Can Skilled Worker Dependants Work in the UK? Guide
If your family members have joined you in the UK as dependants on your Skilled Worker visa, they can work. This guide explains what GOV.UK says they can and cannot do, and how they prove it to an employer.
- Section
- Skilled Worker Visa
- Reading time
- 9 min
- Last checked
- 3 September 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
- Skilled Worker dependants can work, except as a sportsperson or coach.
- No separate work visa is needed. The permission to work comes with the dependant permission.
- Self-employment and running a business are allowed.
- Dependants cannot claim most benefits (public funds) or the State Pension.
- Care workers, senior care workers and people in medium-skilled jobs can only bring or keep dependants in limited circumstances.
A partner or child with permission as a dependant of a Skilled Worker can work, except as a sportsperson or coach. They can also study, travel abroad and return, and apply to settle after 5 years. They cannot claim most benefits (public funds) or the State Pension. The harder question is usually not what a dependant may do but whether they can get dependant permission at all: care workers, senior care workers and people in medium-skilled jobs face date-based conditions.
What a dependant can and cannot do
When a family member holds permission as a dependant of a Skilled Worker visa holder, GOV.UK says they can:
- work, except as a sportsperson or coach;
- study;
- travel abroad and return to the UK; and
- apply to settle permanently in the UK (indefinite leave to remain) if they have lived here for 5 years and meet the other requirements.
They cannot apply for most benefits (public funds), or the State Pension.
Within that work condition there is no sponsorship requirement, no limit on hours, and no restriction to a particular sector, so employed work, part-time work, self-employment and professions needing professional registration are all open to them.
The employer must still carry out a right-to-work check before they start. The full list of conditions is on GOV.UK, and each person gets their own list with their decision.
How to prove the right to work
Biometric residence permits stopped being issued at the end of 2024. Immigration status is now an eVisa held in a UK Visas and Immigration account. Your dependant proves their right to work by generating a share code from that account and giving it to the employer. A share code lasts 90 days.
Employers use the online right-to-work checking service with that share code.
Who can be a dependant in the first place
Two groups face extra conditions. These decide whether someone can come or stay as a dependant at all; they do not change what a person who already holds dependant permission may do.
Care workers and senior care workers
If your partner or children are inside the UK, they can apply to stay as your dependant if any of these are true:
- you have been continually employed as a care worker or senior care worker in the UK and on a Skilled Worker visa since before 11 March 2024;
- they are your child and they were born in the UK;
- they are your child and you are the only living parent responsible for them; or
- they are your child and their other parent is also sponsored as a care worker or senior care worker.
If they are outside the UK, only the first two of those apply. See our guide to the care worker route.
Medium-skilled jobs
Since 22 July 2025 the Skilled Worker route normally requires a job at degree level. Jobs below that level, described by GOV.UK as “medium skilled”, are only sponsorable through the Immigration Salary List or the Temporary Shortage List. If your occupation code is one of those medium-skilled jobs, your partner or children can apply to stay in the UK as your dependant if any of these are true:
- you have been continually employed in the UK on a Skilled Worker visa and in a medium-skilled job since before 22 July 2025;
- they are your child and they were born in the UK;
- they are your child and you are the only living parent responsible for them;
- they are your child and their other parent is also sponsored for a medium-skilled job; or
- they are your child or partner and you are extending or switching as a prison officer (occupation code 3314).
If they are outside the UK, only the first two of those apply. In practice this means someone newly sponsored in a medium-skilled job cannot bring a partner or child with them.
Effect on your own visa
Your dependant's earnings do not affect your Skilled Worker visa, and they do not count towards your salary requirement when you extend or apply for indefinite leave to remain. Only your own sponsored salary counts for that.
Practical points
- Your dependant will need a National Insurance number for employment or self-employment.
- If self-employed, they register for self assessment with HM Revenue and Customs.
- A dependant's permission usually ends on the same date as yours. Where a child's parents have visas ending on different dates, the child's ends on the earlier one.
- If you extend or switch, their current permission still runs to its original end date. They apply separately, either at the same time as you or at any time before it expires. That includes a child who has turned 18 during your stay.
- Applications from inside the UK usually get a decision within 8 weeks; from outside the UK, within 3 weeks. They must not travel outside the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man while an application made inside the UK is undecided, or it will be withdrawn.
Related guides
Questions and answers
Can my dependant work in the UK on a Skilled Worker visa?
Yes. GOV.UK says a partner or child with permission as a dependant of a Skilled Worker can work, except as a sportsperson or coach. They can also study, travel abroad and return, and apply to settle after 5 years in the UK if they meet the other requirements.
Do dependants need their own work visa?
No. Permission to work comes with the dependant permission itself. They still need to show an employer their right to work, using a share code from their UK Visas and Immigration account.
Can dependants of care workers work?
The restriction on care workers is about who can come or stay as a dependant at all, not about what a dependant may do once they have permission. Someone who does hold dependant permission can work, except as a sportsperson or coach. If your partner or children are inside the UK, they can apply to stay as your dependant only if you have been continually employed as a care worker or senior care worker in the UK on a Skilled Worker visa since before 11 March 2024, or one of the exceptions for children applies.
Can my dependant be self-employed?
Yes. The dependant work condition is not limited to employment, so self-employment and running a business are allowed, other than work as a sportsperson or coach. They must register with HM Revenue and Customs and pay tax on what they earn.
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.