A UK spouse / civil partnership visa is a type of family visa enabling an applicant to join their partner in the UK. You are eligible for a spouse visa if your partner is settled in the UK based on one of the following categories:

British or Irish citizen

have indefinite leave to remain or permanent residence;

have pre-settled status – they must have started living in the UK before 1 January 2021;

have refugee status or humanitarian protection in the UK.

The settled person is called the ‘sponsor’ for the Spouse visa UK application purpose. Spouse visa and civil partnership visa applications are treated in exactly the same way by the immigration authorities.

For a partner visa application to succeed, there are, in general, 5 main requirements: evidence of relationship; compliance with the financial requirement; have adequate accommodation, meet the English language requirement and, in some cases, provide a Tuberculosis certificate.

The UK Immigration Rules provide a route to join or remain with family members in the UK as a parent. As a lone parent, you can apply for leave to enter or remain in the UK on the basis of a child who is living in the UK. The parent applying can be a stepfather, stepmother or adoptive parent. 

Your child must be living in the UK and one of the following must also apply:

they’re a British or Irish citizen

they’ve settled in the UK,

they’re from the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and have pre-settled status,

if you’re applying in the UK, they must have lived in the UK for 7 years continuously and it would not be reasonable for them to leave

If your child has settled status you may be able to apply to the free EU Settlement Scheme or for an EU Settlement Scheme family permit. 

Your child must also either be under 18 on the date you apply or have been under 18 when you were first granted leave and not live an independent life; your child is living an independent life if, for example, they’ve left home, got married and had children.

To be eligible for a Skilled Worker Visa in general, you must be awarded 50 mandatory points (for your sponsorship, job and English language skills) and 20 tradeable points (for salary and other attributes). In some cases (mainly entry clearance applications), applicants must also satisfy non-points requirements regarding tuberculosis testing, available funds and criminal records certificates.

So you will need to satisfy UK Visas and Immigration that you:

are aged 18 or over;

Intend to Work for an approved UK employer,

have a valid Certificate of Sponsorship for the job you are planning to do;

have a job offer covering a genuine vacancy;

have a job offer at an appropriate skill level;

are competent in the English language to at least CEFR Level B1 (equivalent to IELTS 4.0);

will be paid an appropriate salary ;

have enough money to support yourself without recourse to public funds;

The UK Ancestry route is for a Commonwealth citizen aged 17 or over who have a grandparent who was born in the UK or Islands to come to the UK initially for 5 years to live and work at any skill level with their eligible dependents.

Your business requires a sponsor licence to employ someone from outside the UK; following Brexit this requirement has now been extended to European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland nationals who arrived in the UK after 31 December 2020. This includes unpaid work for charities. Any organisation can apply for a sponsorship licence, provided they meet the relevant requirements and each organisation will have a different set of requirements that must be met before a Sponsorship License can be issued.

A child born in the UK at a time where neither of their parents was a British citizen or settled is not automatically born a British citizen. However, their parents’ immigration status will determine when they qualify for citizenship. Where a child is born in the UK and has a parent who is either British or settled at the time of the birth the child is automatically British by birth, under Section 1 of the British Nationality Act (BNA). Children who have automatically acquired British citizenship by birth do not need to be registered.