UK Visa Rule: Only PhD Students Can Bring Family, Says British High Commissioner

The only people who can bring their dependents to the UK British High Commissioner in Nigeria are PhD students.

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Richard Montgomery, has provided an explanation for the ban on international students entering the UK with dependents.

In an interview on Sunday, Montgomery mentioned that earlier this year, the policy of the educational system was modified to prohibit overseas students pursuing higher education from bringing dependents into the United Kingdom.

He stated that this was done to reduce the number of international students who were enrolling dependents, which was already placing an untenable burden on numerous universities. Montgomery continued by saying that he had discussed the policy change, which had been in the works for some time, with a few of these colleges before to being sent as High Commissioner to Nigeria.

He pointed out that the Chancellors of the institutions had voiced complaints about the large numbers of students, emphasizing the difficulties in finding housing, gaining access to National Health Service medical care, and being unable to attend classes if they brought dependents.

He clarified that not all categories were affected by the limits and that individuals pursuing doctorates or long-term research degrees, such as PhDs, were unaffected.

“Those coming to the UK for doctorate can still bring their dependency but if you are coming to the UK with a study visa for an undergraduate degree, or short term master's degree am afraid the rules have been changed. People need to understand why this change was brought in, and it is a sensible change because we have a large higher education sector and most of these universities are in towns across the country.”

“There has been a surge recently, in demand for British education and I can give you the macro figures and there has also been a huge increase in foreign students bringing their dependants. in the case of Nigeria, in 2019, before the Coronavirus pandemic, there were only one and a half thousand dependents being brought in from Nigeria, with those on study visas.

“In 2022, that figure had increased to fifty two thousand dependants so that's a thirty fold increase in dependence. And it's not just about Nigeria by the way. “It is also about all foreign students, we saw similar rises, for example amongst Indian students coming to study in the UK,” he added.

“Speaking on the policy initiation it is early to ascertain the impact of the policy on undergraduates because these changes were announced in 2023, but came into effect early this year and we would have to wait until September 2024, before we get the next run of academic tickets, he said.

“I think what your wider audience needs to hear is that the demand for UK education is really strong, in 2022, 65,000 study visas was approved to Nigerian applicants, 65,000, while in September 2023 we received about 115,000 Study visa applications from Nigeria.”