Family visa rules to become much tougher

We see that the most recent Home Office statement of changes to the immigration rules, published earlier this month, is in some cases going to make life much more difficult for those applying for family visas.

It was previously the case that whose applying under family visa routes such as Appendix FM (Family Members) encountered more liberal and flexible rules than other types of visa applicant. But this will be sharply reduced under the new rules, which will come into effect on 11 November 2025.

It is very important to understand that any application made on or after that date will have to meet the requirements in the new rules.

The new requirements will operate in different ways. For example, a family visa applicant who has a criminal conviction resulting in a prison sentence of 12 months or more will normally have their visa application refused, no matter how long ago the prison sentence was. The current rules are more flexible than this.

Probably this new provision will only affect a small number of applicants but other new provisions will be wider in their impact. The current rules about overstaying are very liberal; a family visa applicant, even if they have a bad overstaying record, may be able to make a successful application.  

From 11 November this will be much more limited. Under the new rules, any historical period of overstaying (even a very old historical period) longer than 30 days will in many cases result in an entry clearance visa application refusal. 

And under the current rules a migrant who is an overstayer – even a very long overstayer – may be able to go back home and submit a new and ultimately successful family entry clearance visa application and thus “wipe the slate clean”. But under the new rules they might no longer be able to succeed and they might face a time period entry ban on a successful application 

To put it short, family visa applicants will be facing similar rules as other types of visa applicants do. 

It follows on from all this that if you have a criminal conviction issue or overstaying issue you may need to act very quickly.

We at GSN Immigration can do our best to assist you if you need us.

Oliver Westmoreland

Senior Immigration Lawyer