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International

Visitors and dependants

Visitors

During your time in the UK, a family member or friend may wish to visit you for events, such as your graduation. If they intend on coming to the UK for a period of less than six months, they may qualify to come as a standard visitor. If they are a visa national, it is compulsory for the application for entry clearance to be made before they travel to the UK.

If you wish to support their application, please contact the International Office for more information.

Dependants

Your partner and children (‘dependants’) may be able to apply to come to the UK or stay longer in the UK.

You must be one of the following:

If your postgraduate level course starts on or after 1 January 2024, it must be either:

  • a PhD or other doctorate (RQF level 8)
  • a research-based higher degree

Which family members can come as dependants?

A dependant is either:

  • Your husband, wife or civil partner
  • Your unmarried or same-sex partner
  • Your child under 18 years old-including if they were born in the UK during your stay. In order to bring your child both parents must be travelling to the UK unless there are extenuating circumstance as to why this is not possible.

Evidence will be required at part of the Dependant visa application to prove that the individual is your dependant such as an Marriage Certificate.

What are the visa requirements?

If you are eligible to bring dependants each dependant must evidence that they have a certain amount of money to support themselves while in the UK. This is currently set at £680 per month (outside of London) for the duration of their leave up to a maximum of 9 months.

If you are coming on a one year programme this means that each dependant must evidence that they have access to £6120 living costs. These funds must be held within a bank account for at least 28 consecutive days with the statement being no older than 31 days on the date of all application.

How to apply

It is recommend that your dependant applies at the same time as you for either an Entry Clearance Application from outside the UK or as part of a Visa Extension inside the UK. However, it is possible for a dependant to apply at a later date.

For more information it is recommend you visit the UKVI and UKCISA webpages.

Can my dependant work?

Dependants are eligible to work and can take any type of employment or self-employment excluding:

  • Work as a professional sportsperson, which includes being a sports coach.
  • Work as a doctor or dentist in training.

For more information please check the UKCISA webpages on dependants.

For more information, please refer to the PBS Dependant Policy guidance, UKVI webpages and UKCISA webpages.