as much as the main applicant’s job.

Who cannot

Four groups stand out. Students on taught courses: since January 2024, only PhD/research-postgraduate students (courses of 9 months or more) and government-sponsored students (6 months or more) can bring family. Medium-skilled Skilled Workers: new applicants sponsored in eligible medium-skilled (RQF 3–5) occupations — including jobs on the Immigration Salary List or Temporary Shortage List — generally cannot bring dependants; transitional protections apply to some workers who have continuously held Skilled Worker permission in an eligible medium-skilled role since before 22 July 2025. Youth Mobility has never allowed them. Graduate visa holders can keep dependants who were already with them during study, and since 3 August 2026 a child born in the UK during Graduate permission can also apply — but no other new family members join at that stage.

Costs and settlement

Every dependant pays the same application fee as the main applicant plus the Immigration Health Surcharge (£1,035 a year each, £776 for children and student dependants) — a family of four on a five-year visa should budget the surcharge in the tens of thousands of pounds. Dependants on settlement routes can qualify for ILR, but each person must meet their own requirements — a dependent partner normally needs five years’ residence as a dependant themselves, so a partner who arrived later settles later than the main applicant.