Can you take your family on a student visa? Country by country (2026)

Why these rules keep tightening

Between 2024 and 2026 the four largest English-speaking study destinations all narrowed student dependant rights, and each did it in a slightly different way. You do not need to follow the politics to plan around it. You need to notice the pattern: dependants are now attached to the level and length of the course, and the level that still works is research degrees.

The three changes that matter most, each taken from the issuing government’s own page, are these. The United Kingdom restricted postgraduate dependants to doctorates and research-based higher degrees for courses starting on or after 1 January 2024. Canada narrowed the spousal open work permit from 21 January 2025. Australia stopped most Student visa applicants from including family members at all from 2 October 2026.

One consequence runs through all of this. The honest sequence is course first, family second. A student who picks a destination because a cousin took a spouse there in 2022 is planning against a rule that no longer exists.

United Kingdom

The UK calls them dependants, and the gate is the course.

Who can bring a dependant

The gov.uk Student visa family members page says you must be one of the following: a government-sponsored student starting a course that lasts longer than 6 months, or a full-time student on a postgraduate level course at RQF level 7 or above that lasts 9 months or longer. It then adds the restriction that where your postgraduate level course starts on or after 1 January 2024, it must be either a PhD or other doctorate at RQF level 8, or a research-based higher degree.

Read those two conditions together. A taught master’s at a UK university beginning in 2026 is RQF level 7 and may well run 12 months, but it is not a doctorate or a research-based higher degree, so it does not carry dependants.

Who counts as a dependant

A partner, and a child who is under 18, is not married or in a civil partnership, and is living with the student unless they are in full-time education away from home.

The money and the fees

Each dependant needs £845 a month for up to 9 months for courses in London, or £680 a month for up to 9 months for courses outside London. The money must be held for at least 28 consecutive days, and the end date of that period must be within 31 days of the date they apply. A partner or child who has already been in the UK with a valid visa for at least 12 months does not need to prove it.

Each dependant pays £558 for the visa, plus the healthcare surcharge. The student’s own maintenance, on the gov.uk money page, is £1,529 a month for up to 9 months for courses in London and £1,171 a month outside London, on the same 28-day rule, on top of the course fees for one academic year as shown on the CAS. The study in the UK guide covers the student side of all this in detail.

Australia

Australia made the biggest change of the six, and it is recent enough that many agent websites in Pakistan have not caught up with it.

What changed on 2 October 2026

The Department of Home Affairs subclass 500 page states that from 2 October 2026 new rules apply to including family members in Student visa applications, that most Student visa applicants can no longer include family members, and that this also applies to people applying for a further Student visa. Applications submitted before 2 October 2026, including those that included family members, are assessed under the rules in place on the date they were lodged.

The sentence that ends most plans

The same page says your family members cannot apply as a subsequent entrant, at a later time separate from your application, in any circumstance. In the old pattern a student went first, settled in, then brought a spouse as a subsequent entrant. That pattern no longer exists. Where an exemption applies, family members must apply at the same time and from the same location as the student.

The four exemptions

• A Doctoral (PhD) student. The page says you cannot use this exemption if you are applying to study a Master’s by Research course.
• A student sponsored by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade or the Department of Defence.
• A recipient of a foreign government scholarship that fully funds the studies in Australia.
• An eligible national of a listed Pacific Island or ASEAN country. The lists name countries such as Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Pakistan is on neither list.

For a Pakistani student, that leaves the PhD, and in rare cases a fully funding foreign government scholarship. A taught master’s in Melbourne does not bring a spouse, however good the grades.

Who counts as family, and the age cliff

For Student visas, a family member is your partner, or your or your partner’s dependent child who is unmarried and has not turned 18. The department adds that it cannot grant a Student visa to your child if they have turned 18 by the time your visa is finalised, and that the child then needs their own visa. On a long processing queue, a child who is 17 at lodgement is a risk worth planning for. A child born in Australia automatically holds the same visa as their parent.

The study in Australia guide covers the subclass 500 itself, the Genuine Student requirement and the funds rules.

Canada

Canada is the one country of the six where a spouse can still arrive with a general work right on a taught master’s, provided the programme is long enough. Everything below is general information about published IRCC rules.

The spousal open work permit

The IRCC page on helping your spouse or common-law partner work in Canada says that starting 21 January 2025, your spouse or common-law partner may be eligible for an open work permit if you have a valid study permit and you are either studying in a master’s degree programme of 16 months or longer, studying in a doctoral degree programme, participating in an eligible programme, or studying in one of the listed professional degree programmes at a university.

