How to Fill Out and Submit the UK Family Visa Application Form

You fill out the UK Family Visa application form online at GOV.UK, working through digital sections that cover your identity, your sponsor, your relationship, your finances, your accommodation, and your immigration and criminal history, then uploading supporting documents, paying the application fee and Immigration Health Surcharge, and booking a biometrics appointment to complete submission.¹ The form itself is not difficult to navigate; what causes refusals is entering figures the uploaded documents cannot back up, or missing a required field entirely.

Start at the Right GOV.UK Route

Every application begins on the GOV.UK family visa page, which routes you to the correct digital form after a short set of questions about your relationship type and current location.¹ Getting this initial routing right matters. Selecting the wrong category can mean paying the wrong fee and having to start over.

Applying from outside the UK sends you down the Entry Clearance path. Applying from inside the UK to extend or switch sends you down the Leave to Remain path. These are separate tracks with different fees and processing times. The fiancé(e) route is its own category: a six-month visa to enter the UK and marry, after which you apply again to switch to a full partner visa from inside the country.

What to Have Ready Before You Open the Form

The system times out and losing progress mid-form is common, so gather everything first. You will need:

Your passport and any previous passports from the last ten years.
Your sponsor’s National Insurance number, current employer details, and proof of their British citizenship or Indefinite Leave to Remain.²
Six months of payslips and matching bank statements for whoever’s income you are relying on.
Your Secure English Language Test (SELT) reference number, or an Ecctis verification letter if you are using a degree taught in English.
Marriage or civil partnership certificate, or two years of relationship evidence for unmarried partners.
The full UK address where you will live, including number of rooms and other occupants.
Dates and details of countries you have lived in or visited, plus family and friends in your country of nationality.³
A full record of any criminal convictions, spent or unspent.

Personal and Sponsor Sections

The opening fields ask for your full legal name, date of birth, and nationality exactly as they appear on your passport. Even small mismatches (a missing middle name, a transliterated spelling) cause problems later, so copy directly from the passport’s machine-readable zone.

You then enter your sponsor’s details. The sponsor must be a British citizen or hold Indefinite Leave to Remain (settled status).² The form will ask for their National Insurance number, current employer, and proof of immigration status, which you upload later in the document pack.

Relationship Section

For married couples or civil partners, the form asks for the date and location of the ceremony and you upload the certificate. If you are unmarried, the form asks you to demonstrate that your relationship has existed for at least two years before the application date.⁴

Since a January 2024 policy change, physical cohabitation is no longer mandatory for unmarried partners. You can live apart for work, study, or cultural reasons and still qualify, provided you can demonstrate a genuine and ongoing relationship for the full two-year period. Evidence entered or uploaded might include correspondence, travel bookings showing visits, photographs together, and statements from friends or family.

Financial Requirement Section

This is the section where more applicants come unstuck than any other. If you are applying as a partner or spouse, you and your sponsor together need a combined gross annual income of at least £29,000.⁵ The threshold has been in place since April 2024 and applies to first-time applicants.⁶ No additional income is required for dependent children included in the application.

Employment Income Fields

The form asks for your sponsor’s gross monthly salary, employer name, and how long they have been in the current role. The figures you type in must match the payslips and bank statements you upload. Bank statements need to cover at least the six months before the application date and clearly show salary credits from the named employer. Self-employment carries a heavier documentation burden, with tax returns, business accounts, and evidence of ongoing contracts required in addition.

Cash Savings Fields

If income alone does not reach £29,000, the form gives you a field for cash savings. The Home Office applies a specific formula: only savings above £16,000 count, and that excess is divided by 2.5 to produce the annual amount credited toward the requirement.⁷ The funds must have sat in a bank or savings account under your or your sponsor’s control for at least six months before the application date. Meeting the full requirement through savings alone means holding £88,500 for that entire six-month window.

Parent visas and Adult Dependent Relative visas can qualify under an “adequate maintenance” test instead, but only where the sponsor receives a qualifying disability or carer-related benefit such as Personal Independence Payment, Disability Living Allowance, or Carer’s Allowance.⁸ If that applies to your case, the financial section of the form will present different questions.

English Language Section

Most partner and spouse applicants must prove English at CEFR level A1 for an initial visa, rising to A2 for extensions.⁹ You enter the SELT reference number from an approved provider. If you are relying on a degree taught or researched in English, enter the qualification details; degrees awarded outside the UK need an Ecctis verification, and you upload both the certificate and the Ecctis letter.

Exemptions apply to nationals of majority English-speaking countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, along with applicants over 65, under 18, or those with a physical or mental condition that makes testing unreasonable. If an exemption applies, select it in the relevant question and you will not be asked for a test reference.

