Q&A: The UK’s new approach to refugee family reunion

by Nuni Jorgensen

In September 2025, the UK’s Labour government announced the suspension of the family reunion route, which had allowed recognised refugees and people granted humanitarian protection to bring their immediate family members to the UK without meeting income or language requirements that apply to partners of British citizens. The government cited high numbers of people seeking asylum and sponsoring family members, and the strains this had put on public services. This Q&A answers some common questions on the refugee family reunion route:

• What is refugee family reunion, and what has changed?
• How many people have arrived in the UK through refugee family reunion, and what are their characteristics?
• Why did the government suspend the refugee family reunion route?
• What are the possible impacts of the new measures?
• How does the UK compare with other countries?

What is refugee family reunion, and what has changed?

Until its suspension in September 2025, the UK’s refugee family reunion policy allowed people with recognised refugee status or humanitarian protection to sponsor close relatives to join them. Humanitarian protection is granted to people who need international protection but do not qualify for Refugee Convention status. It gives similar rights to full refugee status. For simplicity, we also include people with humanitarian protection under the term “refugees”.

The route admitted spouses or partners and dependent children under 18 who were not living an independent life (i.e., who did not have a partner and children of their own). Extended relatives could apply only in exceptional circumstances. Resettled refugees were also eligible to use the route. Technically speaking, family reunion visa holders are not classified as refugees in the UK, so there are no data on how many would qualify for asylum in their own right.

Unlike other family migration routes, refugee sponsors did not need to meet income or housing requirements, and applicants were not required to show English proficiency. The main requirement was proof of the family relationship, which could be established through documents such as marriage or birth certificates, written statements, or voluntary DNA evidence. The relationship had to predate displacement: families formed in transit or after arrival in the UK were not eligible. Children born in the UK to asylum seekers are treated as dependants under their parents’ asylum claim. Children born in the UK to parents who already hold recognised protection status are registered as refugees and do not go through a family reunion application.

According to the Home Office (Vis_D02 YE June 2025), 87% of family reunion visa applications were successful at initial decision in the first half of 2025. FOI data from 2019 to 2022 show that 66% of refugee family reunion visa rejections were successful on appeal, although no such information is available for more recent years.

In September 2025, the government temporarily suspended the family reunion route, announcing that a stricter system would be introduced in spring 2026. In the meantime, refugees must apply under the standard family migration rules for British citizens and settled residents, which require sponsors to earn at least £29,000 per year, and applicants to have a basic level of English (A1).

In practice, many refugees will not qualify to bring their families under the rules that apply to British citizens, due to their low average incomes. Data from the Annual Population Survey suggest that between 2020 and 2022, 28% of adults who came to the UK to seek asylum and who had lived in the country for less than 10 years were employed, and among those working, median annual earnings were £20,000 for men and £18,000 for women—well below the income threshold (see our briefing on Asylum and refugee resettlement in the UK). Language requirements may also present barriers: although there are no data on the language skills of refugees, studies of resettled refugees indicate low English proficiency, particularly among women, who make up the majority of applicants for family reunion visas.

The government has not yet provided details about the new route due to be introduced in 2026, but it has indicated that it will involve “contribution requirements” and minimum residence periods.

How many people have arrived in the UK through family reunion routes, and what are their characteristics?

Except for the newly announced one-in-one-out deal with France, there is no dedicated visa to come to the UK safely and legally for the purpose of claiming asylum, and many people travel through unauthorised routes before applying for protection. Because these routes are often dangerous, families frequently do not migrate together. Research shows that young men often travel first and later seek to bring their partners and children through the refugee family reunion route.

Between 2012 and 2020, 30% of people given protection arrived in the UK via family reunion. From 2022 to 2024, the number of people entering through this route increased fivefold, from 4,100 in 2022 to 19,200 in 2024 (Figure 1). This rise likely reflects the lagged effect of an overall increase in the number of main applicants granted asylum in the previous year. It is not clear from the statistics whether the share of refugees sponsoring the arrival of family members has also changed.

Figure 1

In the year ending 30 June 2025, most family reunion visa grants went to nationals of Iran, Syria, Eritrea, Sudan and Afghanistan, which are also among the top nationalities of people granted asylum-related status.

It is not currently possible to calculate what proportion of refugees sponsor family members through the family reunion route, because Home Office data do not link applicants and sponsors. Considering only adult recognised refugees arriving as main applicants, and their adult reunited families, we estimate that between 2023 and 2025, there was one person arriving by family reunion for every five new grants of refugee status to adult main applicants. (Figure 2).

Figure 2

Family reunion visa recipients are predominantly women and children—a result of the fact that most asylum seekers themselves are men. In the year ending 30 June 2025, 56% of family reunion visas were issued to children under 18, 37% to adult women, and 7% to adult men. Family reunion thus affects the gender breakdown of people granted status directly or indirectly through the asylum system.

