There is no waiting period for a beneficiary of refugee status or humanitarian protection to apply for family reunification. Nor is there a maximum time limit after which the beneficiaries are no longer entitled, as long as they do not become UK citizens. There is no charge for the application nor requirement for the sponsor to have an income to support their family members. There is no distinction between refugees and those with humanitarian protection.
Eligibility is restricted to the immediate family as it existed prior to the sponsor’s flight and the only people automatically eligible to join the refugee in the UK are:
- Spouse / partner (including same sex); and
- Dependent children under the age of 18.
Data on decisions on family reunion visas are published by the government. In 2025, 18,869 family reunion visas were issued; 10,628 of them to children.[1]
Refugee children are not eligible to sponsor their parents and or siblings. A number of NGOs are collaborating in campaigning for changes to the Immigration Rules on Refugee Family Reunion, including this issue.[2] Two Private Members’ Bills, introduced into Parliament ultimately did not proceed.[3] A further Private Member’s Bill was introduced in the House of Lords in 2024.[4]
Another report from Refugee Council and Safe Passage in 2024 found that children were being put in dangerous situations such as using people smugglers to cross the Channel because of the delays in processing family reunion applications. The report made several recommendations including that the Immigration Rules were amended to allow children to join refugee non-parent adult relatives in the UK and refugee children in the UK to sponsor parents and siblings.[5]
In 2023 a challenge to the refusal to allow refugee children to bring their family to the UK was rejected.[6] In 2025 another legal challenge to the policy was partly successful and the government was ordered to carry out a review of the policy in light of the duty towards children as set out in section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009.[7] Other grounds of challenge were dismissed, and the legal challenge related to Appendix Family Reunion which has since closed.
The requirements for a family reunion application are set out in the Immigration Rules. Up until 3pm on 4 September 2025 there was a dedicated route for those with protection status, this was set out at Appendix Refugee Family Reunion.[8] In order to apply using this route, the UK based sponsor had to hold protection status and not be a British Citizen. A valid application had to be made, this was free of charge, and the overseas applicants had to provide their biometric information. It may be possible to get the requirement to enrol biometrics waived in certain circumstances.[9] The applicant had to be the partner or child of the UK sponsor and they must have been part of a family unit before the sponsor left the country of origin.[10]
Children aged 18 or over will need to establish that there are exceptional circumstances in order to make a successful application. Factors that will be considered when deciding whether the circumstances are exceptional include whether the applicant is dependent on the UK sponsor, whether the applicant is leading an independent life, whether they have others to support them where they are and whether they would likely become destitute if not permitted to come to the UK.
Other family members may also be able to apply under the Immigration Rules if they can establish that a refusal would breach Article 8 ECHR. The guidance explains that in these cases the decision maker will consider whether family life exists between the applicant and UK sponsor, whether there is evidence of an unusual or exceptional level of dependency and how frequently they have contact with each other.[11]
There are not specific evidential requirements to establish family relationships and the guidance explicitly says that these applicants may not have documentary evidence due to fleeing conflict zones.[12] The Home Office cannot insist that DNA evidence is provided in order to establish the family relationship.[13]
The Families Together campaign coalition published research on barriers and challenges faced by refugees attempting to reunite with family members.[14] Findings included that the Rules were unnecessarily complex and insufficiently flexible, poor quality decisions, difficulty in accessing legal aid lawyers, British Red Cross published a report that also highlighted issues with the procedural requirements for making the application, such as difficulties people have in travelling to enrol their biometrics.[15]
A report published in 2023 following a re-inspection by the ICIBI found that the situation had deteriorated since the previous inspection and that applicants were waiting unacceptably long for a decision, over double the service standard of 60 days, and there was a backlog of almost 8,000 applications. This was partly a result of staff being diverted to work on the Homes for Ukraine Scheme.[16]
Since the closure of the dedicated route under Appendix Refugee Family Reunion, refugees who want to reunite with their family members need to apply under other sections of the Immigration Rules. Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules was amended at the same time as the closure of Appendix Family Reunion to enable children to apply to join a parent in the UK who holds protection status. Close relatives who are not parents can sponsor a child to come to the UK under Appendix Child Relative (Sponsors with Protection). If the person who wants to come to the UK to join their refugee relative is an adult then the relevant rules are set out in Appendix Adult Dependent Relative. Where there are no applicable Immigration Rules but refusal would engage and breach Article 8 ECHR then it may be possible to apply for a grant of leave outside the rules. Each of this routes have far more barriers to applying that the dedicated route, for example high application fees, and a minimum income requirement will apply to some applications.
Legal aid is not automatically available but can be applied for.[17] Refusals can be appealed on human rights grounds.
[1] Home Office, ‘Immigration system statistics data tables, Family reunion visa grants detailed datasets, year ending December 2025’, 26 February 2026, table Fam_D01, available here.
[2] Families Together, available here.
[3] See previous updates to this report: AIDA, Country Report: United Kingdom, available here.
[4] Refugees (Family Reunion) Bill [HL], available here.
[5] Refugee Council and Safe Passage, ‘Families Belong Together: Fixing the UK’s broken family reunion system, 13 May 2024, available here.
[6] High Court, DM, R (On the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWHC 740 (Admin), available here.https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2023/740.html
[7] Court of Appeal, R (DM) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWCA Civ 1273, available here.
[8] Immigration Rules, Appendix Family Reunion, available here.
[9] Home Office, ‘Unable to travel to a visa Application Centre to enrol biometrics (overseas applications) version 5.0’, 26 March 2026, available here.
[10] Immigration Rules archives 13 August 2025 to 3 September 2025, Appendix Family Reunion, available here.
[11] Home Office, ‘Family Reunion’, 11 November 2025, available here.
[12] Home Office, ‘Family Reunion’, 11 November 2025, available here.
[13] Home Office, ‘DNA policy guidance, version 4.0’, 19 March 2020, available here.
[14] CRiL and Families Together, ‘Refugee Family Reunification in the UK: Challenges and Prospects’, 2021, available here.
[15] British Red Cross, ‘The Long Road to Reunion: Making Refugee Family Reunion Safer’ (2020), available here.
[16] ICIBI, ‘Inspection report published: A reinspection of family reunion applications September – October 2022’, 21 February 2023, available here.
[17] Dr Sasha Holden, ‘Cuts that cost: The Impact of Legal Aid Cuts on Refugee Family Reunion’, October 2020, available here.