Family Reunion Visa UK

What is a Refugee Family Reunion Visa in UK?

People who have made a successful asylum claim are granted Refugee Status in the UK, this allows them to live in the country for up to 5 years, after which they could be eligible for Indefinite Leave to Remain. Due to the nature of their circumstances, refugees may have had to leave family members behind when fleeing their country of origin.

Refugee Family Reunion is the process in which refugees in the UK can be reunited with their immediate family members. Under the Family Reunion route, refugees and those with humanitarian protection can sponsor their partner or children so that they can join them in the UK. These family members can only join a refugee sponsor in the UK providing that they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country of origin.

Family Reunion Visa UK Eligibility

Family reunification is only available for those with family sponsors in the UK who have:

• Refugee status
• Humanitarian Protection status

The following must be true:

• The sponsor must hold a current protection status in the UK
• The sponsor cannot hold British citizenship
• The applicant must submit their application through the designated process (depending on if they apply inside or outside the UK)
• Any necessary biometric details from the applicant must be provided

Who qualifies for family reunion in UK?

Partners and children of people with refugee status or 5 years humanitarian protection in the UK can qualify for family reunion to join their family member in the UK. Eligible family members as the partner of a refugee or someone with humanitarian protection must be a:

• Spouse or civil partner to the sponsor
• Unmarried partner who lived with the sponsor for 2 years or more before they left for the UK
• A child under 18

If you cannot prove this, you may still qualify for family reunion as the partner of a refugee if:

• The sponsor was given refugee status or humanitarian protection on or after 9 October 2006
• Your sponsor and you lived together in a relationship like in a marriage or civil partnership for 2 years and you’ve been given asylum or humanitarian protection after 9 October 2006

You and your partner must also intend to live together and continue your relationship after they apply.

If you wish to bring your child to the UK to join you using Refugee Family Reunion Visas your child must:

• Be under the age of 18
• Live with you and your partner when in the UK
• Not be married or in a civil partnership

In some unique scenarios, other family members may be able to join you:

• An adult child over the age of 18 may be able to join you. They will need to be dependent on their parent in the UK for both financial and emotional support. 
• You may also be able to bring a parent or immediate family who relies on you for support on exceptional compassionate grounds as this is not a typical route for family reunion applications.

What happens if I’m successful with my Refugee Family Reunion Visa application?

Refugee Family Reunion will grant you leave to remain in the UK with your sponsor, you will not be granted refugee status or humanitarian protection, this status is only granted to those who make an asylum claim. There are two main steps in the process, from arriving in the UK to securing leave to remain.

UK Entry Clearance

If your application for Family Reunion is successful you will be granted an entry clearance visa that permits you to travel to the UK. This visa is only valid for 30 days, any family member travelling to the United Kingdom under family reunion must come to the UK within this 30 day validity period, otherwise they will not be able to enter the country. The start date for this validity can be deferred by up to 3 months if needed.

Upon arrival a Border Force officer will check the identity of the family member and will examine the entry clearance visa to ensure that they are joining family in the UK for the purposes of family reunion.

Collecting Your Biometric Residence Permit (BRP)

Once here, you will need to collect your Biometric Residence Permit within 10 days, this can be collected from your chosen post office. Your Biometric Residence Permit can be used to prove your leave to remain in the UK.

How Long Can You Stay on Family Reunification?

If an application for Refugee Family Reunion is successful the family member will be granted leave to remain in the UK for the same duration of time that the sponsor has remaining, so that their leave to remain will expire at the same time as the sponsors. If the sponsor has Indefinite Leave to Remain then their qualifying family members will also be granted this status. If you wish to extend your leave to remain you should apply to do so at least 28 days before it is set to expire.

You are typically eligible for the 5 year route to settlement depending on your circumstances. You can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) at this point, and then apply for citizenship after 12 months on ILR. 

Family Reunion Visa Processing Times

It typically takes 9-12 months for those with Humanitarian Protection or Refugee Status. The minimum time an application may take is 3 months.

