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Personal Immigration Solicitors
Joining family, studying, working or planning a longer-term life in the UK each raises different immigration questions. Your current status and family circumstances are the starting point for choosing a route and preparing the right evidence.
Personal Immigration
Understanding your personal immigration options
Discuss your Personal Immigration enquirySources checked on . This general information does not assess your individual circumstances.
Advice shaped around your circumstances
Personal immigration covers applications made by individuals and families rather than an employer’s sponsor licence. A useful assessment considers why you want to come to or remain in the UK, the permission you already hold and any previous immigration decisions.
Highfin’s existing personal immigration material covers visas, settlement, citizenship and protection-related matters. You can ask about advice on identifying a route and reviewing the evidence for an application. The firm must confirm the specific work it can undertake and the terms of any instruction.
Joining a partner or family member
A family visa and permission as a worker’s or student’s dependant are different routes. A person joining someone with temporary work or study permission should check that route’s dependant rules rather than assume the family-visa rules apply.
For partners, relevant questions include the sponsor’s status, the relationship evidence and financial and English-language requirements. Current partner guidance recognises some two-year relationships where the couple could not live together; it does not make two years’ cohabitation a universal condition.
Partner financial requirements depend on the applicant’s circumstances, including transitional rules for some extensions and exceptions involving specified benefits. Use the current official guidance rather than applying an old income threshold to every family.
Work, study and temporary visits
Work and study routes can require a sponsoring employer or educational institution. Others have different qualification or endorsement requirements. Permission to visit should not be assumed to allow the same activities as permission to work or study.
Check whether an application must be made from outside the UK or whether switching is permitted from your present status. Visitors cannot generally switch to the Skilled Worker or Innovator Founder routes from inside the UK.
Extensions, settlement and citizenship
An extension continues permission under a relevant route; settlement and citizenship involve separate tests. Residence length alone may not be enough. The type of permission, absences and other route-specific requirements can affect eligibility.
Long residence has its own rules about which periods count and how absences are assessed, including different treatment of absences starting before 11 April 2024. Naturalisation also depends on the applicant’s circumstances; the rules differ for someone married to a British citizen.
Preparing your history and supporting documents
Make a dated record of previous applications, decisions and permission, with details of travel where residence is relevant. The required evidence should follow the chosen route, not a general list copied from a different visa category.
Tell Highfin about any refusal or approaching expiry date when asking whether the firm can assist. An initial enquiry should describe the matter briefly; arrange a suitable method for sharing sensitive documents after contact and instructions have been agreed.
- Identity and nationality information, together with current immigration status.
- Relevant relationship, work or course evidence.
- Previous Home Office decisions and any requested evidence or deadlines.
- Financial and residence records where the route requires them.
Official guidance
- Charges vary
- The visa route and where you apply affect government charges. Some applications may involve the immigration health surcharge; any waiver or exemption requires its own assessment.
- Confirm the advice needed
- Ask whether the proposed work covers route advice, an application, an extension or a challenge to a decision. Agree the costs and exclusions rather than assuming all later work is included.
- Next steps
- Use the homepage enquiry section or published contact details. No application or instruction is made by viewing this page, and no firm-specific response time is promised.
Frequently asked questions
Your questions
Should I apply for a family visa if my partner is a worker or student?
Not necessarily. If your partner is in the UK temporarily on a work or student visa, the relevant route may be a dependant application. The route’s conditions must be checked; not every worker or student can bring dependants.
Do unmarried partners always need to have lived together for two years?
No. Current partner guidance also recognises certain relationships lasting at least two years where the couple could not live together. Evidence of the relationship and the other immigration requirements are still necessary.
Does ten years in the UK automatically qualify me for settlement?
No. Long residence has rules about qualifying lawful residence, excluded periods and absences. Your immigration and travel history needs to be checked against the relevant requirements.
Can I apply for British citizenship as soon as I settle?
It depends on your circumstances. The settlement-status and residence requirements for naturalisation differ, including for applicants married to British citizens. Citizenship is not granted automatically with settlement.
Your next step · Personal Immigration
Let’s start with
a conversation.
Enquire about Personal Immigration using the Contact page enquiry section.
Use the enquiry form or our telephone or email contact details.
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