UK cracks down on overseas student visa right to bring family dependants

The UK government on Tuesday announced a new immigration crackdown targeted at overseas students, including Indians, and their visa right to bring dependant family members to the country while enrolled at a British institution. In a written statement to the House of Commons, UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman said that only international students on postgraduate courses currently designated as research programmes will be allowed to bring in their family members, including children and elderly parents, as their dependants.

The minister said the new package of measures was necessary after it emerged that 136,000 visas were granted to dependants of sponsored students in 2022 – a more than eight-fold increase from 16,000 in 2019. “This package includes: removing the right for international students to bring dependants unless they are on postgraduate courses currently designated as research programmes,” she noted.