You got the offer. The salary clears the threshold, the sponsor looks legitimate, the SOC code checks out. And then your spouse asks the question you have been quietly avoiding.
Can we actually come with you. It is one of the most important questions in this entire process, and one of the least explained, because most guides focus entirely on the main applicant and treat the family as an afterthought.
Let’s actually walk through it properly, because the rules changed twice in the last two years, and what was true for a friend who moved in 2022 may not be true for you now.
Who counts as a dependant
Your husband, wife, or civil partner qualifies automatically if the relationship is legally recognized. An unmarried partner qualifies too, but only if you can show you have lived together in a genuine relationship for at least two years, or that you have been together at least two years and have a clear, ongoing reason you could not live together, such as work or study keeping you apart.
Children under 18 qualify, including any born in the UK during your stay.
A child who turns 18 while already holding dependant status can usually continue and extend alongside you, but a new application for a child already over 18 is rarely approved unless real, demonstrated dependency exists.
The restriction almost nobody explains clearly enough
Here is what changed, and it matters enormously depending on your occupation. Since rule changes in March 2024 and July 2025, not every Skilled Worker route allows new dependants anymore.
Most care workers and senior care workers who started their role after 11 March 2024 cannot bring a partner or children at all under this route. Many medium skilled occupations became similarly restricted from 22 July 2025 onward.
If you are already deep into evaluating a specific job offer, this is not a detail to check later, it is a detail to check before you accept anything, because discovering it after resignation and relocation planning is exactly the kind of expensive surprise this whole system seems designed to spring on people.
Ask your prospective employer directly, in writing, whether your specific role and start date allow dependants under current rules.
What it actually costs, person by person
There is no family discount anywhere in this system. Every single dependant pays their own full visa application fee, calculated the same way as the main applicant’s, based on visa length and whether the sponsoring role sits on the Immigration Salary List. For a standard Skilled Worker dependant applying from outside the UK, expect somewhere between 819 pounds and 1,865 pounds depending on visa length, mirroring the main applicant’s fee structure.
On top of that sits the Immigration Health Surcharge, charged per person, per year of the visa. Adults pay 1,035 pounds a year, children pay 776 pounds a year. This is not a shared family fee, it multiplies by every single dependant you bring. Run the numbers for a family of four, two adults and two children, on a five year visa, and the combined visa fees and surcharge alone typically land somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 pounds, before a single flight is booked or a single box is packed.
The maintenance funds requirement, and the number that surprises people
Beyond the application fee and surcharge, you need to show your dependants can support themselves financially. The current requirement is 285 pounds for a partner, 315 pounds for the first child, and 200 pounds for each additional child, held continuously in an account for 28 consecutive days before you apply.
Compared to the fees themselves, this figure looks almost small, and that surprises people who expected a much larger number. But it still has to be documented correctly, sitting in the account for the full 28 day window, with day 28 falling within 31 days of your application date.
Get the dates wrong and the whole application can be refused over a technicality that had nothing to do with whether you actually have the money.
There is an important exception worth knowing. If your employer formally certifies on your Certificate of Sponsorship that they will cover your family’s maintenance costs, this specific requirement can be waived. Not every employer offers this, but it costs nothing to ask directly during your own offer negotiation.
What life actually looks like for dependants once they arrive
This is genuinely good news buried under all the fees.
A dependant partner on a Skilled Worker visa is not tied to your sponsor the way you are.
They can work in almost any job for almost any UK employer without needing their own separate sponsorship, and children can attend school normally. This is a meaningfully more open arrangement than some other countries offer family members of sponsored workers, where spouses are sometimes barred from working entirely.
The document people forget until it becomes a real problem
If you are married and your marriage certificate was issued in Nigeria, or your child’s birth certificate lists both parents, these documents typically need apostille legalization before UK immigration will accept them.
This is a separate process from anything covered in your own visa application, and it takes real time to arrange properly.
Start this the moment you know you are pursuing a joint application, not after your own visa has already been approved and you are suddenly racing a clock to get your family’s paperwork legalized before their applications can even be submitted.
Timing your applications: together or apart
Applying together at the initial visa stage is genuinely the cheaper and simpler route. It avoids separate biometric appointments scheduled at different times and lets you handle the whole family’s paperwork as one coordinated process rather than several disconnected ones. If dependants apply later instead, they will need your Global Web Form or Unique Application Number to link their application to yours, along with a family linking code if one was issued when you first applied. It is entirely possible to bring family later, once you are settled and earning, but it means paying for a second, separate administrative process rather than folding everything into one.
A short list before you commit to any offer
Confirm your specific occupation and start date allow dependants under the current rules, not the rules that applied when a friend or relative went through this a few years ago.
Calculate the full family cost, visa fees plus IHS plus maintenance funds, per person, not as a single household estimate, since the real number is almost always higher than people initially expect.
Start apostille legalization on marriage and birth certificates as early as possible, since this step alone can take weeks and is easy to underestimate.
Ask your employer directly whether they will certify maintenance funds on your Certificate of Sponsorship, since this can meaningfully reduce what you need to show independently.
Decide deliberately whether to apply as a family unit from day one or stagger applications later, and budget for whichever path you choose rather than assuming it will sort itself out along the way.
Moving your whole family is a genuinely bigger financial commitment than moving alone, and pretending otherwise until the bill arrives is how good opportunities turn into financial stress. Know the real number early, and this becomes a plan you can actually execute rather than a surprise you have to absorb.
This article reflects UK Skilled Worker dependant visa rules and fees as understood at time of writing, including the Home Office fee schedule effective 8 April 2026. Eligibility rules for dependants have changed multiple times since 2024 and may change again. Always verify current eligibility for your specific occupation and current fees directly on gov.uk before making any relocation decision.
