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🇬🇧 Immigration guide

UK Immigration from Pakistan: Skilled Worker, Spouse Visa and ILR

Settling in the UK from Pakistan: the Skilled Worker, spouse and Global Talent routes to ILR, the English and Life in the UK tests, and what is changing.

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Last checked against official sources on 25 September 2026

QUICK ANSWER

Can I apply to settle in the UK from Pakistan, and what does the partner visa cost?

No: settlement, or indefinite leave to remain, comes after years on another visa, such as five on the Skilled Worker or partner route, and is applied for from inside the UK. From Pakistan, the partner route starts with the partner visa, which costs £2,064 plus the Immigration Health Surcharge of £1,035 a year for each adult, and is usually decided within 12 weeks. The Skilled Worker figures are in the UK work visa guide.

Checked on the official sites on 13 October 2026. Fees and times change, so confirm them on the linked page before you pay. Visa centre charges and any consultant's fee are extra.

Partner visa fee
£2,064
joining a partner, applying from outside the UK
GOV.UK ↗
Health surcharge
£1,035 a year
for each adult, paid upfront for the whole visa
GOV.UK ↗
Processing time
12 weeks
usual decision time for a partner visa from outside the UK
GOV.UK ↗

At a glance

What you are applying for

The United Kingdom has no route that lets you apply for permanent residence from Pakistan. Settlement — indefinite leave to remain, or ILR — comes at the end of years on another visa: a sponsored job, marriage to a British citizen or someone settled in the UK, or a talent route such as Global Talent.

So what decides it is which visa gets you in, and whether you can hold it without a break for the whole qualifying period. That period is under review. The government has proposed raising the standard wait from five years to ten under “earned settlement”, and has said the rules that count are the ones in force when you apply to settle, not the ones you arrived under.

Most refusals come down to one of four

  1. A genuine job or relationship
  2. Continuous residence
  3. Honest documents
  4. Income the rules accept
Tower Bridge, London
United Kingdom · Immigration
Applying to settle from Pakistan
Not possible — settlement comes after years on another visa
Qualifying period today
Five years on the Skilled Worker and partner routes; three or five on Global Talent
Proposed change
“Earned settlement”, with a ten-year baseline — announced, not yet in the rules
English to settle
B2 for applications made from 26 March 2027, on most routes
Life in the UK test
Needed if you are 18–64, and it can only be taken in the UK

Is this the right guide?

Who it is for

Applying on the wrong visa is one of the quickest ways to a refusal, so read both lists before anything else.

You’re in the right place if you are

  • A skilled professional with a sponsor

    Skilled professionals with a job offer from a UK employer licensed to sponsor workers — the Skilled Worker route.

  • Married to or partnered with a Briton

    People married to, or in a long-term relationship with, a British citizen or someone settled in the UK — the partner, or spouse, visa.

  • Endorsed for Global Talent

    Researchers, academics, artists and digital-technology specialists who can win an endorsement or hold a listed prize — Global Talent.

  • A grandchild of someone born in the UK

    Pakistanis with a grandparent born in the UK, who can use the UK Ancestry visa because Pakistan is in the Commonwealth.

Document checklist

Documents you will need

The base list for this visa. Your own checklist is built around your case — a salaried applicant and a business owner do not submit the same file.

0 / 16ready in your file

Tick as you gather — saved on this device.

Get my checklist on WhatsApp

For any first visa from Pakistan

Skilled Worker

Partner (spouse)

When you apply to settle

Step by step · with timings

How to apply, and how long it takes

In the order it happens. Each stage waits on the one before it, so the date you start decides the date you finish. Ranges, not promises — the mission owns the clock.

QUALIFYING PERIOD5 yearson most routes — 3 to 5 on Global Talent
  1. First

    Pick the route that fits your life

    There is no settlement application you can make from Pakistan. Choose the visa that leads to it — a sponsored job, a genuine relationship with a British citizen or settled person, or Global Talent — and check that you meet its rules today, not in five years.