Applications, where the applicant is an unaccompanied child under the age of 18, will be prioritised. They will not need to submit a request for prioritisation. Otherwise, you may be able to request prioritisation. Various circumstances where prioritisation is considered are:

• Sponsors with serious or terminal illnesses or medical conditions

How Do I Apply for a Family Reunion in UK?

Applications for a Family Reunion Visa can be made in the UK or from outside. Different processes are available for each route.

Applying from Outside the UK – Refugee Family Reunion Application Form 

If outside the UK, your partner and children must apply for an entry clearance visa under the family reunion category online at the gov.uk website. As well as this application, your family members must fill in the family settlement application form (VAF4A) with Appendix 4.

You can apply for your children on their behalf but in most circumstances your partner will need to complete their own application to join you in the UK.

Applying from Inside the UK

Applications for family reunion made in the UK should be made by writing to UKVI family reunion team. The letter should include the following information:

• The sponsor’s full name, date of birth, nationality and Home Office reference number
• 2 passport sized photographs of each applicant
• A valid passport for each applicant (where possible)
• A statement from the sponsor, setting out who is in their family, giving names and dates of birth, how came to leave their family behind, what contact they have had with their family whilst separated, what contact they have with their family currently and what circumstances their family is living in
• Any supporting documentary evidence available – see the section in this guidance on ‘Evidence’
• Contact details in the UK of the sponsor and any representative

As well as submitting the relevant application forms, your family members will need to have their biometric information, this is their photo and fingerprints, taken at a visa application centre near them.

Benefits of Family Reunion Visas

Family Reunion Visas recognise the right to an independent life for families, and if you apply to bring family members, you may:

• Be exempt from visa fees
• Be exempt from minimum income requirement, and other ‘means-based’ requirements for UK Visas
• Access to public funds such as welfare benefits unless you have “No Recourse to Public Funds” (NRPF) status
• Access the NHS and other public services for free
• Have the Right to Work

Fees for Family Reunification

There is no fee for family reunification applications. You will also be exempt from other typical visa-related fees in the UK, including:

• Biometric enrolment fee
• Immigration Health Surcharge

You are also exempt from meeting requirements on other UK visas such as the Family Visa. These exemptions include:

• Financial support requirement (no minimum income threshold)
• Accommodation requirements
• English Language requirements

Home Office travel document fee

If you hold a Family Reunion Visa in the UK, and your home country refuses you a passport or travel document, you may be eligible to apply for a refugee travel document in the UK. One of the following must apply to you:

• You have been granted refugee status in the UK.
• You arrived in the UK on a family reunion visa to join a family member who holds refugee status.

This document allows refugees and certain family members to travel outside the UK under specific conditions. You must pay the fee for a Home Office travel document.

Four Stage Decision Process

Immigration officials must consider four different decision criteria to decide whether an application is approved or refused.

• Validity Check: Confirm the application meets basic validity requirements; otherwise, it can be rejected as invalid.
• Suitability Check: Assess whether the applicant fulfils suitability requirements; if not, the application is refused without further review.
• Eligibility Check: Determine if the applicant and sponsor meet eligibility criteria for family reunion; consider exceptional circumstances if eligibility is not fully met, especially if refusal might breach Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. This protects the right to respect for private and family life. 
• Final Decision: Approve the application if all requirements are satisfied or if exceptional circumstances justify it; otherwise, evaluate any compassionate grounds for potential leave outside the rules. Leave outside the rules (LOTR) is usually a last resort, when you do not meet the criteria for Humanitarian Protection or Asylum, but there are compelling reasons (outside the rules) for you to stay/reunite with family.

Grounds for Refusal

Refugee family reunion applications may be refused if sufficient evidence to confirm a genuine and subsisting relationship between the applicant and sponsor is not provided. Although original documents, like marriage or birth certificates, are not strictly required, applicants must provide evidence or a reasonable explanation if they lack these documents due to their circumstances.

In some cases, DNA evidence might be required to prove relationships with close family members. If there are signs of fraudulent documentation, discrepancies in the relationship history, or an absence of proof where essential, the application can be rejected.

