Change of https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/settlement-family-and-private-life-caseworker-guidance

Change description : 2025-07-29 00:01:00: Updated validity and eligibility sections in the private life guidance, allowing children and young adults to rely on a previous grant of permission based on their private life; added continuous residence requirements for a child born in the UK, applying for settlement on the private life route; clarified the relationship requirements for partners whose sponsors held permanent residence as an EU national; clarified that permission granted under Appendix Private Life based on significant obstacles (PL 5.1) or Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention (PL 8.1) is considered permission on the private life route. [Guidance and regulation]

Showing diff : 2024-10-09 08:01:33.186481175 +00:00..2025-08-07 22:47:45.085381005 +00:00

Guidance

Settlement – family and private life: caseworker guidance

Immigration staff guidance on applications for settlement by those on the family and private life routes.

From:
UK Visas and Immigration
Published
17 August 2022
Last updated
929 OctoberJuly 20242025 — See all updates

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Settlement: family and private life (accessible)

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Settlement: family and private life

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Details

UK Visas and Immigration guidance on how staff decide applications for settlement by those on the family and private life routes.

This includes:

  • the 5-year family settlement route for partners and parents, including provisions for bereaved partners (Appendix FM)
  • the 10-year family settlement route (Appendix Family Settlement)
  • the private life settlement route (Appendix Private Life)

Updates to this page

Published 17 August 2022
Last updated 929 OctoberJuly 2024 + show2025 href="#full-history">+ show all updates

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Update history

2026-08-19 11:29
Changes have been made to introduce guidance for paragraph 297 and paragraph 298 within Part 8 of the Immigration Rules, update references to Part Suitability and to improve accuracy of the information in the guidance. This document replaces versions 1 to 4 of the Settlement family and private life guidance.

2025-07-29 00:01
Updated validity and eligibility sections in the private life guidance, allowing children and young adults to rely on a previous grant of permission based on their private life; added continuous residence requirements for a child born in the UK, applying for settlement on the private life route; clarified the relationship requirements for partners whose sponsors held permanent residence as an EU national; clarified that permission granted under Appendix Private Life based on significant obstacles (PL 5.1) or Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention (PL 8.1) is considered permission on the private life route.

2024-10-09 09:00
Updated to reflect the introduction of a fee waiver for bereaved partners who are destitute.

2024-01-31 00:01
Updates throughout – see ‘changes from the last version of this guidance’ for full details.

2022-08-17 00:15
First published.