How to Get a UK Residence Permit: Routes, Documents, and eVisa

To get a UK residence permit, you apply online for the visa route that matches your reason for coming — work, study, family, or settlement — pay the application fee and Immigration Health Surcharge, attend a biometric appointment, and receive an eVisa. The UK no longer issues physical residence cards. Since the end of 2024, immigration status is held digitally and proved online through a UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) account.¹

Everything below assumes you plan to stay in the UK for more than six months. Anything shorter is a visitor matter and works differently.

Pick the Right Visa Route

The route you apply on decides your fee, your evidence, your conditions, and how long it takes you to reach settlement. The common ones:

Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker: for people sponsored by a licensed UK employer.
Student: for people enrolled on a course of more than six months at a licensed institution.
Family: for spouses, partners, parents, and dependants joining someone already settled in the UK.
Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR): permanent residence, applied for after you meet a qualifying period on an eligible route.²

Sponsorship matters if you’re on a work or study route. Your employer must issue a Certificate of Sponsorship, or your university a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies, and the reference number goes into your application.³ Without that number the application cannot proceed.

English Language Requirements

Most routes require you to prove your English before the Home Office will grant the application, and the level depends on the route. Skilled Worker applicants generally need CEFR level B2 in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.⁴ Family visa applicants need CEFR level A1 for a first application.⁵

You can meet the requirement by passing a Secure English Language Test with an approved provider, by holding a degree taught in English, or by being a national of a majority-English-speaking country. If you already held a Skilled Worker visa before 8 January 2026 and are extending that same visa, the level drops to B1. A switch into Skilled Worker from a different route still requires B2, which catches people out.⁴

Financial Requirements

The Home Office wants proof you can support yourself without drawing on public benefits. The threshold is entirely route-specific, and wrong numbers are one of the most common reasons applications fail.

Skilled Worker

Your salary must be at least £41,700 a year or the “going rate” for your occupation, whichever is higher.⁶ Only basic salary and guaranteed allowances like London weighting count. Overtime, bonuses, and benefits in kind are excluded. If you’re outside healthcare and education and don’t hit the standard threshold, you may still qualify at a minimum of £33,400.

Family

Sponsoring a spouse or partner requires a combined household income of at least £29,000 a year. If income falls short, cash savings can substitute, but the threshold is high: at least £88,500 held in a UK-regulated account for six consecutive months before applying. Applicants extending a family visa first granted before 11 April 2024 may still qualify under the older £18,600 threshold.⁷

Student

Student applicants must show enough money to cover course fees plus living costs, usually through bank statements covering the previous 28 days. Amounts depend on whether you’ll study in London or elsewhere. Your statements need to show a consistent balance meeting the threshold across that whole period. A large deposit made the day before you apply will raise questions.

Documents You’ll Need

Applications are submitted digitally through GOV.UK, and gathering documents before you start saves real frustration. At a minimum:

Valid passport or travel document proving identity and nationality.
Sponsorship reference number from your employer or university, if applicable.
Residential and travel history for the last ten years, including all addresses and international trips.
National Insurance number if you already have one from previous UK work.⁸
Relationship evidence such as marriage or birth certificates on a family route.

Any document not in English or Welsh needs a certified translation from a professional translator. Scan everything at a legible resolution before you start. Reference numbers from any previous UK visa applications or expired Biometric Residence Permits help the Home Office link your new application to your existing record.

The Application Itself

Three stages, in order: online form, payment, biometric appointment.

You complete the form on GOV.UK and pay. Fees vary by route. A Skilled Worker visa currently costs between £819 and £1,865 depending on the length of sponsorship, and a settlement application is £2,064.⁹ On top of the visa fee, you pay the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS), which funds your NHS access. The IHS is £1,035 per year for most applicants and £776 per year for students and Youth Mobility Scheme participants, paid upfront for the full length of the visa.¹⁰ A three-year Skilled Worker visa carries £3,105 in health surcharge alone.

Once payment clears, you book a biometric appointment at a UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services (UKVCAS) service point.¹¹ Staff take your fingerprints and photograph, and either scan your supporting documents on the day or accept the ones you uploaded through the UKVCAS online service in advance. The appointment is short but mandatory.

Processing Times and Faster Decisions

For applications made inside the UK, Skilled Worker and Student decisions currently take around eight weeks.¹² From outside the UK, most work and study visas are decided in around three weeks, though family visas can take up to twelve.¹³

You can pay for faster processing. The priority service costs an extra £500 per applicant and aims for a decision within five working days. Super priority costs £1,000 extra and targets a decision by the end of the next working day.¹⁴ Each family member applying with you pays the same surcharge, so a family of four on super priority adds £4,000. Not every route is eligible for priority, so confirm before budgeting for it.

Do Not Leave the UK While an Extension Is Pending

If you applied inside the UK to extend your leave and are waiting for a decision, you’re protected by Section 3C leave. It prevents you from becoming an overstayer during the wait.¹⁵ But Section 3C leave ends the moment you leave the UK. Fly out for a holiday or family visit while the extension is pending and your leave terminates. You may not be able to re-enter.