The listed professional degrees are Doctor of Dental Surgery, Bachelor of Law or Juris Doctor, Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Optometry, Pharmacy, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Bachelor of Nursing Science, Bachelor of Nursing, Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Engineering. Where the spouse is not eligible for this permit, IRCC says they may be able to get another type of work permit.

The 16-month threshold is doing a lot of work here. A great many Canadian taught master’s programmes run 12 or 16 months, and a few weeks either side of that line decides whether a spouse can work.

How long the permit lasts

IRCC says that most of the time the spouse’s work permit will be valid for the same period as the study permit. To extend it under this stream, the student must have a valid study permit, be physically in Canada or about to be while studying, be a full-time student enrolled in a post-graduation work permit eligible programme at a designated learning institution, and not be in the last term of the programme. The spouse cannot extend beyond the expiry of the study permit.

The money

IRCC publishes a living-expenses table that grows with family size, and is separate from tuition and travel. For applications received on or after 1 September 2026, outside Quebec, the amounts are CAN$23,448 for one person, CAN$29,192 for two, CAN$35,888 for three, CAN$43,572 for four, CAN$49,419 for five, CAN$55,736 for six and CAN$62,054 for seven, with CAN$6,318 for each additional person. Quebec applicants must meet the costs set out by its own immigration ministry. The page says you must show enough resources for the first year of study and, for longer programmes, tell IRCC how you plan to pay for the rest. Our study in Canada guide covers the study permit, the provincial attestation letter and the refusal reasons that recur.

New Zealand

New Zealand publishes the clearest ladder of the six, and it separates a partner’s work visa from a child’s student visa in a way that catches families out.

Everyone can support a visitor visa

Immigration New Zealand says that if you have a student visa and are studying for any qualification, you can support a visitor visa for your partner and children, through the Partner of a Student Visitor Visa and the Child of a Student Visitor Visa. Visitor visas do not carry work rights, and visas for your partner and children will usually expire at the same time as your student visa.

When a partner can get a work visa

You may be able to support a Partner of a Student Work Visa if you are studying a level 9 or 10 qualification, meaning a master’s or doctoral degree, or a level 7 or 8 qualification specified for a job on the Green List, listed either as a requirement or a registration qualification, or a level 7 or 8 qualification on the Qualifications eligible for a Post-Study Work Visa list, or a level 7 or 8 qualification on the long-term skill shortage list if your study started on or before 7 September 2022.

That visa is published at from NZD $1630, lasts the same duration as the supporting partner’s student visa, and 80 per cent of applications are processed within 6 weeks. The applicant must have at least NZD $4,200 for living expenses, both parties must be at least 18 and living together in a genuine and stable relationship when they apply, and the supporting partner must complete the Form for Partners Supporting Partnership-Based Temporary Entry Applications, INZ 1146. The visa allows work in New Zealand for any employer, study for up to 3 months, and travel in and out, and no New Zealand job offer is needed.

When children can get student visas

Only three grounds are published: studying a Doctor of Philosophy, studying under a New Zealand Government approved exchange student scheme, or studying under a New Zealand scholarship administered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, excluding Short-term Training Scholarships and English Language Training for Officials Scholarships.

The two-step that most families need

Immigration New Zealand publishes the workaround itself. If you can support a work visa for your partner but not student visas for your children, your partner may be able to support the children’s visas instead. Its own example is a student on a level 8 Green List qualification: the student gets a student visa, the partner gets a Partner of a Student Work Visa, and the children then apply for Dependent Child Student Visas as dependent children of the partner. Note that the partner cannot include dependent children in their own work visa application, so the order of applications matters.

There is also a Guardian Visitor Visa for a parent who wants to live with and care for a child who is in New Zealand on a student visa.

Ireland

Ireland does not have a student dependant visa at all. It handles the question through its family reunification policy, and that policy puts students on the ineligible list.

The Policy Document on Non-EEA Family Reunification, in the version published on 12 June 2026, lists among ineligible sponsors those in Ireland as students, except for the categories named in Category B, which include PhD student permission holders subject to conditions including no recourse to social welfare payments, and students on an Immigration Service approved scholarship programme such as KASP. Graduates under the Third Level Graduate Programme are also ineligible.

Where a PhD student or scholarship holder can sponsor, Appendix C of the policy gives the spouse, civil partner or de facto partner and the minor children Stamp 2A. The Ireland join family visa guide sets out the categories, the income thresholds and the stamps in full, and the study in Ireland guide covers the student permission.

