The Unmarried Partner visa is for long-term partners of Settled persons or British citizens who want to join or stay with their partner in the United Kingdom. This includes people with indefinite leave to remain in the UK or limited leave to remain under Appendix EU or Appendix ECAA. You can also apply if your partner is living outside the UK but plans to move back with you.

To get a UK Unmarried Partner visa, you must show UK Visas and Immigration that you meet all of the following requirements:

• Your partner is British and has either indefinite leave to stay, limited leave to stay under Appendix EU, or limited leave to stay under Appendix ECAA.
• Both of you are older than 18;
• You have met in person and lived together for at least two years in a relationship similar to marriage or a civil partnership;
• Your relationship is real, and you both want to stay together.
• Any relationships that came before have ended for good;
• You will be taken care of well in the UK without using public money;
• There is enough room for you and any people who depend on you;
• You can speak and understand English well enough to pass.
• Depending on your situation, the exact requirements you’ll need to meet will be different. You might want to get advice from an immigration lawyer.

To talk to one of our immigration solicitors about your Unmarried Partner visa for the UK, call our Unmarried Partner visa UK lawyers at 0203 643 7508 or or email me at donm@queensparksolicitors.co.uk.

Financial requirement for a UK Unmarried Partner visa

You will need to meet a financial requirement to show that you can live well in the UK without using public money.

In order to get a UK Unmarried Partner visa, you need to show that your partner, or both of you if you already have permission to stay in the UK, has a gross annual income of at least:

• £18,600, plus £3,800 for the first child who isn’t British, settled, or an EEA national, plus £2,400 for each additional child (who is not British, settled or an EEA national).

Financial requirements for the UK Unmarried Partner Visa

You can meet the Unmarried Partner visa UK financial requirement with salary and non-salary income, self-employed income, salary and/or dividends from a company of which you are a Director, property rental income, dividends and income from investments, stocks, shares, bonds, or trust funds, pension income, insurance payments, maintenance payments, and cash savings above £16,000 that have been held for at least six months, unless you can show that they have not been used for anything else.

In some situations, you may be able to meet your financial needs with a mix of the above income sources.

If your partner gets certain benefits, you’ll need to think about things differently.

Processing times for a UK unmarried partner visa

UK Visa & Immigration wants to process 95 percent of UK Unmarried Partner visa applications within 12 weeks (normally) but with the Covid and other reasons and complexities of the case, the Home Office can take up to 6 months or more to process.

Most visa application centres outside the UK offer a Settlement Priority Visa Service if you need your visa to be processed faster. This will make sure that your UK Unmarried Partner visa application moves to the front of the line at every step of the decision-making process. A UK Unmarried Partner visa submitted through the Settlement Priority Visa Service usually takes no more than 30 working days to be processed. If your visa application is well-done, it may be processed faster.

If you live in the UK and want to become an Unmarried Partner or extend your stay as one, you can choose between two processing times. If you use the Standard Service, a decision on your application in the country will usually be made within 8 weeks. If you use the Super Priority Service to apply, you should get a decision on your case the next business day after giving your biometric information.

Application fee for a UK Unmarried Partner visa

The current fee for a UK Unmarried Partner visa application sent to the Home Office from outside the UK is £1,523. The fee to apply to the Home Office to change to the Unmarried Partner category from within the UK or to stay longer as an Unmarried Partner is currently £1,033.

UK Unmarried Partner visa validity period

If you are approved for a UK Unmarried Partner visa, it will be valid for 33 months at first. If you want to stay in the UK as an Unmarried Partner, you can get 30 months of permission to do so.

You will need to apply to UK Visas and Immigration to stay longer before your initial permission to stay runs out. If your application for more time to stay in the UK as an Unmarried Partner is approved, you will be able to stay for an extra 30 months.

After 5 years of living in the UK as the Unmarried Partner of a British citizen or settled person, you will be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain.

Can a person with a UK visa for Unmarried Partner work in the UK?

Partner visa holders who are not married have the full right to work and go to school in the UK.

Not able to meet the criteria for a UK Unmarried Partner visa?

If you can’t meet some of the requirements for a UK Unmarried Partner visa, you may still be able to apply to join or stay with your partner on Human Rights grounds if you can show that it would be very hard for your relationship to continue outside the UK.

Do you want to instruct me? If you are looking for personal legal advice or help with your case, we have three different services available for different budgets:

1. Ask us anything on video link or telephone legal advice in 30 min sessions for £120.

2. Application checking service for £450 if you have prepared your application yourself but want it checking for your peace of mind

3. Full legal representation from £1,250 where we run your case for you.

We are Queen’s Park Solicitors. I am a Solicitor (Lawyer) based in London, UK. My name is Atty. Lindoven Magsino, BSc, MBA, GDL, LLM, Ph.D. (candidate). We are based at Suite 4, Stewart House, 56 Longbridge Road, Barking, Essex IG11 8RT, United Kingdom | Telephone: 02036437508 | Fax: 02033931725 | Email: donm@queensparksolicitors.co.uk | Regulated by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) 566513. Visit us at http://www.queensparksolicitors.co.uk.

DISCLAIMER: All information posted is merely for educational and informational purposes. It is not intended as a substitute for a professional advise. Should you decide to act upon on the information on this website, you do so at your own risk.