Section 3C only applies if you submitted the application before your existing visa expired. Apply late and it doesn’t apply at all — you’re already an overstayer whether you travel or not. The safe course is to stay in the UK until the decision is in hand.

How You’ll Prove Your Status: eVisa and Share Codes

When your application is granted, your permission to be in the UK exists as an eVisa. There is no card. To see it and prove it, you need a UKVI account, which you create using a phone number, an email address, and either a valid passport with your visa application number, a valid passport with your old BRP number, or your expired BRP (usable for account setup for 18 months past its printed expiry date).¹⁶

You prove your status to employers, landlords, banks, and universities by generating a share code through the GOV.UK online service. A share code is nine characters of numbers and letters and is valid for 90 days with unlimited uses in that window.¹⁷ A code starting with “W” is for right-to-work checks. A code starting with “S” is for general status checks. The person you give it to enters it on the Home Office’s online checking service and sees your status in real time. Keep the phone number and email on your UKVI account current, because losing access to either makes generating a share code much harder.

What You Can and Can’t Do on Your Visa

Most time-limited visas carry a condition on the eVisa: “no recourse to public funds.” You cannot claim a long list of state benefits while that condition applies, including Universal Credit, Child Benefit, Housing Benefit, Personal Independence Payment, and social housing assistance.¹⁸ Claiming any of them is a criminal offence and can lead to your visa being curtailed or future applications refused.

The condition can be lifted in cases of destitution or exceptional financial hardship on application to the Home Office. NHS treatment and state-funded education for children are not classed as public funds and remain available regardless.

If Your Application Is Refused

A refusal is not always the end. What you can do depends on the visa type and the grounds. The decision letter tells you which route is available. Read it carefully; the deadlines are short.

Administrative Review

For points-based routes like Skilled Worker, Student, and Graduate, you can request an administrative review. A different Home Office caseworker checks whether the original decision contained an error, such as a miscalculated points score or overlooked evidence. It costs £80.¹⁹ You cannot submit new documents; the review looks only at what was already in your application. The deadline is 14 days from receiving the decision inside the UK, or 28 days outside.

Appeal to the First-Tier Tribunal

If the refusal engages your human rights, typically in family cases where separation would affect your right to a private and family life, you may have a right of appeal to an independent immigration judge. Unlike administrative review, you can submit new evidence and give oral testimony. The fee is £80 for a decision on the papers and £140 for an oral hearing.²⁰ The same deadlines apply: 14 days from inside the UK, 28 days from outside.²¹ Miss the deadline and you can ask the tribunal to accept a late appeal, but there are no guarantees.

Planning for Settlement

If the long-term plan is permanent residence, understanding continuous residence from day one saves an unpleasant surprise years later. Most routes require five years of continuous residence before you can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain, though some, including Innovator Founder and Global Talent, allow applications after three.²

“Continuous residence” has a precise meaning: no more than 180 days outside the UK in any 12-month period.²² Every trip abroad counts. A two-week holiday here and a month with family there add up faster than you expect, and the Home Office counts them precisely. Breach the 180-day limit in any single 12-month window and you may have to restart the qualifying period. Track your travel from day one.

Keeping Your Records Up to Date

You are legally required to keep your immigration records accurate. Change your name through marriage or deed poll, change your nationality, or change your appearance significantly, and you must report it to the Home Office. That now means updating your UKVI account and, where needed, submitting a formal change-of-circumstances application. If your records don’t match your current documents, the online system will show information that fails right-to-work and border checks.

1
GOV.UK. eVisas: Access and Use Your Online Immigration Status
2
GOV.UK. Check if You Can Get Indefinite Leave to Remain
3
GOV.UK. UK Visa Sponsorship for Employers: Certificates of Sponsorship
4
GOV.UK. Skilled Worker Visa: Knowledge of English
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GOV.UK. Family Visas: Knowledge of English
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GOV.UK. Skilled Worker Visa: Your Job
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GOV.UK. Financial Requirements if You’re Applying as a Partner or Spouse
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GOV.UK. Apply for a National Insurance Number
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GOV.UK. Home Office Immigration and Nationality Fees, 8 April 2026
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GOV.UK. Pay for UK Healthcare as Part of Your Immigration Application
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GOV.UK. UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services
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GOV.UK. Visa Processing Times: Applications Inside the UK
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GOV.UK. Visa Processing Times: Applications Outside the UK
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GOV.UK. Get a Faster Decision on Your Visa or Settlement Application
15
GOV.UK. 3C and 3D Leave
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GOV.UK. Set Up a UKVI Account to Access Your eVisa
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GOV.UK. View Your eVisa and Get a Share Code to Prove Your Immigration Status
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GOV.UK. Public Funds
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GOV.UK. Ask for a Visa Administrative Review
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GOV.UK. Get Help to Pay or Reduce Your Visa or Immigration Appeal Fee
21
GOV.UK. Appeal Against a Visa or Immigration Decision
22
GOV.UK. Indefinite Leave to Remain if You Have a Skilled Worker Visa: Time in the UK