Many international students to lose right to bring family to UK in Home Office bid to curb immigration

International post-graduate students on certain courses will no longer be able to bring family members to the UK under new immigration rules. Partners and children of post-graduate students, other than those studying on courses designated as research programmes, will no longer be allowed to apply to live in the UK during the course.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told ministers that the change, which will come into force in January 2024, would help bring migration down. But the impact the curb will have on official migration levels is not clear as students and family members who come to the UK for less than a year are not counted.

It comes just days before official statistics are expected to show legal migration has hit a record 700,000 in 2023. 135,788 visas were granted to dependants of foreign students last year - a rise from 54,486 in 2021 and more than seven times the 19,139 granted in 2020.