UK immigration and settlement: student guide

Cluster contents

The articles below cover the routes most international students and their partners actually use. Start with the one that matches your current status.

Spouse and partner visa

• UK spouse visa document checklist (2026): what UKVI actually wants — full document list, in the order UKVI reads them.
• The UK spouse visa financial requirement in 2026: how to actually meet it — the £29,000 minimum income rule, savings route, and combination evidence.
• From UK spouse visa to ILR: the document guide — moving from spouse visa to settlement after five years.
• UK spouse visa document checklist (2026): what UKVI actually wants — quick-reference checklist for the initial application.
• UK spouse visa document checklist — alternative checklist format with annotations.
• UK spouse visa refusal: common reasons & how to avoid them — the eight most common refusal grounds and how to address them.

Skilled Worker visa

• skilled worker document checklist — sponsor licence, certificate of sponsorship, salary evidence.
• skilled worker salary threshold 2026 — going-rate tables and the £38,700 general threshold.
• skilled worker switching jobs — process for changing employers without breaking your visa.
• skilled worker healthcare pathway — the reduced threshold for health and care workers.
• skilled worker tech pathway — Tech Nation legacy criteria and current Skilled Worker overlap.
• Skilled Worker dependants: eligibility & maintenance funds — when dependants can join and when they cannot.
• sponsor licence employer guide — for employers acquiring a Skilled Worker licence.

Family and long residence

• UK Family Visas: spouse, child dependant & parent route guide 2026 — the consolidated UK family visa hub: spouse, child dependent, and parent routes.
• UK Family Visa Parent Route: Appendix FM guide — parent of a child route; thresholds and child-best-interests evidence.
• ILR continuous residence: the 180-day rule — the 180-day rule and how absences are counted.

Settlement and citizenship

• UK naturalisation & Life in the UK Test guide — the Life in the UK Test, English requirement, and good-character checks.
• UK BRP replacement guide — replacing a lost or expired Biometric Residence Permit.

Specialist routes

• global talent visa pathway — endorsement, exceptional-talent and exceptional-promise routes.
• innovator founder visa — Innovator Founder requirements, endorsing body criteria, and business-plan checklist.

Refusals and reviews

• student visa refusal admin review — UK Student Route visa refusal guide: admin review, fresh application, and PAP letters.
• visa refusal admin review — administrative review windows and what counts as a casework error (general).
• NHS surcharge 2026: rates & refunds — Immigration Health Surcharge rates and refund situations.

EU Settlement Scheme

• eu settlement scheme 2026 — settled and pre-settled status, eligibility, late applications, and conversion to settled status.

How the routes fit together

UK immigration is a sequence, not a checklist. Most international students arrive on the Student Route, switch to the Graduate Route after their course, then move to a Skilled Worker or spouse visa for longer-term stay. After five years on a qualifying route they apply for ILR, and after a further twelve months they can naturalise. Each step has its own evidence requirements, and the documents you assemble at one stage often become the foundation for the next.

That sequencing is why the cluster is grouped by route rather than by document type. If you know your stage, the relevant article is the one closest to your situation; if you do not, the spouse / Skilled Worker / settlement articles cover the most common journeys.

What this pillar does not cover

Asylum and humanitarian protection have their own framework outside the points-based system; the relevant guidance is published by UKVI and the Home Office and a solicitor admitted to immigration practice should be involved from day one. EU Settlement Scheme cases (pre-Brexit residence) follow a separate route under the Withdrawal Agreement, and family reunion for refugees uses a distinct form set. None of those routes are covered here.

For tenancy questions — Renters' Rights Act, deposits, possession grounds — see the UK Tenancy pillar.

This guide is general information, not legal advice for your specific situation. A licensed attorney or regulated adviser should review your documents before you rely on a strategy or deadline.