Whether your have obtained a Skilled Worker visa for the UK or are considering that option, you might be facing a lot of questions about what this might mean for your family. While there may be some necessary considerations, the Skilled Worker visa route in the UK generally offers individuals to bring their immediate family with them to stay in the UK for the duration of their visa. You will need to know about the rules and requirements to make this happen, but with some preparation, pursuing the opportunity offered via your Skilled Worker visa can be an opportunity for your family as well.
In the UK, individuals who wish to join a partner or parent who has been granted a Skilled Worker visa may apply for a Skilled Worker Dependent visa. This visa allows close family members who are deemed dependent to apply on the basis of their relationship to the Skilled Worker visa holder.
Generally, this is accessible to spouses or civil partners of the primary visa holders. It may also be offered to unmarried partners as long as you have been together for a minimum of two years.
If you have any children who are under the age of 18 at the time of application, they should also be eligible. Exceptions may be made for children over the age of 18 as long as they are deemed to be continuously dependent on the primary visa holder, for example, due to an ongoing care requirement.
You should note that the Skilled Worker Dependent visa doesn’t generally apply to extended family members, but there may be other visa routes available to them, so it is still worth looking into if this is something that applies to your situation.
You should keep in mind that each qualifying family member will need to file an individual visa application for this route.
What to Know about the Skilled Worker Dependent Visa Requirements
The Skilled Worker Dependent visa is offered largely on the merit of the primary visa holder’s eligibility, but there are still some conditions and requirements that you need to consider and follow in order to qualify.
First, for your family members to obtain a Skilled Worker Dependent visa, you will need to be in the UK on a valid Skilled Worker visa, which is eligible to accommodate dependents. Alternatively, you may have obtained indefinite leave to remain in the UK or become naturalised (obtained British citizenship) after having met the associated requirements while staying in the UK on an eligible Skilled Worker visa.
Family members wishing to apply for this dependent visa route must be one of the eligible family members as denoted by the Skilled Worker Dependent visa regulations.
Any applicants must meet general visa eligibility requirements, meaning that they must not have unspent convictions or other immigration offences. They must also agree to leave the UK should their visa expire.
Of course, dependent visas also mean that you will need to be able to financially sustain your family unit in the UK. To show that you are able to do so, you will need to meet the financial requirements, which may vary based on the family member and the number of family members wishing to join you via a dependent visa.
How to Prove Your Relationship Status as a Partner or Spouse Wishing to Apply for a Skilled Worker Dependent Visa?
Partners or spouses wishing to apply for this visa, as well as the primary visa holder, must be over 18 when applying. You will need to be able to prove that you are in a qualifying relationship. This may be shown with official documentation or additional evidence of a real and ongoing partnership, such as evidence of cohabitation, communication, shared bills or caring responsibilities.
There are a number of ways to prove your relationship status, and it makes sense to look at your individual relationship conditions and explore the most suitable route to approach this from.
For children, you will generally need to provide a birth certificate.
Planning a Future on a Skilled Worker Dependent Visa
When applying for a visa, it can be easy to focus on the immediate options and requirements, but any immigration journey should be approached with some foresight to your long-term goals and options to help set you and your family members up on a path that you are all satisfied with.
The Skilled Worker Dependent visa in the UK usually permits family members to stay in the UK as long as the primary Skilled Worker visa holder does, given that they retain their other eligibility requirements. After some time, you may need to extend this visa alongside the primary Skilled Worker visa, but this should be permitted as long as the requirements are still kept.
Individuals who have joined their parents or partner in the UK via this dependent visa are usually granted significant freedoms, meaning that they may work, with some exceptions, or enrol in study or postgraduate education programmes.
One of the benefits of this visa route is that it generally permits visa holders to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain if they have been in the UK for at least 5 years, though you should note that this eligibility time period may be amended in the future.
This means that coming to the UK on this visa may set you up for permanent residence and past that, even citizenship, should this be a path that you might like to consider. There are other options, of course, and you should keep in mind the general restrictions that come with the primary Skilled Worker visa, as this is usually tied closely to employment conditions; however, it is still a very promising immigration route for families who have the option to access it.
As dependents on this visa are generally allowed to seek employment, this will also be an additional step to facilitate continued compliance with the financial requirements, as the burden of financial support is not exclusively placed on the primary visa holder.
