Graduate Route - Dependent Child

[Leslie Davidson]

Hi Team,

I am Leslie and I hope I’ll get support from anyone who has come across this issue.

I have a very complicated scenario here, actually, I am in the UK with a graduate visa which is valid until 2024, initially, I came into the UK in 2020 on a Tier 4 student visa and I finished my Postgraduate in January 2022, and I applied for the graduate route in March 2022. After which my wife applied as a dependent in May 2022 and got her BRP card as well while she was here in the UK.

In March 2022 we had a baby born in the UK and we all stayed together, we applied for an Indian passport for our baby and got the passport, but in August 2022 (last month) there was an emergency in India so mum and the baby went to India. Now the issue is I don't know in what visa category I should apply for the baby. My wife doesn’t have any issues as she is having her BRP. I know I can apply under dependent child but when I tried applying as a dependent child under the graduate route it is not letting me move further because the first question on the application form is asking are you in the UK? if I select no then it says this form is only for the person in the UK. My wife and 6 months old baby, both got stuck there.

I wanted to know whether is there any possible way to get them both to the UK. Please help me with how we can go about this issue. Your help is much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Leslie.

[sah10406]

I know I can apply under dependent child but when I tried applying as a dependent child under the graduate route it is not letting me move further because the first question on the application form is asking are you in the UK? if I select no then it says this form is only for the person in the UK. My wife and 6 months old baby, both got stuck there.

There is no provision to apply outside the UK as a Graduate or as a Graduate dependant. Appendix Graduate, paragraph GR 9.4 is clear that

GR 9.4. The applicant must be in the UK on the date of application

You do not say why you chose to not apply for your child to be your Graduate dependant when your wife did in May 2022, or after they go their passport, but I'm afraid that choice has led us to where we are now.

They appear to have only two options now. Either they can wait until you switch to a Skilled worker visa (if that is your plan) and then apply as your Skilled worker dependant, or they can apply to come to the UK under a different part of the immigration rules, as laid out in paragraph 304-309 of Appendix FM for children born in the UK who are not British citizens.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration ... ly-members

This 2018 blog post explains how to apply.

https://freemovement.org.uk/visas-for-c ... ion-rules/

It is still accurate except for the amounts quoted for the visa fees and immigration health surcharge, which have both increased, and the link to the online application, which is now:

https://visas-immigration.service.gov.u ... appendixfm