United States

The United States is the outlier. It still issues dependant visas for any level of study, and those dependants still cannot work.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Study in the States page on bringing dependents says you should make sure your designated school official knows you want to bring your dependants, because the official then issues a Form I-20 for each of them. It then sets out the limitations: F-2 and M-2 dependants are in legal immigration status as long as the student maintains status, may depart and re-enter the United States with proper documentation, may not work, and are not eligible for Social Security numbers.

On study, the page says F-2 and M-2 dependants can study at an SEVP-certified school as long as they are enrolled in less than a full course of study, and that an adult dependant who wants to study full-time must file Form I-539 to change status to F-1 or M-1. It also says dependants should obtain an updated Form I-20 if any information about the student changes.

So the American calculation is the plainest of the six. One income, two or more people, for the length of the degree. The study in the USA guide covers the I-20, the SEVIS fee and the F-1 interview.

The six countries side by side

What a dependant adds to the money you must show

Dependants are not only a visa question. They move the funds figure, and the funds figure is what most refusals turn on.

Two things this table does not do

It does not include tuition, and it does not include travel. The UK figure sits on top of the course fees for one academic year as shown on the CAS. The Canadian figures explicitly exclude tuition and transportation. Australia asks for the first 12 months of course fees in addition to living costs, less anything already paid and evidenced.

It also does not include the holding periods, which are part of the rule rather than a detail. The UK requires 28 consecutive days with the end date within 31 days of the application. Canada asks for the first year. Treat the holding period as seriously as the amount, because a correct balance held for the wrong window is a refusal.

What can a dependant actually do once they arrive?

Families plan two incomes and then find the second one is not allowed. These are the published positions.

• United States. F-2 and M-2 dependants may not work and are not eligible for Social Security numbers. They may study less than a full course of study at an SEVP-certified school, and an adult who wants full-time study must change status using Form I-539.
• New Zealand. A Partner of a Student Work Visa allows work for any employer, with no job offer required, plus study for up to 3 months.
• Canada. An open work permit lets the spouse work for any employer in Canada, with the exceptions IRCC lists for non-compliant employers and certain adult entertainment businesses, and it is normally valid for the same period as the study permit.
• Australia. The subclass 500 page says students may work up to 48 hours a fortnight when their course is in session, and that students studying a master’s by research or doctoral degree, and their families, have no work limit. Since family inclusion is now limited to doctoral and sponsored students, the families who are there are mostly in the unlimited category.
• Ireland. The permission decides it, and Appendix C assigns Stamp 2A to the family of a PhD or scholarship sponsor. Read the conditions of that stamp before planning on an income.
• United Kingdom. The family members page sets out the money and the application routes but does not state the dependant’s work rights, so check the conditions attached to the dependant visa itself rather than assuming either way.

School fees for the children

Do not assume free schooling. Australia tells applicants to add schooling costs of at least AUD13,502 a year for each school-age child included in the application, and says costs vary between states, territories and schools. New Zealand says dependent school-aged children who hold a Dependent Child Student Visa can be treated as domestic students, so they do not pay tuition at school. Get the position for your actual city in writing.

How do you plan this, step by step?

The order below is the one that avoids wasted fees. Two of the steps settle the question before any application exists.

1. 1

   Start with the course, not the country

   Every country now ties dependants to the level of study. A doctorate opens the door in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland. A taught master’s opens it in Canada if it runs 16 months or longer, and closes it almost everywhere else. A bachelor’s or a diploma closes it in all six countries covered here. Decide the course level before you decide whether the family is coming.

2. 2

   Read the dependant page of the issuing government on the day you plan

   These rules have changed three times in three years and they are still moving. The United Kingdom restricted postgraduate dependants from 1 January 2024, Canada narrowed the spousal open work permit from 21 January 2025, and Australia closed family inclusion for most students from 2 October 2026. A page saved six months ago is not evidence of the current rule.

3. 3

   Check whether the family can follow later or must apply together

   This is the detail that ruins plans. Australia now says family members cannot apply as a subsequent entrant at a later time in any circumstance, so if they are not on the application they are not coming on it. The United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand all allow a partner or child to apply separately. Confirm this before anyone buys a one-way ticket on the assumption the family will follow.

4. 4

   Add the dependant money to the funds you must show

   Each country adds a published amount per dependant on top of the student’s own living costs and tuition. Work out the total for the actual family size before you touch a bank account, because the figure that matters is the one including the partner and every child, held for the period the country specifies.

5. 5

   Find out exactly what the dependant may do on arrival

   A dependant visa is not automatically a work permit. An F-2 in the United States may not work at all and is not eligible for a Social Security number. A Partner of a Student Work Visa holder in New Zealand may work for any employer. A spouse in Canada needs the student to be on a qualifying programme before an open work permit is possible. Plan the household budget on the rule, not on hope.

