Spouse Visa Country-Specific Guides: Apply from Your Country

Country-Specific Guides

We have detailed guides for the countries that generate the most UK spouse visa applications:

• Spouse Visa from India
• Spouse Visa from Pakistan
• Spouse Visa from Bangladesh
• Spouse Visa from Nigeria
• Spouse Visa from the Philippines
• Spouse Visa from South Africa

If your country is not listed, the general applying from outside the UK guide covers the process. The country-specific considerations below will help you identify any additional requirements.

What Does Not Change

Before the differences, the part worth stating plainly: none of the requirements in Appendix FM vary by country. The £29,000 financial requirement, the savings formula, the relationship evidence, the accommodation rule, the A1 English level and the fees are the same whether you apply from Lagos, Manila or Toronto. See our requirements guide. What differs is practical, and there are three of them.

1. The Tuberculosis Test

GOV.UK publishes a fixed list of countries and territories. A test is required if all three of the following are true: you are coming to the UK for 6 months or more; you have lived in a listed country for 6 months or more; and you were living there, or in another listed country, within the last 6 months.

There is an exception that catches people out. A fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner needs a test even though the permission is for less than 6 months, and so does someone applying for a Returning Resident visa.

The list is long — around a hundred entries — and includes Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, Russia, China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Kenya. Some listed countries have no approved clinic, and GOV.UK marks those "get tested in another country". The list is the only authority; nationality is not the test, residence is.

The test is a chest x-ray. If the x-ray is not clear you may be asked for a sputum sample, and GOV.UK says no other test is needed. Children must see a clinician, who decides whether an x-ray is needed; children under 11 are not normally x-rayed. Pregnant applicants can choose a shielded x-ray in the second or third trimester, a sputum test — which may cost extra and can take up to 8 weeks for results — or to wait until after delivery. A clear result gives a certificate valid for 6 months from the date of the x-ray, so testing too early can mean testing twice.

You will not need a test if you are a diplomat accredited to the UK, a returning UK resident who has not been away more than 2 years, or coming on a scheme to support people from Ukraine.

GOV.UK publishes no price for the test — approved clinics set their own fees. See our TB test guide, the rule on GOV.UK and the country list.

2. Which English Test You Can Take, and Where

The level is the same everywhere — at least A1 in speaking and listening for a first application on the partner route — but the approved providers differ depending on which side of the border you take the test.

• Outside the UK: PSI Services (UK) Ltd, the IELTS SELT Consortium, LANGUAGECERT and Pearson.
• Inside the UK: Trinity College London, the IELTS SELT Consortium, LANGUAGECERT and Pearson.

Trinity College London is an inside-the-UK provider and PSI Services an outside-the-UK one, so the provider is not simply a matter of preference. GOV.UK also requires the test to be one of the named SELT products — "IELTS for UKVI" or "IELTS Life Skills", LANGUAGECERT's International ESOL, Academic or General SELT, Pearson's "PTE Academic UKVI" or "PTE Home", or PSI's "Skills for English UKVI" — and not the ordinary version of the same brand.

The result must have been awarded in the two years before the date of your application, and taken at an approved test location. The partner route has one exception to that: GOV.UK says a pass at B1 or higher used for a first visa can be reused when you apply for settlement after 5 years, provided the test is still on the approved list and the certificate has not been withdrawn.

GOV.UK publishes no price for a Secure English Language Test — providers set their own fees, which differ by country and by test. Nationals of a fixed list of countries do not need a test at all; the list is on our English language requirement guide, and English being an official language of a country does not put it on that list.

3. Where You Give Your Fingerprints and Photo

Applying from outside the UK, you attend a visa application centre. Applying from inside it, you use UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services, or the "UK Immigration: ID Check" app where GOV.UK says you can.

Three details from GOV.UK worth knowing before you plan travel:

• You must apply for the visa before you can book the appointment.
• If the country you live in has no visa application centre, you can choose a centre in a different country.
• If you do not choose a centre when you apply, one is chosen for you — the most accessible to the country you live in.

Take your passport to the appointment; GOV.UK says you usually get it back the same day. Find the opening times, address and contact details on the GOV.UK centre finder.

A Police Certificate Is Not Part of This Route

This one is worth stating in the negative, because it is widely repeated. The overseas criminal record certificate requirement applies to Skilled Worker applicants working in specified health, education or social care sectors, and to their adult partners applying as dependants on that route. It is that requirement which asks for a certificate from every country you have lived in for 12 months or more in the last 10 years while aged 18 or over.

It is not part of a family visa as the partner of a British or settled person, and GOV.UK's list of information and evidence for a family visa does not include one. What GOV.UK does ask for is a declaration of details of any criminal convictions, and convictions are assessed under Appendix FM's suitability rules. Our police certificate guide covers where the requirement does apply.

Processing Times: One Figure, Not Six

GOV.UK publishes a single service standard for a family application made outside the UK: 12 weeks, the same for a partner or spouse, a parent, a child, and an adult coming to be cared for by a relative. Inside the UK it is 8 weeks where the financial and English requirements are met, and about 12 months where they are not.

It publishes no country-by-country times for family visas. Its online processing-time checker covers visit, study and work applications only. Any regional table you see — 8 to 16 weeks for the Middle East, 12 to 24 for South Asia — is somebody's estimate rather than a published figure, and this guide does not offer one.

GOV.UK does name the things that can make a decision take longer: information in the application that is inaccurate or needs further consideration, further evidence being needed, documents that must be verified, an interview, a criminal conviction requiring more information, increased demand, or a technical outage. It says you will be contacted within the current processing time if your application will take longer.

The clock starts when you either verify your identity and submit documents through the ID Check app, or attend your appointment at a visa application centre — not when you pay. It ends when the decision letter or email is sent. See our processing time guide and, on paying for a faster decision, our priority service guide. Note that from outside the UK the £500 priority service usually takes up to 30 working days on a family application, not the 5 that apply elsewhere.

Document Translation

Any document not in English or Welsh must be provided in the original language together with a full translation. Appendix FM-SE paragraph 1(j) sets out what the translation must contain. It must be dated, and must include:

• confirmation that it is an accurate translation;
• the full name and signature of the translator, or of an authorised official of the translation company;
• their contact details; and
• where the application is for permission to stay or settlement made inside the UK, certification by a qualified translator and details of the translator's or company's credentials.

The rule is about what the document must contain, not about who you may ask. GOV.UK publishes no price for translation.

Related Guides

The three country-dependent items are the tuberculosis list, the English test provider, and the visa application centre. Everything else is the same wherever you apply from.

• Spouse Visa UK: Complete Guide
• Applying from Outside the UK
• TB Test Requirement
• Police Certificate Guide

Questions and answers