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If your job code is higher skilled, your partner and children can apply to join you. That's 121 of the 412 codes. For the 187 medium skilled codes, you usually need to have been on a Skilled Worker visa in a medium skilled job since before 22 July 2025, or since before 11 March 2024 for care workers. There are a few exceptions for children.
The same rules cover the Health and Care Worker visa, which is a type of Skilled Worker visa.
Terms used here: SOC code, Skilled Worker visa and certificate of sponsorship.
Find your job to see whether your partner and children can join you. If the answer depends on your situation, a few questions work it out for you.
What counts is the code on your certificate of sponsorship, not your job title.
Choose a job code from the list, or try one of these.
Yes121 codes
Higher skilled. Your partner and children can apply to join you.
Only in some cases187 codes
Medium skilled. Usually only if you've been on a Skilled Worker visa since before 22 July 2025, or before 11 March 2024 for care workers.
Not on a Skilled Worker visa104 codes
These jobs can't be sponsored on a Skilled Worker visa.
Whether your partner and children can apply depends on when you started on a Skilled Worker visa in your kind of job, and whether you've stayed on it without a break.
Higher skilled · 121 codes
No cut-off
No cut-off: your partner and children can apply.Medium skilled · 185 codes
Cut-off 22 July 2025
Started before 22 July 2025: your partner and children can apply. Started later: only in some cases.Care workers · 6135 and 6136
Cut-off 11 March 2024
Started before 11 March 2024: your partner and children can apply. Started later: only in some cases.If you're sponsored for a job in one of the 121 higher skilled codes, your partner and children can apply to join you, or to stay with you if they're already in the UK. These are the codes in Tables 1, 2 and 3 of Appendix Skilled Occupations. Each person makes their own application.
Since 22 July 2025, if you're sponsored for a medium skilled job, your partner or child can apply only if one of these is true:
If your partner or child is outside the UK, only the first two cases count.
Of the 185 codes with this cut-off, 65 are on the Temporary Shortage List or the Immigration Salary List, or cover prison officers. A new applicant can get a visa for some jobs in them, but can't bring a partner or children unless one of the cases above applies. The other 120 are open only to people who have been on a Skilled Worker visa since before 22 July 2025.
Since 11 March 2024, if you're sponsored as a care worker or senior care worker, your partner or child can apply only if one of these is true:
If your partner or child is outside the UK, only the first two cases count.
The other 104 codes aren't eligible for the Skilled Worker visa, so there's no Skilled Worker dependant visa through a job in them. A few, such as clergy and sports jobs, are sponsored on other visas, which have their own rules for family. You can look each code up in the list of occupation codes.
If you're already in the UK as a Skilled Worker's dependant, you can take a job in most of these codes without being sponsored. Dependants can do any work except as a professional sportsperson or sports coach.
Your dependants are your husband, wife, civil partner or unmarried partner, and your children under 18, including a child born in the UK while you're here. A child over 18 counts only if they're already in the UK as your dependant. An unmarried partner has to show you've been in a relationship for at least 2 years.
Each person applies separately and pays a visa fee, plus the immigration health surcharge unless you're on a Health and Care Worker visa. You or they also need to show enough money to support them, held for 28 days in a row: £285 for a partner, £315 for the first child and £200 for each other child. That isn't needed if they've been in the UK with a visa for 12 months, or if your sponsor confirms on your certificate of sponsorship that it will cover their costs for the first month.
The rule comes from paragraphs SW 29.1A and SW 32A.2 of Appendix Skilled Worker, read on 10 October 2026. They allow dependants for jobs in Tables 1, 2 and 3 of Appendix Skilled Occupations and set the cut-off dates for the other tables. We checked them against GOV.UK's guidance on your partner and children.
Each code's skill level comes from GOV.UK's list of eligible occupations and codes, the same list our occupation pages use. This is guidance, not legal advice: your sponsor chooses the code, and the Home Office decides each application.
Every code listed as higher skilled allows them. That's 121 of the 412 codes, the ones in Tables 1, 2 and 3 of Appendix Skilled Occupations. In a medium skilled job, your partner and children can usually apply only if you've been on a Skilled Worker visa in a medium skilled job since before 22 July 2025. There are a few exceptions for children, such as a child born in the UK.
Usually not as a new applicant. Every job on the Temporary Shortage List is medium skilled, so your partner and children can usually apply only if you've been on a Skilled Worker visa in a medium skilled job since before 22 July 2025. A child born in the UK is one of the few exceptions. The same goes for medium skilled jobs on the Immigration Salary List, while higher skilled jobs on that list allow dependants as usual.
Only if you've worked in the UK as a care worker or senior care worker, on a Skilled Worker or Health and Care Worker visa, without a break since before 11 March 2024. There are a few exceptions for children, such as a child born in the UK.
Yes. A Skilled Worker's partner can do any work, including self-employment and voluntary work, except as a professional sportsperson or sports coach. They don't need a sponsor or a job offer of their own.
The same rules apply, because the Health and Care Worker visa is a type of Skilled Worker visa. Your partner and children don't pay the immigration health surcharge on it.