6. 6

   Price schooling for the children before you commit

   School is not automatically free for the child of an international student. Australia tells applicants to add schooling costs of at least AUD13,502 a year for each school-age child included in the application. New Zealand treats some dependent children as domestic students once they hold a Dependent Child Student Visa. Get the fee position in writing from the school district or the institution.

7. 7

   Declare the family truthfully, whatever the answer is

   Every one of these forms asks about your family, including family members who are not travelling. A student who hides a wife to make a visa look easier has created a credibility problem that follows them through every renewal, every extension and every later permanent residence application. The rules are tight; lying about them is worse.

What goes wrong most often?

Planning on a rule that changed last year

This is the big one. The UK restriction dates from courses starting on or after 1 January 2024, Canada narrowed the spousal permit on 21 January 2025, and Australia closed family inclusion on 2 October 2026. A relative’s experience from 2022 is not evidence of anything.

Assuming the family can follow later

Australia now says family members cannot apply as a subsequent entrant in any circumstance. Students who leave a spouse behind intending to apply after the first semester have made a decision, not a plan.

Missing the course length by a few weeks

Canada’s spousal open work permit requires a master’s programme of 16 months or longer. The UK requires a postgraduate course of 9 months or longer, and then only a doctorate or research-based higher degree if it starts on or after 1 January 2024. Two offers that look the same can give different answers.

Confusing a partner visa with a child visa

New Zealand separates them deliberately. A level 8 Green List qualification supports a partner’s work visa but not the children’s student visas, and the published route for the children is through the partner once the partner holds the work visa. Apply in the wrong order and the children have nothing to attach to.

Budgeting on a second income that is not allowed

An F-2 dependant in the United States may not work. Families who have budgeted a spouse’s salary into the first year arrive and discover the whole degree has to be funded from savings and the student’s permitted on-campus work.

Forgetting a child will turn 18

Australia says it cannot grant a Student visa to a child who has turned 18 by the time the visa is finalised, and that the child then needs their own visa. On a slow queue, that is a real risk for a 17-year-old.

Leaving a spouse off the form

Every one of these systems asks about family members, including those not travelling. Hiding a marriage to make an application look simpler creates a false declaration that sits on the file for every renewal and every later application. If a route is closed, the answer is to pick a different course or a different country, not a different story. The student visa refusal guide covers what a refusal on credibility grounds does to the next application.

A realistic example

This is a hypothetical illustration, not a real client. Hira is 27, a pharmacist in Multan, married, with a two-year-old son. She wants a master’s abroad and wants her husband and son with her. Her shortlist is a one-year taught master’s in the United Kingdom, a 16-month master’s in Ontario, and a master’s in Melbourne.

• The UK option. Her course is RQF level 7 and runs 12 months, but it starts after 1 January 2024 and is not a doctorate or a research-based higher degree. On the published rule, no dependants. The UK goes off the list for this plan.
• The Melbourne option. From 2 October 2026 she cannot include family members unless she meets an exemption. She is not a PhD applicant, not DFAT or Defence sponsored, not on a fully funding foreign government scholarship, and Pakistan is not on the Pacific Island or ASEAN lists. There is also no subsequent entrant route. The plan does not work.
• The Ontario option. Her programme is 16 months, which meets the published threshold, so her husband may be eligible for an open work permit. For three people, outside Quebec, on an application made now, the published living-expenses figure is CAN$35,888 for the year, excluding tuition and travel.
• What she checks next. Whether the offer letter actually states 16 months or more, because a 15-month programme ends the discussion, and what schooling and childcare in that city cost on top of the funds figure.
• The alternative she now takes seriously. A PhD. On the published rules a doctorate opens dependants in the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland. It is four or five years rather than one, and funded places are competitive, but it is the only course level that works in every one of them.

Nothing in that comparison required an insider. It required reading three government pages and matching them against one offer letter.

The version that goes wrong

Now imagine a student in Gujrat who is told by an agent that Australia allows a spouse on any master’s, pays for the admission and the visa, and leaves his wife behind on the understanding that she will join him as a subsequent entrant in six months. The department’s own page says family members cannot apply as a subsequent entrant in any circumstance. Nobody has broken the law. A family has simply been separated for two years on the strength of advice that was a year out of date. The guide to checking a visa consultant in Pakistan sets out the checks worth making first, and the destination comparison guide puts the four main countries side by side on fees, funds and post-study work.

Key takeaways

Frequently asked questions