FAMILY VISA

You need a family visa to live with a family member in the UK for more than 6 months.

Applying from outside the UK

You can apply for a family visa to live with your:

spouse or partner, fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner, child, parent, relative who’ll provide long-term care for you

What you’ll need to prove

You must be able to prove one of the following:

you’re in a civil partnership or marriage that’s recognised in the UK
you’ve been living together in a relationship for at least 2 years when you apply
you are a fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner and will marry or enter into a civil partnership in the UK within 6 months of arriving
you’ve been in a relationship for at least 2 years when you apply but you cannot live together, for example because you’re working or studying in different places, or it’s not accepted in your culture
You also need to prove you:
have a good knowledge of English
meet the financial requirements

Extending your family visa

You can apply to extend your stay with your family member if you’re already in the UK on a family visa.

You can extend at any time before your current permission to stay in the UK expires.

If you’re extending to stay with the same family member, you’ll only get up to 28 days left on your current stay added to your new visa.

You must live in the UK for a certain amount of time before you’re eligible for settlement (‘indefinite leave to remain’). Before you extend your visa, check how much time you need to settle in the UK.

You might be able to apply to stay on the basis of your private life if you’ve lived in the UK for many years already.

Switching to a family visa

If you came to the UK on a different visa, you might be able to switch to a family visa to stay with your:spouse or partner, child, parent.

You can switch at any time before your current permission to stay in the UK expires.