You must prove that you’re:

• 18 or over
• free to give notice of marriage, to marry or enter into a civil partnership in the UK within 6 months of your arrival
• in a genuine relationship
• visiting the UK for less than 6 months
• leaving the UK at the end of your visit
• able to support yourself without working or help from public funds, or that you can be supported and housed by relatives or friends
• able to meet the cost of the return or onward journey
• not in transit to a country outside the UK, Ireland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands

Your family member or partner can:

• be a British citizen
• have settled in the UK
• be your partner who has asylum or humanitarian protection in the UK

You may also be able to apply to remain with your child if they have lived in the UK for at least 7 years.

The route you choose affects how soon you can apply to settle permanently in the UK - there’s a 2-year route, a 5-year route and a 10-year route.

You can apply to extend or switch in any of these routes if you’re eligible, except if you have permission to be in the UK:

• as a visitor
• for less than 6 months - unless you got your visa to get married or become civil partners or you got your visa to wait for the outcome of a family court or divorce

If you’re in the UK on temporary admission or release (you don’t have a visa) you can only apply to switch if you both:

• apply in a 10-year route
• can prove you’ve been in the UK for more than 6 months before you apply

You can also switch between routes if your eligibility changes.

Your application might be refused if, for example, you’ve:

• got a criminal record in the UK or in another country
• provided false or incomplete information to the Home Office
• broken UK immigration law

Read the full guidance on refusals.

Partner routes

Partners are 2 people who are 18 or over and in a genuine relationship - you must be able to prove one of the following:

• you’re married
• you’re in a civil partnership
• you’ve been living together in a relationship for 2 years

You and your partner must intend to continue your relationship after you apply.

Partner (2-year route)

You can only extend your ‘family of a settled person visa’ in this route if you:

• applied as a partner before 9 July 2012
• are not eligible to settle
• have kept to the terms of your visa

You must meet the eligibility requirements for the partner routes and you must also prove that:

• you and your partner have enough money to adequately support and accommodate yourselves and any dependants without relying on public funds
• you have good knowledge of English if you’re 18 or over

Partner (5-year route)

You must meet the eligibility requirements for the partner routes. If you’re 18 or over you must prove that you have a good knowledge of English.

You must also meet the financial requirement of:

• £18,600 per year if you’re applying only for yourself
• £22,400 per year for you and one child
• £2,400 per year for each additional child

You won’t need to prove you have this money if you or your partner get certain disability benefits or Carer’s Allowance, but you’ll need to adequately accommodate and support yourselves and any dependants.

Family life as a partner (10-year route)

You must meet the eligibility requirements for the partner routes and you must also be in one of these situations:

• there are serious reasons you and your partner can’t live together as a couple in another country
• you have a child in the UK who is a British citizen or has lived in the UK for 7 years and it wouldn’t be in their best interests to leave the UK with you

Parent routes

‘Parent’ means:

• a natural (biological) parent
• an adoptive parent
• a step-parent where the biological parent has died

If the child was born in the UK but isn’t a British citizen and their birth parents are unable to look after them, anyone who takes on parental responsibility will also be considered a parent.

If the child lives with you

You need to have either:

• sole parental responsibility
• shared responsibility and the child’s other parent is a British citizen or is settled in the UK

If you have a partner and you’re eligible to apply under the 5 or 10 year partner routes, you must apply through those routes. Don’t apply through the parent route.

If the child lives with their other parent or carer

The parent or carer the child usually lives with must be a British citizen or settled in the UK.

You must have access to the child in person, as agreed with the other parent or carer or by a court order.

If you have a partner and you’re eligible to apply under the 5 or 10 year partner routes, you must apply through those routes. Don’t apply through the parent route.

You must be able to prove that:

• you and the child are both living in the UK
• the child is under 18 or was under 18 when you applied for a ‘family of a settled person visa’ to join them
• you’re continuing to take an active role in the child’s upbringing

Family life as a parent (5-year route)

Your child must be a British citizen or settled in the UK. You must meet the eligibility requirements for the parent routes and you must also be able to prove that:

• you have enough money to adequately support and accommodate you and your dependants without relying on public funds
• you have good knowledge of English if you’re 18 or over

Family life as a parent (10-year route)

You can also apply in this route if the child has lived in the UK continuously for at least 7 years.

You must meet the eligibility requirements for the parent routes.

You must also prove that it wouldn’t be in the child’s best interests to leave the UK with you.

Private life in the UK (10-year route)

You must be able to prove that you’re:

• between 18 and 24 and you’ve lived continuously in the UK for more than half your life
• 25 or over and you’ve been in the UK continuously for 20 years
• 18 or over and you’ve spent less than 20 years in the UK, but you’d find it hard to live in another country, eg because you have no friends or relationships there
• under 18 and you’ve lived in the UK continuously for at least 7 years, and it would be unreasonable to expect you to leave the UK

You’re a child

You may be eligible to settle in the UK if your parents are settled.

You can also check if you can apply as a family member.

You were born in the UK

You’ll get the same permission to stay as your parents if you’re a child who was born in the UK. You can either:

• apply with your parent as a family member
• apply separately using form FLR(O) 
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