Family life and exceptional circumstances: caseworker guidance
Immigration staff guidance on considering claims based on family life (as a partner or parent) or exceptional circumstances.
Documents
Details
If you have made an application for leave to remain and you:
- have not yet received a decision
- consider you are in need of recourse to public funds
- are eligible to apply for a change of conditions, or will be eligible if your application is granted
you need to complete a change of conditions application.
UK Visas and Immigration guidance on how staff decide applications or claims for leave to enter or remain on the basis of family life as a partner or parent or exceptional circumstances in compliance with Article 8 (right to family and private life of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)).
Updates to this page
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Updated to provide clarity on when a person in the UK with immigration status granted under Appendix EU can act as a sponsor to bring a partner to the UK, and to remove reference to Part 11 of the Immigration rules and update link to refer to Appendix Family Reunion (Protection).
Update history
2025-09-05 16:03
Updated to provide further guidance on the duty under section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009.
2025-07-17 16:34
Updated to provide clarity on when a person in the UK with immigration status granted under Appendix EU can act as a sponsor to bring a partner to the UK, and to remove reference to Part 11 of the Immigration rules and update link to refer to Appendix Family Reunion (Protection).
2024-05-21 13:43
Guidance updated to provide links to new financial requirement guidance.
2024-02-16 09:08
Guidance updated to allow a person recognised as stateless to sponsor a partner and their children under Appendix FM; reflect the changes to the definition of a partner in paragraph 6.2 of the Immigration Rules.
2023-05-18 10:59
Guidance updated to remove sections relating to allowing access to public funds, which is now covered in separate guidance (Access to public funds – family private life and Hong Kong BN(O) routes), and include a new section on how to assess access to public funds when making the initial decision.
2022-08-12 09:21
Guidance updated to remove sections relating to family settlement applications, which is now covered in separate Family and private life settlement guidance.
2022-06-20 12:44
PDF entitled ‘Concession to the family Immigration Rules for granting longer periods of leave and early indefinite leave to remain’ removed because it is no longer valid.
2022-06-20 09:00
Updated guidance includes a change to the definition of sponsors; changes to the two-stage approach to Family Life claims; changes to the approach when an applicant has a partner but applies as a parent; clarification that written evidence is required to disclose a document to the Home Office. Information on how to deal with private life considerations has been moved to separate guidance.