This page explains whether you can come to the UK as a family visitor. A family visitor comes under the immigration category of ‘general visitor’. Only nationals of countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland can be family visitors. If you are an EEA or Swiss national, or a family member of an EEA or Swiss national, the European nationals section explains how you can come to the UK. To come to the UK as a family visitor, you must be able to show that you will be visiting the following family members in the UK:

your husband, wife, civil partner, father, mother, son, daughter, grandfather, grandmother, grandson, granddaughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece or first cousin (the son or daughter of your uncle or aunt);
the father, mother, brother or sister of your husband, wife or civil partner;
the husband, wife or civil partner of your son or daughter;
your stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother or stepsister; and/or
a person who has lived with you as an unmarried couple for at least 2 of the 3 years before the day when you apply for entry clearance.

If a child is adopted under an adoption order recognised in UK law, we treat them as if they are the natural children of the adoptive parents. If you want to visit a family member who is not listed above, you should come to the UK as a general visitor [LINK].

You must be able to show that, during your visit, you do not intend to:

take paid or unpaid employment, produce goods or provide services, including the selling of goods or services directly to members of the public;
do a course of study;
marry or register a civil partnership, or give notice of marriage or civil partnership;
carry out the activities of a business visitor, a sports visitor or an entertainer visitor; or
receive private medical treatment.

You must also be able to show that:

you are 18 or over;
you intend to visit the UK for no more than 6 months (or 12 months if you will be accompanying an academic visitor);
you intend to leave the UK at the end of your visit;
you have enough money to support and accommodate yourself without working or help from public funds, or you and any dependants will be supported and accommodated by relatives or friends;
you can meet the cost of the return or onward journey; and
you are not in transit to a country outside the 'Common Travel Area' (Ireland, the UK, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands).

What documents do you need as a family visitor?

This page contains information about the documents that you may want to provide to support your application to come to the UK as a family visitor. If you apply for a visa, you should provide these documents with your visa application. If you travel to the UK without a visa, you should bring them with you so that you can show them to our officers at the border.

You should provide as many relevant documents as you can to show that you qualify for entry to the UK. If you do not provide them, we may refuse your application. You must decide which documents will best support your application. We advise you to consider providing documents that contain:

information about you
information about your finances and employment
your accommodation and travel details
information about your visit to the UK

How to apply

This page explains how to apply for a visa as a family visitor. Depending on where you live, you may be able to make your visa application online or by printing out and completing application form VAF1B. You can download application form VAF1B and guidance notes from the right side of this page. As part of your application, you will need to enrol your fingerprints and facial image (known as 'biometric information') at a visa application centre. Select your country in our country finder to find out:

how to apply in your country
the location of our visa application centres
how long we generally take to process visa applications
how your documents will be returned to you

For more information, please contact one of our offices

Last Updated: 19 February 2013

PDF