Home Office guidance, gov.uk
Immigration Rules — Route Requirements
"The Immigration Rules are some of the most important pieces of legislation that make up the UK's immigration law." They are a single, long, frequently-amended set of rules published by the Home Office on gov.uk — not an Act of Parliament, though changes to them are laid before Parliament as Statements of Changes. "The rules are divided into different documents."
This section covers four of those documents in more depth: Appendix Skilled Worker, Appendix Student, Appendix V (Visitor), and Appendix FM (family members — the partner route). For each, we set out the validity, suitability, and eligibility requirements as the Appendix itself structures them, quoting the operative sentence of each paragraph verbatim, with the Home Office's own paragraph numbers. This is a reference to what the Rules require, not advice on whether you meet them.
Routes covered here
Immigration Rules Appendix Skilled Worker
The Skilled Worker route is for employers to recruit people to work in the UK, including in UK waters, in a specific job. A Skilled Worker must have a job offer in an eligible skilled occupation from a Home Office-approved sponsor.
View requirementsImmigration Rules: Appendix Student
The Student route, for people seeking entry clearance or permission to stay in the UK to study.
View requirementsImmigration Rules Appendix V: Visitor
Immigration Rules for Visitors, covering Standard Visitors and the other visitor categories in Appendix V.
View requirementsImmigration Rules Appendix FM: family members
Appendix FM covers family life with a person who is a British Citizen, is settled in the UK, or holds specified other status. This page summarises the leave-to-remain (partner) track only — Appendix FM also contains a parallel entry-clearance track not quoted here; see the full Appendix for entry-clearance requirements.
View requirementsThese four pages do not cover every Appendix. For the full set of current Immigration Rules documents — including Appendices this section does not yet cover — see the official index: