Refugee Family Reunion: Closed to New Applications
Refugee family reunion is closed. GOV.UK stopped accepting applications at 3pm on 4 September 2025. This entry records what the closure says, what happens to applications already lodged, and what GOV.UK points to instead.
- Section
- Costs, English & General
- Reading time
- 7 min
- Last checked
- 17 February 2026
- Source
- The published Immigration Rules and GOV.UK guidance, linked throughout this guide.
- Rowan does not
- Look at your own case, tell you which route to choose, or say what the Home Office will decide. This guide shows the published rules and where to read them.
In short
- Closed. GOV.UK: 'Your partner or child cannot apply to join you in the UK through family reunion. Applications are no longer being accepted.'
- The cut-off was 3pm on 4 September 2025. Applications made before then are still being considered, usually within 12 months.
- GOV.UK directs family members to the family visa route instead, which is paid and carries income and English requirements.
- Anything you read that describes family reunion as open, free and available to apply for now is out of date.
Refugee family reunion — the route that let the partner and children of a recognised refugee or person with humanitarian protection join them in the UK without a fee, an income threshold or an English test — is closed. GOV.UK states that applications are no longer being accepted, from 3pm on 4 September 2025. Applications made before that time are still being decided, usually within 12 months. GOV.UK points family members to the ordinary family visa route instead, which charges a fee and a health surcharge and applies the income and English language requirements that family reunion did not.
What GOV.UK Now Says
The family reunion section of GOV.UK's guidance for people with refugee status or humanitarian protection reads:
Your partner or child cannot apply to join you in the UK through family reunion. Applications are no longer being accepted.
The same page says they “may be able to apply for a family visa instead”.
The closure took effect at 3pm on 4 September 2025. Before that date the route allowed the spouse, civil partner, unmarried partner and children under 18 of a recognised refugee or person with humanitarian protection to join them in the UK, with no application fee, no immigration health surcharge, no minimum income threshold and no English language test. None of that is available to a new applicant now.
Applications Made Before the Cut-Off
GOV.UK says that if a partner or child applied before 3pm on 4 September 2025, the application will still be considered, and that a decision usually takes up to 12 months.
That is longer than the service standard for most family applications made from outside the UK, which is 12 weeks. The 12-month figure is the one GOV.UK publishes for family reunion applications still in the queue.
GOV.UK does not publish a separate process for withdrawing, amending, or adding a dependant to an application already in that queue. Where GOV.UK is silent, this entry says so rather than filling the gap.
The Family Visa Route GOV.UK Points To
The family visa is the ordinary paid route for a partner, parent or child joining someone in the UK. It is not a replacement for family reunion and it is not free. The published requirements that family reunion did not apply include:
- A fee for each person: £2,064 applying from outside the UK, £1,407 applying inside the UK.
- The immigration health surcharge: £1,035 a year for an adult, £776 a year for a child under 18, paid up front for the whole length of the visa.
- A minimum income requirement: £29,000 a year for a new partner application, or savings in place of income. See our partner visa guide.
- An English language requirement: A1 speaking and listening at the first application, A2 at the first extension, B1 at settlement.
- Evidence that the relationship is genuine and subsisting. See our relationship evidence guide.
Whether any particular person meets those requirements is not something this site assesses. The rules above are what GOV.UK publishes; reading them against your own circumstances is a matter for a regulated adviser. See our guide to using an adviser.
Documents, If You Are Applying on the Family Route
The family visa is a different application with its own document list, but the general points below still hold for anyone gathering papers:
- A valid passport or travel document for each applicant.
- A marriage certificate, civil partnership certificate, or evidence of living together.
- Birth certificates for children.
- Evidence of the sponsor's immigration status. Biometric residence permits stopped being issued at the end of 2024; status is now an eVisa held in a UKVI account and proved with a share code, which lasts 90 days.
- Certified translations of anything not in English. See our translation guide.
If an Application Is Refused
A refused family application carries a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) where the refusal is of a human rights claim. GOV.UK sets the deadline at 14 days from the date you received the decision letter if you are in the UK, and 28 days if you are outside the UK. The refusal notice itself states which right applies and the exact deadline; that notice is the authority, not this page.
Costs across the family routes are set out in our visa fees guide.
Settlement, for Family Members Already in the UK
Someone already in the UK on leave granted through family reunion keeps that leave. Settlement after five years of continuous residence is covered in our indefinite leave to remain guide and ILR requirements guide, and British citizenship afterwards in our citizenship requirements guide.
Practical first steps after arrival are in our first week in the UK checklist and accommodation guide.
Questions and answers
Can a partner or child still apply for refugee family reunion?
No. GOV.UK says: 'Your partner or child cannot apply to join you in the UK through family reunion. Applications are no longer being accepted.' The route closed to new applications at 3pm on 4 September 2025.
What happens to a family reunion application made before the route closed?
GOV.UK says an application made before 3pm on 4 September 2025 will still be considered, and that a decision usually takes up to 12 months.
What route does GOV.UK point to instead?
GOV.UK says a partner or child 'may be able to apply for a family visa instead'. The family visa is the ordinary paid route, with its own income, English language and fee requirements. It is not the same as family reunion and does not carry the same exemptions.
Is there still no fee, as there was for family reunion?
Family reunion had no application fee and no immigration health surcharge. The family visa GOV.UK points to instead does charge both: the fee is £2,064 per person from outside the UK and £1,407 per person inside the UK, and the health surcharge is £1,035 a year for an adult and £776 a year for a child under 18.
This guide is general information about published immigration rules. It is not advice about an individual application under s.82 Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, and Rowan is not regulated by the Immigration Advice Authority. Immigration rules change several times a year. For advice on a particular situation, contact an adviser authorised by the Immigration Advice Authority or an immigration solicitor. Always check GOV.UK for the authoritative current rules.