Travel History and Criminal Record

The form asks for details of countries you have lived in and visited outside the UK, plus information about family and friends in your country of birth or nationality.³

The criminal record section needs particular care. Immigration decisions are excluded from the protections of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, which means you must disclose spent convictions as well as unspent ones.¹⁰ The single exception is simple cautions, which become spent immediately and do not need declaring. Failing to disclose a conviction the Home Office later discovers is treated as deception, which triggers a mandatory refusal and can result in a re-entry ban of up to ten years.

Accommodation Section

Enter the full address of the UK property where you will live, the number of rooms, and who else lives there. The Home Office checks whether the property can house your household without overcrowding. If the sponsor owns the home, be ready to upload a mortgage statement or title deed. If the sponsor rents, upload a letter from the landlord confirming you are permitted to live there.

Uploading Supporting Documents

After completing the form fields, you upload the document pack. Every figure entered into the form should be provable by something in this upload.

A valid passport, plus copies of any previous passports from the last ten years.
Bank statements and payslips covering the six months before the application date, clearly showing employer name and gross pay. If relying on savings, statements must show the required balance held for the full six-month period.
A marriage or civil partnership certificate, or (for unmarried partners) evidence spanning the two-year relationship period, such as joint utility bills, tenancy agreements, or official correspondence to both parties at the same address. Other proof of ongoing contact works if you have not lived together.
A TB test certificate, if you have lived for six or more months in a country on the Home Office’s designated list and were living there within the last six months. It must come from an approved clinic and is valid for six months from the date of the X-ray.¹¹
Your SELT certificate reference, or an Ecctis-verified degree certificate.

Any document not in English or Welsh must come with a certified translation containing a statement of accuracy, the date of translation, and the translator’s full name, signature, and contact details.¹² Translations that lack any of these elements risk being disregarded. Upload clear, legible scans; blurred images are the most common reason the Home Office asks for resubmission and delays your decision.

Paying Fees and Submitting

After you review the entered data and sign the declaration of truthfulness, the system takes you to the payment portal. Two charges are collected together:

The application fee: £1,938 for partner, spouse, or child applications from outside the UK.¹
The Immigration Health Surcharge: £1,035 per year of visa duration, so a standard 2.5-year initial visa costs £2,587.50 in IHS. If your visa is refused, the IHS is automatically refunded to the card you paid with.¹³¹⁴

Payment goes through the government gateway by credit or debit card. Once it clears, the system redirects you to a commercial partner (typically VFS Global) where you book a biometrics appointment and upload the digital document pack if you have not already done so. Save the confirmation of submission and the payment receipt. You need both at your appointment.

Biometrics and What Happens Next

At the visa application center, your fingerprints and facial photograph are recorded. Slots fill up weeks in advance at busy centers, so book as soon as the system lets you.

Standard processing for family visa applications from outside the UK is 12 weeks for partner, spouse, parent, and child categories.¹⁵ Two paid options can speed that up:¹⁶

Priority service: £500 on top of the application fee, decision within 30 working days.
Super priority service: £1,000 on top of the application fee, decision by the end of the next working day.

Applications made inside the UK vary more widely. A straightforward spouse or partner extension that meets the income and language requirements takes around 8 weeks; parent applications and those relying on the private-life route can take up to 12 months.¹⁷

Do Not Leave the UK if You Applied From Inside It

If you submitted from inside the UK to extend or switch, stay in the country until you get the decision. Under Section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971, your existing leave is automatically extended while a valid application is pending, but that extension terminates the moment you leave the UK.¹⁸ The Home Office treats a departure as withdrawal of the application. You would need to reapply from scratch, potentially from your home country. The restriction covers travel outside the Common Travel Area (the UK, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands). A short trip abroad can undo months of waiting and thousands of pounds in fees.

1
GOV.UK. Family visas: apply, extend or switch
2
GOV.UK. Family visas: apply, extend or switch – Apply as a partner or spouse
3
GOV.UK. Family visas: apply, extend or switch – Information and evidence you must provide
4
GOV.UK. Relationship with a Partner
5
GOV.UK. Financial requirements if you’re applying as a partner or spouse
6
House of Commons Library. The financial (minimum income) requirement for partner visas
7
GOV.UK. Family Migration: Appendix FM and Appendix HM Armed Forces Financial Requirement
8
GOV.UK. Appendix FM and Adult Dependent Relative: Adequate maintenance and accommodation
9
GOV.UK. English language requirement: family members
10
GOV.UK. Suitability: grounds for refusal / cancellation – criminality (accessible)
11
GOV.UK. Tuberculosis tests for visa applicants
12
GOV.UK. Visiting the UK: guide to supporting documents
13
GOV.UK. Pay for UK healthcare as part of your immigration application – Cost for a year
14
GOV.UK. Pay for UK healthcare as part of your immigration application – Refunds
15
GOV.UK. Visa processing times: applications outside the UK
16
GOV.UK. Get a faster decision on your visa or settlement application
17
GOV.UK. Visa processing times: applications inside the UK
18
GOV.UK. 3C and 3D leave