TB Test for Spouse Visa: Countries, Clinics, and Process
A tuberculosis test is required before some family visa applications. It is a chest x-ray at a Home Office approved clinic, and it has to be done before you apply. This guide sets out when it is needed, who is exempt, and how long the certificate lasts.
- Section
- Spouse & Partner Visa
- Reading time
- 9 min
- Last checked
- 22 March 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
- Three conditions have to be met, and one of them is about where you have lived, not where you are applying from.
- A fiance, fiancee or proposed civil partner visa needs a test despite being granted for 6 months. So does a Returning Resident visa.
- The certificate is valid for 6 months from the date of the x-ray, not from when it was issued to you.
- The clinic must be Home Office approved. Some listed countries have none, and you then get tested in another country.
- Children under 11 are not normally x-rayed, but every child sees a clinician who decides.
A tuberculosis test is needed where three things 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. A fiance, fiancee or proposed civil partner visa needs one even though it is granted for only 6 months. The test is a chest x-ray at a Home Office approved clinic, and the certificate lasts 6 months from the date of the x-ray.
Do You Need a Tuberculosis Test?
GOV.UK sets three conditions, and all three have to be 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.
Note what the second and third conditions turn on. It is where you have been living, not your nationality and not the country you happen to be applying from. Someone who has lived for years in a country that is not on the list does not need a test, whatever passport they hold.
There is an exception that runs the other way. GOV.UK says that even if you are coming for less than 6 months, you still need a test for a Returning Resident visa, or for a family visa as a fiance, fiancee or proposed civil partner. That last one matters here: the fiance visa is granted for 6 months, so it fails the first condition, and is named separately for that reason.
The list itself runs to well over a hundred countries and territories and includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and China. It is not a list to take from a guide. Check the full list on GOV.UK.
Who does not need a test
GOV.UK names three groups:
- diplomats accredited to the UK;
- returning UK residents who have not been away for more than 2 years; and
- people coming on a scheme to support people from Ukraine.
The Test Process
- Find a Home Office approved clinic through the GOV.UK page for your country, which also carries the clinic's fees, opening hours and what to bring
- Attend the appointment
- You are given a chest x-ray
- If the result of the x-ray is not clear, you may also be asked to give a sputum sample, which is phlegm coughed up from the lungs
- If the test shows you do not have tuberculosis, you are given a certificate to include with your visa application
GOV.UK is explicit that you do not need any other test for tuberculosis for your visa application. If a clinic offers you one, that is not a UK visa requirement.
Children
Every child must see a clinician, who decides whether a chest x-ray is needed. GOV.UK says children under 11 will not normally have one. You take the child to an approved clinic and complete a health questionnaire, and if the clinician decides the child does not have tuberculosis, they issue a certificate to include with that child's application.
If you are pregnant
GOV.UK gives three choices:
- an x-ray with an extra shield to protect you and your unborn child, in the second and third trimesters;
- a sputum test, for which there may be an extra fee and where you could wait up to 8 weeks for results; or
- to wait until after delivery.
Cost and Validity
Clinics set their own fees. GOV.UK publishes no national figure, so this guide gives none: the fee for each approved clinic is on the GOV.UK page for that country, and it changes.
The certificate is valid for 6 months from the date of your x-ray, which is not the same as the date the certificate reached you. Include it with the application inside that period.
If the X-ray Is Not Clear
GOV.UK says one thing about this: if the result of the x-ray is not clear, you may also be asked to give a sputum sample. The certificate is issued if the test shows you do not have tuberculosis.
What happens if it does is a medical question, and GOV.UK publishes no treatment pathway, cost or timescale for it. Rowan will not invent one. The clinic that carried out the test is the place to ask what happens next, and how a certificate is obtained afterwards.
Finding an Approved Clinic
Only a clinic approved by the Home Office counts. GOV.UK publishes the approved clinics country by country, with addresses, fees and booking details on each page.
Some listed countries have no approved testing centre at all. GOV.UK marks those on its list, and says you will need to get tested in a different country; it publishes a separate page of other countries with approved clinics for exactly this. If your country is one of them, that changes your travel plans, so check before you book anything else.
See our country-specific guides for clinic information:
Next Steps
Work through the three conditions first, since they turn on where you have lived rather than where you are from. If a test is needed, find a Home Office approved clinic on the GOV.UK page for that country and check whether one exists there at all. The certificate runs 6 months from the x-ray, and the application has to be made inside that.
Related guides:
Questions and answers
Which countries require a TB test for a UK spouse visa?
It is not the country you are applying from that decides it, but where you have been living. GOV.UK requires a test where all three of these 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. The list runs to well over 100 countries and territories, and includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and China. GOV.UK publishes the full list.
How much does the TB test cost?
Clinics set their own fees, so GOV.UK publishes no figure and this guide gives none. The fee is on the GOV.UK page for the approved clinics in your country, which is where to look. Not every approved clinic is run by the International Organization for Migration; the only thing that matters is that the clinic is on the Home Office approved list.
How long is the TB test certificate valid?
GOV.UK says the certificate is valid for 6 months from the date of your x-ray, not from the date it was issued to you. Include it with the application within that period.
What happens if my TB test is positive?
GOV.UK says that if the result of the x-ray is not clear you may also be asked to give a sputum sample, which is phlegm coughed up from the lungs. It also says you do not need any other test for tuberculosis for your visa application. What happens after that is a medical matter, and GOV.UK does not publish a treatment pathway, cost or duration, so this guide does not state one. The clinic will tell you what happens next.
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.