Your partner and children under 18 can join you on the UK Global Talent visa as dependants: each pays a £205 visa fee plus the Immigration Health Surcharge (£1,035/year adults, £776/year children), partners can work without restriction from day one, and dependants reach settlement after 5 years.
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The Global Talent visa is a household decision, and the route treats it that way: your partner and children under 18 apply as your dependants, on your endorsement, with no separate qualification of their own. They get NHS access once the health surcharge is paid, children attend UK state schools free, and — the structural advantage over most work visas — your partner's right to work is unrestricted from the day they arrive. Any employer, self-employment, founding a company: no separate permission, no sponsorship.
The two numbers families most often get wrong: every dependant pays their own fees (visa fee plus the Immigration Health Surcharge for the full visa length, upfront), and every dependant settles on a 5-year clock — even when you, the main applicant, qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain in 3 years as Exceptional Talent or via an academic route. The sections below walk through who qualifies, what they can do, what it costs, the apply-together-or-later choice, and the settlement path. Model your household's exact total in the visa cost calculator.
Two categories. Your partner: a spouse, civil partner, or unmarried partner you have lived with in a relationship for at least 2 years. And your children under 18 at the time of their first application (a child who turns 18 while already in the UK as your dependant can extend as one). Parents, siblings, and children over 18 applying for the first time do not qualify as Global Talent dependants — they need their own immigration route.
Evidence is documentary: a marriage or civil partnership certificate, or — for unmarried partners — proof of 2 years' cohabitation such as joint tenancy agreements, shared utility bills, or joint accounts. Children need birth certificates naming you. Each dependant needs their own valid passport and submits their own application form, linked to yours.
Your partner's work permission is unrestricted: any employer, any role, self-employment, freelancing, or founding a company, from the day they arrive — with no separate application. This is the sharpest contrast with the US H-1B's H-4 dependant status, where spouse work rights depend on a separate EAD tied to your green-card progress. The one standard exclusion across UK dependant visas: working as a professional sportsperson or coach.
Children attend UK state schools free, like any resident child. Partners and adult dependants can also study without a separate student visa. Everyone in the household gets NHS access once their Immigration Health Surcharge is paid — same care as British residents, no private-insurance dependency.
Two charges per person, both paid upfront at the Stage 2 application. The visa application fee is £205 per applicant — the same fee you pay as the main applicant. The Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) is £1,035 per adult per year and £776 per child per year, charged for the full visa length in advance.
Worked examples at current rates. An adult partner on a 3-year visa: £205 + 3 × £1,035 = £3,310. On a 5-year visa: £5,380. A child on a 3-year visa: £2,533; on 5 years: £4,085. There is no endorsement fee for dependants — the £561 Stage 1 fee is the main applicant's only.
Fee levels change — verify the current rates on gov.uk before paying, and use the visa cost calculator to model your household across visa lengths and family sizes.
Both are allowed. Applying together means the family files at the same time as your Stage 2 visa application and you all receive decisions (and travel) together — one set of biometrics appointments, one relocation. Applying later means dependants apply while your Global Talent visa is still valid, from inside or outside the UK, using the same evidence of relationship.
The trade-off is mostly cash-flow versus certainty. Applying together front-loads the full household IHS bill but lands everyone with aligned visa expiry dates. Joining later spreads the cost and lets one partner test the move first — but a dependant who arrives later starts their own 5-year settlement clock from their own arrival, not yours. If settlement timing matters to the household, apply together.
Dependants qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain after 5 years' continuous residence — regardless of the main applicant's own clock. If you settle in 3 years as Exceptional Talent or via an academic route, your partner and children continue on dependant visas until their own 5 years complete; you'll extend their leave to cover the gap. The 3-year fast track is personal to the endorsed applicant.
The residence rules apply to each person individually: a dependant who spends more than 180 days outside the UK in any rolling 12-month period breaks their own ILR qualifying clock, even if the main applicant's absences are fine. Children applying for ILR alongside parents have simpler requirements. After ILR, British citizenship by naturalisation is typically available 12 months later — and children born in the UK after a parent has ILR are British at birth.
They don't. Dependants settle after 5 years even when the main applicant settles in 3. Households that plan finances and school decisions around a shared 3-year clock discover a 2-year visa-extension bill they didn't budget.
The 2-year living-together requirement is evidenced with documents spanning the period — joint tenancy, bills, accounts. Couples who kept everything in one name struggle to prove a genuine 2-year cohabitation; start assembling the paper trail early.
The ILR residence rule binds each family member separately. A partner who spends long stretches abroad — caring for relatives, remote-working from home country — can break their own settlement clock while yours stays intact.
The health surcharge is charged for the whole visa length in advance, per person. A family of four on a 5-year grant pays the IHS for 20 person-years at £1,035/adult and £776/child per year on day one — run the calculator before committing to a visa length.
Children must be under 18 at their first application as your dependant. A 17-year-old should apply before the birthday; once 18, they need their own route (student, Skilled Worker, or their own Global Talent case).
Yes — without restriction, from the day they arrive. Any employer, any seniority, self-employment, or founding a company, with no separate work-permission application. The only standard exclusion is working as a professional sportsperson or coach.
Per person: the £205 visa application fee plus the Immigration Health Surcharge for the full visa length upfront — £1,035 per adult per year, £776 per child per year. An adult on a 5-year visa totals £5,380; a child £4,085. There is no dependant endorsement fee. Verify current rates on gov.uk.
No. Dependants qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain after 5 years' continuous residence, even when the main applicant settles in 3 years as Exceptional Talent or via an academic route. Each dependant's clock runs from their own arrival, with their own 180-days-per-year absence limit.
Yes. Dependants can apply at any point while your Global Talent visa is valid, from inside or outside the UK, with the same relationship evidence. The trade-off: a later arrival starts that person's own 5-year settlement clock later, so households that care about synchronised ILR should apply together.
Yes — children on dependant visas attend UK state schools free, like any resident child, across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. University tuition is separate: home-fee status generally requires settled status plus residence, so factor that in for teenagers close to university age.
No. Global Talent dependants are limited to your partner and children under 18 (or over-18s already in the UK as your dependants). Parents and other relatives need their own immigration route. This page is information, not legal advice — for complex family situations consult an OISC-regulated adviser.
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Start your application →The main applicant settles in 3 years; dependants on their own 5-year clock.
Model the full household cost — fees + IHS per person, per visa length.
Stage 2, dependants, the ILR path, and naturalisation.
Dependant work rights are the sharpest contrast with H-4 status.
For households leaving the H-4 EAD wait behind.
Every paper both stages need, including dependants' certificates.
The endorsement that anchors the whole household's move.
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