The rules on work visa dependants tightened sharply in the UK and Canada, and in both cases the deciding factor is not the one people expect. It is not your salary and not your nationality. It is a classification code, and you can look yours up.
Which is good news of a limited kind: this is a question with a checkable answer rather than one you have to hope about. Here is what decides it in each system.
The United Kingdom: it depends on the occupation code
There is no blanket ban on Skilled Worker dependants in 2026, which is worth saying because a lot of people believe there is. What exists are targeted exclusions, and they bite hard where they apply.
| Who you are | Can family join? |
|---|---|
| Skilled Worker, most occupations | Yes. Partner and children, subject to the usual requirements |
| Health and Care Worker, clinical roles | Yes, and the health surcharge exemption covers them too, which is the largest saving in UK immigration |
| Care worker or senior care worker, new applicants | No, since 11 March 2024. Overseas recruitment for these roles closed entirely on 22 July 2025 |
| Care worker continuously sponsored before 11 March 2024 | Yes. Full rights kept, with extension and employer changes within the same occupation code, and settlement after five years |
| Student, taught master’s or undergraduate | No, since January 2024 |
| Student, PhD, MPhil or research master’s | Yes, if the course runs at least nine months, or six months for government-sponsored students |
Two things follow. First, if you are a care worker already sponsored before 11 March 2024, you have considerably more than the headlines suggest, including the right to change employer within your code and a five-year path to settlement. The transitional arrangements run to 22 July 2028. See care worker jobs abroad and the Health and Care visa compared.
Second, if you hold a nursing or allied health qualification you have never registered, registering it changes your family’s position as well as your own. It moves you from a closed route with no dependants to an open one where dependants are also exempt from the health surcharge.
Canada: it depends on your TEER level
Canada narrowed spousal open work permits on 21 January 2025, and the test is now what your own job is classified as:
- For a worker’s partner to qualify, the worker’s job must generally be TEER 0 or 1, or one of a defined set of occupations in TEER 2 or 3.
- For a student’s partner, the student must be in a master’s, doctoral or select professional programme.
- From 4 March 2026, IRCC added a further refusal ground: spouses of international students in their final academic term are no longer eligible.
- Permits approved before 21 January 2025 remain valid until they expire.
The important distinction, and the one that trips people up: this is about whether your partner may work, not whether they may come. Accompanying family and an open work permit are separate questions, and losing the second does not automatically mean the first.
It also strengthens the case for permanent residence over a work permit. Express Entry brings your family as permanent residents, which sidesteps this entire question. See the 2026 category draws.
Elsewhere: three patterns
Threshold-based: most of Europe
Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and the Nordics generally allow family reunification on skilled routes, with the practical test being income and accommodation rather than occupation. The EU Blue Card is deliberately more generous here than national permits, with reunification rights set at EU level rather than left to national discretion, and that is one of the main reasons to prefer it. See EU Blue Card vs work permit.
Tier-based: Japan
Japan draws the line inside a single system, and it is the sharpest example on this page. SSW (i) does not permit family. SSW (ii) does, and it is renewable indefinitely. Same programme, same worker, entirely different family life depending on which tier your field allows and which you have reached. Construction and shipbuilding were the original SSW (ii) fields, with most others added since: the Specified Skilled Worker guide.
Not at all: the Gulf, for most workers
In the Gulf states family sponsorship is generally tied to salary thresholds and job category, and for lower-paid workers it is not available. Saudi Arabia’s Premium Residency includes the right to sponsor family, which tells you what the default is: the Gulf states compared.
What to do before you accept anything
- Get your occupation code in writing from the employer, and check the dependant position for that specific code. In the UK this is the whole answer.
- Check your TEER level if Canada is the destination, and whether it is in the qualifying set.
- Ask which tier if Japan, because SSW (i) and (ii) are different lives.
- Establish whether you are in a transitional group. UK care workers sponsored before 11 March 2024 keep rights that new applicants do not.
- Price the whole family. The UK health surcharge is GBP 1,035 per person per year, and Australia charges its full visa fee for each adult dependant.
Related: what replaced the UK shortage occupation list and what a work visa really costs. Browse shortage jobs with visa sponsorship on our board.
Last checked September 2026. Dependant rules have changed repeatedly in both the UK and Canada since 2024 and transitional provisions depend on exact dates, so confirm your own position before making family plans.