• Insufficient Evidence: Lack of evidence proving the relationship.
• Lack of Genuine Relationship: Failure to show a subsisting relationship before the sponsor’s departure.
• Use of False Documents: Providing false or misleading documents.
• Inconsistent Information: Inconsistencies that question the legitimacy of the relationship.

Appeal, Judicial Review, or Reapplying

If a family reunion application is refused, applicants have options to challenge the decision, including appeal, judicial review, or reapplying.

In appeals or judicial reviews, applicants can contest the decision by presenting additional evidence or demonstrating that the refusal did not consider all relevant information. If reapplying, they should include any previously lacking documents and clarify any discrepancies to strengthen their case.

Each of these pathways provides a chance to have their application reassessed based on improved or corrected submissions.

Is Family Reunion Visa the same as the UK Family Visa?

No, a Family Visa is for partners, children, and other family dependents of British or Irish Citizens or those with settled status to come to the UK. By contrast, the Family Reunion Visa is only for applicants whose partner/dependent has refugee status or humanitarian protection in the UK.

Can I use a Family Reunion Visa to Join a Family Member who is on a UK Work or Study Visa?

No, these are completely different pathways in the UK. You must apply for a Family Visa if your family member is on a work visa in the UK. You cannot apply as a dependent if your partner studies in the UK unless they study for a PhD. If your partner successfully applies for Humanitarian Protection after entering the UK as a student or worker, you can apply for a Family Reunion Visa to join them. Your partner must be a refugee or under Humanitarian Protection to be eligible for family reunification.

Suspension of Asylum Differentiation Policy 2023

The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 introduced two groups of refugees in the UK: Group 1 and Group 2. Group 1 refugees are granted permission to stay for five years and can apply for settlement, while Group 2 refugees are given temporary permission to stay for 30 months on a 10-year route to settlement. This differentiation aimed to discourage illegal migration.

To further deter illegal entry, the government introduced the Illegal Migration Bill, which makes asylum claims inadmissible for those who arrive illegally through safe countries, and imposes a duty to remove them. As a result of these changes, the differentiation policy will be paused in July 2023, and all successful asylum applicants will receive the same conditions regardless of their group.

Additionally, a streamlined asylum processing model was announced for certain nationalities with high asylum grant rates, including Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Sudan. Positive decisions for well-founded cases in these nationalities can be made without an additional interview, and no asylum application will be refused without an opportunity for an interview. Sudanese legacy claimants are being processed in line with established policies, with a commitment to clear the backlog of legacy asylum claims by the end of 2023.

Transparency in Withdrawing Asylum Claims 2023

The updated paragraph 333C clarifies the circumstances for withdrawing asylum claims and strengthens the process to promptly withdraw applications from non-compliant individuals. It specifies that withdrawn claims won’t be considered, allows flexibility for explicit withdrawals, and places the burden on claimants to keep the Home Office updated with their contact details. Failure to comply may lead to withdrawal of their asylum claim. These changes aim to focus decision-making resources on genuine asylum claimants in the UK. The changes to the Immigration Rules will be implemented in July and August 2023:

• In July 2023, the changes regarding Asylum including the pause of the differentiation policy took effect.
• All remaining changes will be enforced on 7 August 2023.

How can IAS help?

The Refugee Family Reunion route can seem simpler than other family visa routes because there is no income or English language requirement to meet, however the application process is not straightforward and can be complex.

Our immigration lawyers are highly trained and have an in depth knowledge of UK immigration rules, they have helped many families to reunite in the UK and can support you through the process of applying for family reunion. If you choose to hire one of our immigration lawyers to assist you with your application they can work with you and your UK refugee sponsor to assess your eligibility for this route and ensure that you meet all of the requirements. As well as this, one of our lawyers can help you to fill in all of the relevant paperwork and can also help you to gather any documents you may need to prove that you meet the requirements. Our lawyers can even communicate with the Home Office on your behalf, ensuring that you stay updated about your applications progress.

For more information about how our lawyers can support you through the family reunion process, get in touch with our team today by calling +44 (0)333 414 9244.