UK Residency:Partners and children

This page explains how your husband, wife or civil partner can join you in the United Kingdom if you are permanent resident in this country or you have been given permission to come to the United Kingdom to live here permanently (we call this 'indefinite leave to remain').

Your husband, wife or civil partner and child may come with you to the United Kingdom, or join you here, if you are aged 21 or over and you:

• currently live in the United Kingdom and are settled here legally; or
• have permission to come here to settle, with no time limit on your stay
• are returning to the United Kingdom with your partner/child live here permanently.
• you have adequate accommodation where you can all live without help from public funds
• you are the child's parent - this includes the stepfather or stepmother of a child whose father or mother is dead, both the father and mother of an illegitimate child, and an adoptive parent in certain defined circumstances.

Partner/Child must show that:

• you are legally married to each other or have registered a civil partnership;
• you are going to live together permanently as man and wife, or as civil partners;
• you have met each other;
• you can support yourselves and any dependants without help from public funds;
• you have adequate accommodation where you and your dependants can live without help from public funds; and
• parner is aged 21or over.
• child is not leading an independent life;
• child is not married or in a civil partnership;
• child has not formed an independent family unit; and
• child is aged under 18.

Partner:

If you have more than one husband or wife, only one of them will be allowed to join you here as your husband or wife.

When your husband, wife or civil partner arrives in the United Kingdom, he/she will be given permission to live and work here for two years. Near the end of the two years, if you are still married or in a civil partnership and plan to live together, your husband, wife or civil partner may apply to live here permanently.

In some cases, we can give your husband, wife or civil partner permission to live permanently in the United Kingdom as soon as he/she arrives. To qualify for this, you must:

• have married or formed a civil partnership four years or more ago;
• have spent those four years living together outside the United Kingdom;
• now be returning to the United Kingdom to settle here together; and
• your spouse/partner must (unless aged 65 or over) have sufficient knowledge of the English language and about life in the United Kingdom.

Children:

Children cannot normally come to live in the United Kingdom if one parent is living in another country, unless the parent living in the United Kingdom has sole responsibility for the child or there are serious reasons why the child must be allowed to come here.

The child will normally be allowed to stay in the United Kingdom permanently from the date he/she arrives if:

• both you and the child's other parent are settled here; or
• both you and the child's other parent have permission to settle here permanently and you are entering the country together with the child; or
• you have permission to settle here permanently and you are entering the country together with the child, and the other parent is already settled here; or
• you have sole responsibility for the child.