If we add together grants of asylum and refugee family reunion, between 2010 and 30 June 2025, 33% of women and 40% of children received status through family reunion. Only 6% of men arrived via refugee family reunion (Figure 3). The suspension of the family reunion route is thus expected to shift the gender balance more towards men.

Figure 3

Why did the government suspend the refugee family reunion route?

The Home Secretary said that the government was closing the refugee family reunion route for three main reasons. First, the refugee family reunion was placing additional strain on local councils supporting families who were sponsoring family members shortly after receiving refugee status and were not yet self-sufficient. She stated that since the pandemic, asylum seekers have been applying for family reunion more quickly than in the past. Second, that family unification rights acted as a pull factor to the UK. And third, that it was not fair for the rules to be different for British citizens and refugees who wanted to sponsor their partners and children. There is no publicly available data on the average time it takes for asylum seekers to apply for family reunion after being granted status, and it is not clear why such trends might have changed.

People who are granted refugee status after claiming asylum must move out of their government-funded asylum accommodation within 28 days. Once recognised as refugees, they are expected to transition into independent housing and find work. They can also apply for mainstream benefits such as Universal Credit. Between December 2024 and the start of September 2025, this notice period was temporarily extended to 56 days in response to rising concerns about homelessness and the difficulties refugees face in securing housing within such a short timeframe.

Data from the Housing Department and the Department for Work and Pensions show that the number of refugees receiving homelessness support rose sharply from mid-2023, alongside an increase in refugees and people on humanitarian safe and legal routes receiving Universal Credit.

Figure 4

A key driver behind the rise in refugees receiving government support has been the increase in asylum applications and grants since 2021. However, the increase in homelessness has been far steeper than the growth in asylum grants. This may reflect a shortage of suitable accommodation for people to move into.

What will be the impacts of the suspension of the family reunion route?

An immediate consequence of the suspension of the family reunion route is likely to be a total reduction in people arriving on the route (once existing applications have been processed). Some refugees may qualify for the general family route instead, and it is difficult to say how many.

Less certain is how the policy change will affect the number of asylum seekers who decide to come to the UK. This may take longer to be revealed and will depend on how asylum seekers understand and respond to the change. Studies with migrants, including refugees, show that it is difficult to predict how quickly people get to know about new policies, which aspects they notice most, and how their choices are influenced by other countries’ policies.

In this case, three outcomes are possible, and could occur simultaneously across different groups: deterrence, family separation, and the migration of entire family units via unauthorised routes.

The government has said that restricting family reunion will discourage people from claiming asylum in the UK. Research does suggest that refugees are more likely to move to countries with higher recognition rates and more liberal family reunification rights. However, it is not possible to predict the size of any deterrent effect and whether it would have a meaningful impact on asylum arrivals. In addition, not all groups would be equally affected. For example, current data suggest that most refugees do not use the family reunification system (see Figure 2).

A second possible outcome is family separation. This is more likely among those unaware of the policy change, people with a pending asylum claim in the UK when it took effect, or those willing to migrate while leaving families behind — supporting them instead through remittances, for example. Research consistently shows that family separation has a negative impact on people’s well-being.

The third possible outcome is the migration of entire families seeking asylum. A study conducted on refugees’ journeys across Europe showed that when reunion visas are unavailable, some families follow unauthorised routes. In Australia, when temporary protection visas were introduced without family reunion rights, evidence suggests that the proportion of children arriving via small boats increased.

How does the UK compare to other European countries?

In most high-income countries, refugees enjoy more liberal family reunion rights compared with other categories of migrants. The UK’s previous policy on refugee family reunion was broadly similar to that of many European countries.

It was more restrictive in two key areas: it generally excluded partners who formed their relationship with the refugee after displacement (for example, couples who met in transit) and did not allow unaccompanied children granted protection to reunite with their parents or legal guardians.

Some countries, however, applied stricter rules than the previous UK policy. In Denmark, for instance, family members of refugees are usually subject to the same conditions as other family migrants, such as income thresholds, language skills, and integration requirements. Exceptions exist for cases involving partners at risk of persecution or those caring for minor children, meaning many refugees are, in practice, exempt from these restrictions.

More recently, several European countries— including Germany, Denmark, and Bulgaria — have tightened family reunion rights for people with subsidiary protection. Subsidiary protection is distinct from refugee status, the main difference being that this typically confers a more limited set of rights than for refugees, whose rights derive from the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. These restrictions have included visa caps or minimum residence requirements, such as living in the country for at least two years before applying. In the UK, the equivalent category is humanitarian protection, which historically carried the same family reunion rights as refugee status, although recipients represent only a small share of overall protection grants.

Austria, like the UK, also suspended its refugee family reunion route in 2025, citing pressure on public services.