Information for International Families

Information for Families

Students on the beach with I love Swansea written in the sand

Many students choose to bring their families with them when they study with us here at Swansea University. Swansea is a wonderful vibrant city, which also benefits from beautiful beaches and excellent public amenities.

Please make sure that you are actively engaging with us, and the information we have made available to you here, to ensure that we can support both you and our local community fully.

We have put together a comprehensive Family Information Guide (available below) which will help you assess whether you can bring your family with you (if you are subject to immigration requirements), what you need to do to prepare and what you can expect whilst you are here. You can download this via the picture link below.

Wherever possible, you should try and arrange accommodation before you leave your home country and also make sure that you are budgeting accurately for rental costs (it is standard that an accommodation contract will expect you to pay for several months upfront). If you cannot pre arrange your accommdation, you should think about coming to the UK before your family and bringing them over once you have accommodation/schooling in place. This can avoid both unnceccessary distress and significant financial outlay- as you will likely have to stay in temporary accommodation (e.g. a hotel) while looking for family suitable accommodation and this could take some time.

We have further information about Accommodation available on pages 16-21 of our International Students' Information Guide- so please ensure you are reading that too.

If you are applying to come to the UK under the Student Route, you will need to confirm/evidence to the UKVI that you have living costs for a minimum of 9 months available to you (on top of your fees) before travel and in order to be granted a visa. You will need to sign a declaration confirming that these funds are specifically to support you and your family once you arrive in the UK. Livings costs needed to secure a UK Student Route visa are £9,207 for the main applicant plus £6,120 per dependant. For example, a family of 5 would need to confirm they have £33,687 upfront and which is specifically for initial UK living costs. You should expect that a significant part of these funds will go towards securing your accommodation and initial UK set up costs.

Please note: If you are bringing children and hope to enrol them in school it is important that you plan to have secured your accommodation and be in the UK at the beginning of the school year (by 1st September or 1st January) and that you have the correct visas for the whole family.

You can apply for your school place from overseas (as long as you have already secured your accommodation) and we urge all families to do this if they can. Please see our Applying for a School: International Students for information around that. Arriving in the UK on time prevents unneccessary upset to both your children and the staff and children within our local schools.

If you have read the Guide and you have dependants applying for immigration permission under the Student Route, our supplementary Leaflet on Applying for visas for Student Dependant Leaflet will help you prepare for that.

We look forward to welcoming our international families to Swansea very soon.

When should my family make a visa application to come to the UK?

When your dependants apply to come to the UK depends on your personal, financial and practical situation and you should pay particular attention to the information about finances, accommodation and responsibilities listed on our and pages.

Some students believe that if they want to apply for the after they have studied, then their families must be here with them for the duration of their course in order to be eligible. This is not true- only the student must have been in the UK for the whole length of the course, a dependant just has to be a Student Dependant (and have arrived in the UK) by the time you make the Graduate Route application.

Therefore, it is possible for dependants to stay at home and only apply for a visa to join you (as a dependant on your Tier 4/Student Route visa) in the last month or so of your course (e.g. perhaps July/August 2023 for courses that end in September 2023). We know that lots of students are not aware of this and so are bringing it to your attention.

Why would I want to bring my family towards the end of my studies instead of the beginning?

There are several reasons why you may want to do this:

• and their are very high. Living costs are worked out on the length of the visa (up to a maximum of 9 months)- so applying towards the end of your course means you and your dependants will need less upfront living costs as part of your initial visa applications
• Immigration Health Surcharge costs are set by UKVI in 6 month ‘bundles’. If you apply for your dependants visas in the last 2 months of your course, they will only need 1 bundle of 6 months Immigration Health Surcharge in their initial dependant applications (£235 each- instead of £705 each for a standard 1 year Masters course)
• is very high in the UK, you may want to save this additional expense until both parents can legally be working full time in the UK to help cover these costs
• You may want to live close to family and friends, who are not in the Swansea area to help with accommodation or childcare costs (the University does not hold any responsibilities relating to these). While you are studying, you and your family are restricted to livng a maximum of 50 miles from the Campus. Under the Graduate Route, you can live and work where you like.
• Family accommodation is very scarce in Swansea and can be very expensive, your family coming later allows more time to look for suitable/affordable accommodation in the Swansea area or, after your course is finished, to look elsewhere in the UK if you so wish!
• Single person accommodation is plentiful and reasonable in Swansea and so this could save both money and stress!
• Coming as a student and bringing your family later allows you to truly focus on your studies, to get great grades and to complete within time

Of course, it will be a personal choice on what you decide to do in relation to bringing your dependants. However, we just wanted to ensure that you were fully informed about your options in relation to Graduate Route and the timings of this.

Responsibilities of students coming to the UK with family

If you are bringing dependants to the UK, it is your responsibility to ensure the following:

1. You have enough money, upfront, to support your family in the UK (you should not rely on part time work to fund your living costs/studies, your primary focus should be on your full time study)
2. You source and finance suitable family accommodation in the UK (if you cannot arrange this before you arrive, it may be necessary for you to send for your family members later and after you have made suitable arrangements)
3. You must live no more than a maximum of 50 miles from the University campus
4. You apply for school places on time and adhere to UK school admissions and attendance processes. You may also need to organise additional childcare, so as not to impact on your engagement with your full time studies.
5. You have read all the University support resources provided for you in relation to the above. The University can offer you advice and guidance but you must make your own arrangements:

  UK Living Costs and Finances: International Students
  International Students’ Information Guide
  Immigration for Dependants

Download and print PDF version

Front page of ICL family guide showing a child outside a school