The United Kingdom has clarified what partners and children of Skilled Worker visa holders (business/salaried) must meet to join them, and the list goes well beyond paperwork.
Families applying from abroad need at least £285 (about Rs. 105,500) for a partner and £315 (about Rs. 116,600) for the first child in the bank, while workers in most medium-skilled and newer care jobs can no longer bring dependants at all.
The requirements are set out in the UK government’s Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Worker and apply both to family members applying from outside the UK and to those already in the country.
The rules matter for thousands of Pakistani professionals, nurses, and care workers who use the route to move to Britain with their families.
Who Can Bring Their Family
A dependant can be a husband, wife, civil partner, or unmarried partner, or a child under 18. Partners must be 18 or older and must prove they are married, in a civil partnership, or have been in a relationship for at least two years.
Children must live with the Skilled Worker, unless they are away in full-time education, and must not be married.
The biggest limit is on who is allowed to sponsor family at all. Care workers and senior care workers can only bring a partner or children from abroad if they have been continuously employed on a Skilled Worker visa in that role since before March 11, 2024, or if the child was born in the UK.
A similar cut-off applies to jobs listed as “medium skilled.” Workers in these roles can only bring dependants from abroad if they have held a Skilled Worker visa in such a job since before July 22, 2025, or if the child was born in the UK. Prison officers extending or switching their visa are an exception.
How Much Money Families Need to Show
Family members applying from abroad, or who have been in the UK for less than 12 months, must show they have funds to support themselves. The amounts are:
- £285 (about Rs. 105,500) for a partner
- £315 (about Rs. 116,600) for the first child
- £200 (about Rs. 74,000) for each additional child
The money must have been held for at least 28 days in a row, and it must be on top of the £1,270 (about Rs. 470,000) the Skilled Worker needs to show for their own application.
The money can be held by the applicant, the Skilled Worker, or the child’s other parent.
Families do not need to show funds if they have all been in the UK on a valid visa for at least 12 months, or if the worker’s A-rated sponsor certifies that it will cover the family’s costs for the first month.
What This Means for You
For a Pakistani worker planning to take a spouse and one child, the UK government’s own example puts the family’s maintenance funds at £600, or about Rs. 222,000 at the current rate. Add the worker’s own £1,270, and the household needs roughly Rs. 692,000 sitting in the bank for 28 days before applying.
That is only the savings part. Each family member also pays a separate visa fee and the immigration health surcharge. According to GOV.UK, a visa of up to three years applied for from outside the UK costs £819 per person, and the health surcharge is usually £1,035 per year.
For a spouse joining on a three-year visa, that comes to £819 plus £3,105 in surcharge, or £3,924 (about Rs. 1.45 million), before counting the £285 in savings they must show.
The bigger question for many Pakistani applicants is eligibility. Anyone offered a care worker job or a medium-skilled role today should check the cut-off dates before planning to move with their family, because a new visa in these roles generally will not allow a partner or children to come along.
The UK has been tightening the Skilled Worker route this year, including plans to reduce the jobs that qualify for the visa. It has also eased rules for exploited skilled workers who need to change employers.
Other Conditions and What Happens After Approval
Partners of Skilled Workers sponsored in certain occupations must also provide a criminal record certificate from every country where they spent 12 months or more in the last 10 years as an adult, unless they can explain why getting one is not practical.
Partners or children already in the UK cannot switch to a dependant visa if they are there as visitors, short-term students, seasonal workers, domestic workers in a private household, or with permission outside the Immigration Rules.
If approved, a partner’s visa ends on the same date as the Skilled Worker’s, or runs for three years if the worker is being granted settlement.
A child’s visa ends when the earlier of their parents’ visas expires, unless both parents are settled or British citizens, in which case the child gets three years.
All dependants can work, including self-employment and voluntary work, except as professional sportspeople or sports coaches. They can also study, though adults may need an Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) certificate for certain subjects.
They cannot claim public funds. Applicants from abroad usually get a decision within three weeks, and refused applicants can seek an Administrative Review.
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