You can apply for an unmarried partner visa to join your partner in the UK if you and your partner are both 18 years or over and have been in a relationship akin to a marriage for a minimum period of 2 years. You and your partner must intend to live in the UK permanently after you apply for your visa.

Your partner must also be:

A British citizen; or

Have an Indefinite Leave to Remain status

Relationship

Unmarried Partner is described as “relationship akin to a marriage or civil partnership” which has subsisted for a minimum period of 2 years. This therefore excludes casual relationships.

You are usually expected to submit supporting documents showing your relationship. This includes:

Evidence of cohabitation for 2 years such as from household bills; Evidence of joint financial commitments;

Pictures from relationship throughout the years;

Greeting Cards, travel tickets or any other supporting documents to show the genuineness of your relationship;

Financial Requirement

This is the crucial requirement for every application. To ensure that your family will not be relying on recourse to public funds, there is a minimum earning requirement of £29,000 per annum to be met by your sponsor or yourself. 

The financial requirement can generally be met by the following:

Salaried or non-salaried employment income (Category A or Category B)

Non-employment income e.g. income from property rental or dividends from shares (Category C) Cash savings of the sponsor, and/or the applicant which is held for at least 6 months (Category D) Pension (UK or foreign), occupational or private pension of the applicant and/or sponsor (Category E)

Income from self-employment, and income as a director of employee of a specified limited company in the UK (Category F or Category G)

Depending on the category you or your sponsor qualify, you will need to provide several supporting documents in its’ original form to support your application.

The rules relating to the financial requirement is long and it can be complicated or overwhelming. We encourage our client to speak to us to discuss their individual circumstances to ensure that can get the correct advice.

English Language

As part of this application, you will be required to demonstrate evidence of knowledge of English. You can do so by:

1. Submitting an original degree certificate if you have completed your bachelor degree in a UK university;
2. Submitting an original degree certificate if you have completed your degree in This must be accompanied by a confirmation letter from UK NARIC to confirm that your degree is comparable to a UK bachelor’s degree and was taught in English;
3. Completing an approved English language test at a minimum level of A1 of You will need to ensure that you have completed the approved test at level A2 of CEFR at the point of visa extension.

Accommodation

Your sponsor will need to ensure that there will be an adequate accommodation for you to live in the UK. Your sponsor will need to factor in who will be living in the property (if you won’t be living in the property exclusively with your sponsor), and ensure that there are enough rooms in the property to avoid overcrowding.

What visa will you get?

If your application is successful, you will be granted a permission to live and work in the UK for a period of 33 months (if you applied from abroad), or 30 months (if you applied inside the UK). You will be required to extend your visa at the end of this visa period and if your application is successful, you will be granted a further 30 months extension.

This period is known as ‘probationary period’ and once you have completed the 5 years period, you will be eligible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain.