Visas
The UK dependants rule, in the words of the Immigration Rules
In short
Since January 2024, a partner or child can join a student only in narrow cases: government-sponsored students on courses longer than six months, and full-time postgraduate students on courses of nine months or more where, for courses starting on or after 1 January 2024, the course is a PhD, other doctorate or research-based higher degree. A taught master's does not qualify.
This rule is misquoted more often than any other in UK study advice, usually in the direction of false hope. The wording below is from Appendix Student itself rather than a summary of it.
If your plan depends on your family joining you, read this before you pay a deposit, not after.
What Appendix Student actually says
The rule requires the applicant to be the partner or child of a person who is either a student who has received a scholarship or sponsorship from a Government for study in the UK and has, or is applying for, permission to study full time on a course of six months or longer; or a full-time student with permission to study a postgraduate course of nine months or longer at a higher education provider with a track record of compliance, where, if the course starts on or after 1 January 2024, the provider has confirmed the course is a PhD or other doctoral qualification, or a research-based higher degree.
A third limb covers continuity: a student who has, or had within the last three months, permission for a full-time course of six months or longer and is applying for another such course, where the dependant already holds, or recently held, dependant permission, or where a child was born since the last grant of permission.
What that means in practice
A one-year taught master's starting in September 2026 does not carry dependant rights. Neither does an undergraduate degree. The research-degree condition is doing all the work for self-funded students.
The word in the rules is Government, as in a scholarship or sponsorship from a Government. A university scholarship, however generous, is not the same thing, and neither is employer sponsorship.
Dependants who are eligible have their own maintenance requirement, charged monthly at lower rates than the student's own, and pay the Immigration Health Surcharge at the student rate.
- PhD or other doctorate: dependants allowed
- Research-based higher degree of nine months or more: dependants allowed
- Government-sponsored student, course over six months: dependants allowed
- Taught master's starting on or after 1 January 2024: not allowed
How to plan around it honestly
The options are to choose a research degree because you want one, to apply for a route that carries dependant rights in its own right, or to accept a period apart. What does not work is writing an application that implies your family will accompany you when the rules say otherwise.
This also has a bearing on the statement itself. If your motivation genuinely involves family circumstances, say what is true. An admissions reader is not checking your visa eligibility, but a statement built on an assumption that turns out to be false tends to collapse later in the process, usually at the credibility interview.
Related questions
My master's is one year and taught. Can my spouse come on a visitor visa?
Visitor visas are for visits, with their own conditions and no work or settlement rights, and an application that looks like residence by another route will be refused. Check the visitor rules on gov.uk and take advice for your circumstances rather than assuming.
Does a Graduate visa allow dependants?
Broadly, only where the partner or child already held dependant permission as the family member of a student. Confirm the current position on the Graduate visa pages before relying on it.
Is an MRes a research-based higher degree?
The rule turns on the provider confirming the course is a PhD, other doctoral qualification, or a research-based higher degree. Ask the university to confirm in writing how it classifies the course before you apply.