UK Dependency Visa

Benefits

If you successfully apply for a family member visa of this kind, you will be granted leave to enter the UK and the freedom to live and work in Britain without restriction. Unlike a UK work permit application, which would depend upon a specific job offer from an indigenous company, this immigration service allows candidates to seek and undertake employment upon arrival without constraint. Applicants for UK dependency visas for immigration can normally apply for British naturalization as a UK citizen after they have spent five years continuously in the country. They must also have held permanent residence status for one year preceding the application and they must have met all other naturalisation requirements.

Duration

No time limit is imposed upon this UK family visa class however it is important to note that holders of ILR should not spend periods of more than two years outside the country as this may lead to the loss of ILR.

Eligibility Criteria

Nature of dependent immigration

People who wish to apply for a UK Dependency visa must be related to a person who is present and settled in one of the following ways.

• Mother or Grandmother who is a widow aged 65 years or over.
• Father or Grandfather who is a widower aged 65 years or over.
• Parents or Grandparents travelling together of whom at least one is aged 65 or over.
• Parent or Grandparent aged 65 or over who has remarried but cannot look to the spouse or children of the second marriage for financial support and the person settled in the United Kingdom is able and willing to support him and any dependants.
• Parent or Grandparent under the age of 65 living alone in the most exceptional compassionate circumstances and mainly dependent financially on relatives settled in Britain.
• Son, Daughter, Sister, Brother, Aunt or Uncle over the age of 18 if living alone in the most exceptional circumstances and mainly dependent financially on relatives settled in Britain.

There must also be evidence that the UK Dependent visa applicant.

• Is financially mainly dependent on the relative present and settled in the United Kingdom.
• Can and will be maintained and accommodated with any dependants without recourse to public funds
• Has no other relative in his own country to whom they could turn for financial support.

Immigration of dependants is also possible through a number of other UK immigration services. If you are in the country through the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme, or HSMP, your spouse, common-law or unmarried partner may join you. In the case of unmarried partners, proof will be required that the relationship existed for two years prior to the application. Spouse immigration is also possible through a marriage visa, and the De Facto visa or unmarried partner visa which allows for unmarried partners to live and work in Great Britain for an initial period of two years after which ILR may be applied for.

Your partner may also join you on a fiance visa, however this class is issued only for six months to allow parties to travel to and marry in Britain. In all of the above cases, with the exception of the Highly Skilled Migration Program, a dependant visa requires the involvement of a partner with settled status.

Your partner or dependent children may also join you if you are in the country on a work permit. However, unlike the examples above, dependents wishing to work once in the country would require their own work permits. Find out further information on our De Facto visas page.