  2. 3 wks work · 12 partner

    Get the first visa

    Apply online on GOV.UK, take a TB test at an approved clinic, give biometrics at a visa application centre in Pakistan, and pay the fee and the Immigration Health Surcharge. UKVI's published decision time from outside the UK is 3 weeks for work visas and 12 weeks for partner visas.

  3. 5 years on most routes

    Keep your status unbroken

    Extend before your visa expires, change employer only through a new certificate of sponsorship, and keep your time outside the UK within the limits. A gap between visas or an overstay can restart the settlement clock.

  4. B2 from March 2027

    Prepare for the settlement tests

    Book the Life in the UK test, which can only be taken in the UK, and check which English level will apply on the day you apply. From 26 March 2027 it is B2 on most routes, including Skilled Worker and partner.

  5. Usually 6 months

    Apply for indefinite leave to remain

    Read the rules in force that year first — earned settlement may have changed them since you arrived. You apply from inside the UK, no earlier than 28 days before the qualifying period ends, and UKVI says it usually decides within 6 months of your biometrics.

Rather have it handled?Permanent residency and skilled migration pathways.Our Immigration & PR service

Money

What it costs

The official figures are in the quick answer at the top, as checked on 13 October 2026. They change without notice, so each line here says what a cost depends on and where the current figure is published.

  • Paid with the application

    Fees and health surcharge

    Every application has a Home Office fee, and visas of more than six months also carry the Immigration Health Surcharge for each year of the visa, paid upfront. Both are in the Home Office fees table on GOV.UK, and they change.

    FIGUREGOV.UK
  • Paid by the employer

    Sponsorship costs

    For a Skilled Worker, the employer pays the certificate of sponsorship fee and the Immigration Skills Charge. The Home Office's sponsor guidance forbids recovering either from you, and a sponsor that does normally loses its licence.

    FIGUREGOV.UK
  • Paid when you settle

    Settlement and Life in the UK

    Settlement has its own fee for each person applying, and the Life in the UK test is paid separately. The current amounts are on GOV.UK.

    FIGUREGOV.UK
  • Shown, not paid

    The financial requirement

    The partner route's financial requirement is not a fee, but it has to be met at each stage with income or savings of a kind the rules accept.

    FIGUREGOV.UK
  • Paid to third parties

    Tests and translations

    The TB test, English tests and translations are paid to whoever provides them.

    FIGUREEach provider

Where the current rules and figures are published

LAST CHECKED 25 SEP 2026

This is general guidance. Rules change, sometimes without notice, and your case will have specifics this page cannot know about. Check anything decisive on the official pages, or send us your situation and we will tell you where you actually stand.

Read before you apply

Why UK immigration applications are refused

The grounds that come up most on files from Pakistan. Most of them can be dealt with before you submit.

  • A bought or paper-only job

    A certificate of sponsorship bought through an agent, or a job that exists only on paper. The Home Office revokes sponsor licences for this, and the worker's permission can then be cut short.

  • A care job offered from abroad

    A care job offered to someone in Pakistan. Since 22 July 2025 the UK has refused new care worker visas for applicants outside the UK, so that offer is not a real route.

  • A break in residence

    A break in continuous residence — too long outside the UK, a gap between visas, an overstay — that pushes settlement back or restarts the count.

  • Deception at any stage

    Deception at any stage: a fake English certificate, an invented experience letter, a refusal from any country left undeclared. It can bring a ban of up to ten years.

  • Money the partner rules do not accept

    Partner applications where the money does not meet the rules — cash deposits with no clear source, or support promised by relatives, which counts only in limited circumstances.

  • Marriage documents that disagree

    Marriage documents that disagree — a Nikah Nama and NADRA certificate with different dates or spellings — or a relationship the officer doubts is genuine.

  • Already been refused?

    Send us the refusal letter before you do anything else. It states the grounds, and they decide whether applying again is worth it or would just cost you the fee a second time.

    Send the letter

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Straight answers

UK immigration questions

What people ask us before they apply.

Ask us something else

No. The UK has no points-based route to settle from abroad. You first need a visa that leads to settlement — for most people Skilled Worker, partner or Global Talent — and you apply for indefinite leave to remain from inside the UK once you have completed the qualifying period.

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