New suitability rules for spouse visas and other family applications

20 November 2025

In UK immigration law, “suitability” refers to the Home Office’s assessment of an applicant’s character and conduct to determine if their presence in the UK is contrary to the public good. It’s a framework for refusing applications and cancelling permission, encompassing grounds like criminal history, previous immigration breaches and deception. Suitability checks apply to people applying for a visa to enter the UK, extend their current visa, switch to another type or apply for settlement. If you fall foul of any of the suitability rules, it may result in the refusal of your application or cancellation of leave – in some cases this is mandatory whilst in others, there is discretion as to whether or not to apply the rule.

The Immigration Rules were amended on 11 November 2025 with some significant changes to how suitability is considered when applying under one of the family routes in Appendix FM as well as other human rights routes.

The current grounds of refusal found in Part 9 of the Immigration Rules have been replaced with a very similar Part Suitability, effective from 11 November 2025. The biggest change, however, is that these grounds will now apply to family and private life applications, without any category-specific exceptions.

Which applications are affected?

The provisions in Part Suitability will now apply in full, for the first time, to the following applications:

• Spouse/unmarried partner/civil partner applications in the family route
• Parent of a child
• Applications as a child of a British or settled person (or other qualifying status)
• Private life applications
• Adult Dependent Relatives

What are the new criminality rules?

Perhaps the biggest change for anyone applying in these categories is that any conviction with a prison sentence of 12 months or more will now attract a mandatory refusal, no matter where in the world the offence occurred or how much time has passed since the end of their sentence. Previously, someone who was sentenced to between 12 months and four years was still able to join their family in the UK as long as 10 years have passed since, so this represents a huge change that will bar many people from ever being able to join their family in the UK.

The grounds also require the Home Office to cancel (also known as “curtail”) permission where someone has been sentenced to more than 12 months’ imprisonment. This is a mandatory ground which appears to apply to old convictions as well as new ones.

There is also a discretionary ground that allows the Home Office to refuse an application where the applicant has been convicted of any offence at any time, as well as cancel someone’s permission on the same basis. As this is a discretionary ground, whether an application would be refused will depend on the specific circumstances of the case, including the strength of their Article 8 family and private life.

There are also provisions for refusing an application or cancelling permission where an applicant is a “persistent offender” or where their offending has caused serious harm, though these rules already applied to these categories. These were mandatory refusals and they remain so.

What other suitability rules might apply to me?

In addition to criminality, there are other suitability grounds that will apply to applications in these routes for the first time.

There is a provision for refusing an application for entry clearance where the applicant previously breached immigration law, which is defined as:

• Overstaying (with some exceptions)
• Entering the UK illegally
• Breaching conditions of their permission (unless permission was subsequently granted in knowledge of the breach)
• Using deception in a previous application

Where this applies, a re-entry ban will apply, during which time any application lodged to enter the UK will be refused. The length of the re-entry ban will depend on the circumstances but where the applicant left the UK at their own expense, this will usually be 12 months. This is a mandatory ground for refusal.

There is also a discretionary ground for refusing an application for permission to stay where there has been a current or previous breach of immigration law.

Do the new suitability rules apply to people already in the UK?

Yes. There are no transitional provisions for people who are already in one of the affected routes.

In theory, this means that someone who, for example, is already four years into the five-year spouse route but has a conviction for which they were sentenced to 13 months in prison 20 years ago, which was duly disclosed to the Home Office in their previous applications, now faces a refusal at the ILR stage.

Anyone with such a conviction also faces the potential cancellation of their current permission to stay.

Are there any exceptions?

Where the relevant ground for refusal is criminality, there is a general exception for anyone who was convicted of an offence overseas for conduct which is not criminalised in the UK, such as trade union membership or homosexuality. In such cases, the conviction would typically not be considered when deciding your application or whether to cancel your leave.

Each of these categories contain some limited exceptions to an applicant being refused on suitability grounds, as long as it’s not one of the following “unwaivable” grounds for refusal:

• The Secretary of State personally directed the exclusion of the applicant
• The applicant is subject to an exclusion order
• The applicant is subject to a deportation order
• The applicant is an excluded person under section 8B(4) of the 1971 Act (which deals with resolutions by the UN or EU that the applicant should not be admitted into the UK)
• The applicant is excluded from the Refugee Convention (this has a very specific meaning beyond a simple refusal)
• The applicant was convicted of an offence for which he was given a sentence of 12 months or more
• The applicant is a persistent offender
• The applicant has committed an offence which caused serious harm

Where the reason for the refusal is not one of these grounds, each of the above-mentioned application categories has provisions for permission to be granted despite the suitability issue, which either require the passage of time or exceptional circumstances, which in the context of these applications, usually means a strong family or private life. Depending on the ground for refusal, the application and your individual circumstances, you may need to put in significant evidence for why discretion should be exercised in your favour.

We would recommend seeking expert advice on this matter because of the complexity involved.

Can I still be granted permission if one of the “unwaivable” grounds applies to me?

Where the reason for refusal is one of the grounds above, things become even more complicated. Although the rules technically mandate that the application be refused, there will nevertheless be some cases whereby in a proportionality analysis, their Article 8 family and/or private life will outweigh the suitability issue. In other words, in some cases, an applicant will still be granted permission despite falling foul of one of the mandatory grounds for refusal, even if it’s one that the rules say must lead to a refusal.

In practice, this will mean building the strongest possible case for why you should be granted leave despite the fact that your circumstances mandate a refusal under the Immigration Rules. Such applications would typically take into account not only your circumstances but also those of any family in the UK that you might have, as the effect that a refusal would have on them is something that would be looked at closely, particularly where the family member in question is a partner or minor child. These applications would fall outside the Immigration Rules, so the threshold for showing that refusing you permission would be a breach of Article 8 despite the state’s interest in excluding you from the UK would consequently be very high.

If you think you may face a refusal because of the new suitability rules, we recommend obtaining expert legal advice.

Our friendly team has significant experience with complex immigration and human rights applications and we would be very happy to advise and assist you with these issues. For a free strategy call to discuss your UK immigration options, you can contact enquiries@vanessaganguin.com, call +44(0)207 033 9527 or fill out the form below.

Photo credit: Dvir Adler via Unsplash