Visas for your family
Family members who can join you as dependants while you study
This information is for non EEA/Swiss nationals. If you or your family member are an EEA or Swiss national, please see instead information from UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA).
The following family members can apply as the dependants of a student:
| Your partner: |
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| Your child or children: |
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For detailed information about how family members can apply as your dependants, see UKCISA's information, 'Your family's immigration'.
Requirements for family dependants
Eligibility of dependants to applyFamily members can only apply as your dependants if your course is of at least 12 months duration and at postgraduate level, or you are a government-sponsored student and your course is of at least 6 months duration. This will not affect your family members during your current course if they already have visas as your dependants, or they currently have, or have had within the last three months, visas as your dependants and they are applying at the same time as you apply for a visa for another course lasting at least six months. |
Only the family members above can apply as your dependants while you study. If you hold a Tier 4 student visa which you applied for on or after 3 March 2010 your family members will not be able to apply as your dependants if your visa is for a course of study of six months or less. Family members who are not able to come to the UK as your dependants but who still wish to visit you in the UK can apply as visitors.
You and your dependants will need to be able to show that you have enough money to support your dependants' stay in the UK. If you have or are applying for a Tier 4 student visa, the amount of money that must be shown is set out in UKBA's Policy Guidance document for dependant applicants. If you have an old style student visa that predates Tier 4, the amount of money you need to show is not fixed, but must be enough to support the applicants.
Your dependants must be intending to live together with you in the UK, and if they are children they must not be married or in a civil partnership and must not have formed an independent family unit or started living independently from you.
For child dependants, both parents must be lawfully living in the UK, unless the child's other parent is deceased, or you have had sole responsibility for the child's upbringing, or there are serious or compelling considerations that mean the child should be with you in the UK.
Dependants must not be intending to stay in the UK longer than the period of your own visa. Their visas will be granted to end at the same time as yours.
How to apply
If your dependants are applying from outside the UK
Your dependants will need to apply for ‘entry clearance’ (a visa) before they come to the UK as your dependant. For information about the application procedure in their home country, choose that country from the list on UKBA’s website. Each dependant needs to fill in a separate application and pay a fee.
If you already have, or will at the same time be applying for, a Tier 4 student visa, they will need to complete application form VAF10, and application guidance notes. For information on the requirements for applying, see UKBA’s ‘Points Based System - Dependants Policy Guidance’.
If you currently have an old style student visa that you applied for before 31 March 2009, and you will not be applying at the same time to extend it, you will need to ask the visa application/support centre in your dependants' home country about the procedure for applying. For further information on your dependants' application if you have an old-style student visa, see UKCISA's Information Sheet, 'Your family's immigration if you do not have Tier 4 leave'.
If your dependants are already in the UK
If you are a student at Oxford and your family members are applying in the UK to remain with you as your dependants, they may be able to apply through our ‘batch scheme'.
If you have a Tier 4 student visa or were planning to apply for a new student visa, a family member can only apply from within the UK if they already have a visa as your dependant. For full information on this see UKCISA’s Information Sheet, ‘Your family’s immigration’. If they have another kind of visa, they will need to return to their home country to apply (see above). To apply in the UK, your family member will need to complete the form PBS (Dependant). Look at UKBA’s document, ‘Points Based System - Dependants Policy Guidance’ for full information on requirements. If you need to make a student visa application yourself, it will be cheaper for your dependants to apply at the same time as you.
If you currently have an old-style student visa that you applied for before 31 March 2009, and you will not be applying at the same time to extend it, your family member can make a dependant application from within the UK, even if their current visa is not as your dependant. However, in considering the application the UK Border Agency will take note of any statements about their intentions which were made when they obtained their current immigration permission; for example if they are in the UK as a visitor, they will have indicated that they intend to leave the UK at the end of their visit. If your own visa is in the form of an Identity Card for Foreign Nationals, your dependant will need to apply on form FLR (BID). Otherwise, they will need to apply on form FLR(O). For further information on your dependants' application if you have an old-style student visa, see UKCISA's Information Sheet, 'Your family's immigration if you do not have Tier 4 leave'.
Further information on how to apply for your dependants
For detailed information on how to apply, whether from within or outside the UK, see UKCISA’s Information Sheet, ‘Your family’s immigration’.
While your dependants are in the UK
Registering with the Police
If there is a condition stated on their visa telling them to do so,your family member must register with the police when they arrive in Oxford.
Permission to work
Your dependant must check his or her visa sticker or Biometric Residence Permit to see whether they have any restriction on their entitlement to work.
If you, the student, have been given immigration permission (a visa) for at least 12 months, your spouse and children will normally receive immigration permission which does not place any restriction on working (but see exception below if you hold a Tier 4 visa and are studying at below degree level). They are therefore free to work either part or full time, or be self employed. Dependants of students with visas under Tier 4 are usually not allowed to take employment as a doctor in training.
If your immigration permission was granted for less than 12 months, or you have a Tier 4 visa and are taking a course below degree level and your dependants applied after 3 March 2010, your family members will be prohibited from working.
If your family member has been given a work restriction or prohibition that seems to be incorrect they should query it before they leave for the UK, or you should contact the University's Visa Advisers by emailing student.immigration@admin.ox.ac.uk.
Switching to a work visa category
If a Tier 4 student dependant becomes eligible to apply under the Tier 2 work category while they are in the UK, they can apply from within the UK to switch. However, if they are your partner and you want to apply to become their dependant, you would need to leave the UK in order to do this.
If you have an old style student visa applied for before 31 March 2009 or your partner wishes to apply for any other work categories apart from Tier 2, he or she would need to apply from outside the UK. For more information about work visa categories, see the UK Border Agency's website.
Eligibility for welfare benefits and National Health Service treatment
Your dependant's immigration permission will have been granted subject to a 'no recourse to public funds' condition. They will not normally be eligible for, and should not attempt to claim, any of a list of welfare benefits. For further information on this, see UK Council for International Student Affairs' Information Sheet, 'Welfare benefits'.
If you are on a full time course which is 6 months or more in length, you will be eligible for NHS treatment. If you are yourself eligible for NHS treatment, family members who are here as your departments will normally also be eligible. For further details, see UK Council for International Student Affairs' Information Sheet, 'Keeping healthy'
Children born in the UK
Your baby will not be a British citizen just because he or she has been born in the UK, unless one of his or her parents is a British citizen or has settled status.
You do not have to immediately apply for a visa for your new child; it is legal for her or him to remain in the UK without a visa. However, you should be aware that if you take your child out of the UK he or she will need to have immigration permission to re-enter, and you will need to decide whether to apply for this in the UK before you travel or to apply in your home country for your baby as your dependant family member before the baby returns to the UK.
If you yourself need to apply for an extension of your student visa it would probably be convenient to apply for your baby at the same time. It is also possible to make a separate application for your baby if you do not currently need to apply. Whether you apply together or for your baby separately, you can if you wish get advice from the University's Visa Advisers, and use the 'batch scheme'. Although the dependant application form can be confusing in this respect, the UK Border Agency has confirmed that it will process applications for children who do not yet have a visa following their birth in the UK.
