10-Year Partner Route

What the 10-Year Partner Route Is and Who Qualifies

Appendix FM has two routes to settlement for the partner of a person in the UK: a five-year route for applicants who meet every requirement, and a 10-year route for those who rely on paragraph EX.1, or on exceptional circumstances under paragraph GEN.3.2, for what they cannot meet.

Under paragraph R-LTRP.1.1 you and your partner must both be in the UK; under limb (d) you must not fall for refusal on suitability grounds, must meet the relationship and immigration status requirements in Section E-LTRP, and EX.1 must apply. Where EX.1 applies, the financial, accommodation and English language requirements of the five-year route fall away, along with the E-LTRP.2.2 status bars, but EX.1 is not a route in itself and every other requirement still applies.

Your partner must be a British citizen in the UK, present and settled in the UK, in the UK with protection status, in the UK with permission as a stateless person, an EEA national with limited leave granted under paragraph EU3 of Appendix EU on the basis of condition 1(a)(i) in paragraph EU14 (GEN.1.3(d)), or in the UK with limited leave as a worker or business person under Appendix ECAA Extension of Stay (GEN.1.3(e)). Pre-settled status held by a non-EEA family member does not meet E-LTRP.1.2(d), so check how your partner's status was granted.

A partner means a spouse, civil partner, fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner, or an unmarried partner in a relationship similar to marriage or civil partnership for at least two years before you apply. A further limit applies on this in-country route: because paragraph R-LTRP.1.1(d)(ii) requires paragraphs E-LTRP.1.2 to 1.12 to be met, paragraph E-LTRP.1.12 provides that your partner cannot be your fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner unless you were granted entry clearance as that person's fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner. An engagement on its own will not make you a partner on this route: you must marry, form a civil partnership, or qualify as an unmarried partner of two years, before applying.

EX.1 cannot help a visitor or a person with leave of six months or less, unless that leave was as a fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner or was granted pending family court or divorce proceedings; such a person can remain on family grounds only under exceptional circumstances. It can help an overstayer or other person in breach of immigration laws, and a person on immigration bail who arrived more than six months before applying, because E-LTRP.2.2 lifts those bars where EX.1 applies. If you can meet the five-year route, see our spouse visa and unmarried partner visa pages instead.

The Legal Test: EX.1 or Exceptional Circumstances

EX.1(a), the parent limb for those with a qualifying child, is covered on our children and seven-year residence and 10-year parent route pages. This page is about EX.1(b), the partner limb.

EX.1(a) is not confined to the parent route. Paragraph R-LTRP.1.1(d)(iii) asks only whether EX.1 applies, so an applicant applying as a partner who also has a genuine and subsisting parental relationship with a British child in the UK, or a child in the UK who has lived here continuously for at least the seven years immediately preceding the date of application, and for whom it would not be reasonable to expect the child to leave, can qualify on this same route through EX.1(a) without proving insurmountable obstacles. Where both limbs are open we run the reasonableness test as well, because EX.1(a) is the lower threshold.

EX.1(b) applies where you have a genuine and subsisting relationship with a partner in the UK who holds one of those statuses, and there are insurmountable obstacles to family life continuing outside the UK: under EX.2, very significant difficulties which could not be overcome or would entail very serious hardship for you or your partner.

Home Office guidance says the obstacle may be impossible to overcome, or possible only with very serious hardship, and the onus is on you to show it. A partner's reluctance to uproot, language, distance from family or a lower standard of living will not usually be enough, and any third country where you could both lawfully live is assessed too.

Factors that can meet the test include an inability to lawfully enter and stay in the other country, for example where your partner was granted protection from it, serious cultural barriers such as a same-sex or inter-faith couple facing a real risk of persecution, a disability or serious illness needing ongoing treatment supported by independent medical evidence, and a breakdown of governance or security across the country.

If EX.1 does not apply, the Home Office must still ask under GEN.3.2 whether refusal would result in unjustifiably harsh consequences for you, your partner or a relevant child, with any child's best interests a primary consideration (GEN.3.3). Exceptional does not mean unusual, and a near miss is not enough. A grant on that basis is on the same 10-year route unless a mandatory suitability ground applies (D-LTRP.1.2A); see our exceptional circumstances page.

Evidence of a Genuine and Subsisting Relationship

Under either test the relationship must be genuine and subsisting (E-LTRP.1.7) and you must intend to live together permanently in the UK. On any extension you must also show you have lived together since the last grant, or give good reasons for time apart.

The guidance ranks evidence in three tiers. Tier one carries the most weight: a tenancy agreement, council tax and utility bills, a marriage certificate, joint bank statements, DWP or HMRC letters and GP registration. Tier two: electoral register confirmation and dated UK bills. Tier three: cards, messages, photographs and receipts.

Common problems are evidence bunched around the application date and an unmarried couple who cannot show two years together: cohabitation throughout is not required, but an unmarried couple together for under two years can be considered only under exceptional circumstances. A claimed obstacle needs its own evidence: country information and medical reports.

30-Month Grants and the 10-Year Path to Settlement

A successful application is granted under paragraph D-LTRP.1.2 for up to 30 months, and you can work and study. The grant normally carries a no recourse to public funds condition, unless GEN.1.11A applies (destitution, a relevant child's welfare, or exceptional financial circumstances). One group is treated differently: an applicant in the UK with leave as a fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner whose marriage or civil partnership did not take place during that leave falls under paragraph E-LTRP.1.11, and D-LTRP.1.2 then limits the grant to no more than six months, with no recourse to public funds and employment prohibited.

You apply to extend before your leave expires, for another period of up to 30 months, and guidance advises applying no more than 28 days before it ends because an earlier application can leave the 120 months short. After at least 120 months of continuous leave as a partner you can apply to settle under Appendix Settlement Family Life, which adds continuous residence, English language (B1, or B2 from 26 March 2027), Life in the UK and a narrower partner status requirement.

Under paragraph SETF 7.1 your partner must, at the settlement stage, be a British citizen living in the UK, present and settled in the UK, or applying for settlement at the same time as you, and SETF 7.3 requires one year of permission based on your relationship with your current partner. A sponsor who at the 10-year point still holds only protection status, limited leave under Appendix EU, ECAA leave or permission as a stateless person does not satisfy SETF 7.1, so the timing of the sponsor's own settlement, or a joint application, needs planning from the start. See our ILR as a spouse or partner page.

How the Application Process Works

1. Route check: can the five-year route be met? Only if not do we build an EX.1 or exceptional circumstances case.
2. Evidence: relationship documents across the three tiers, proof of your partner's status, and country or medical evidence for any obstacle.
3. Application: online on form FLR(FP), before your leave expires if you hold leave, so that section 3C of the Immigration Act 1971 extends it while the decision is pending; leaving the UK ends that extension. If you cannot afford the fee, see our fee waiver applications page.
4. Representations: why EX.1 applies or why refusal would be unjustifiably harsh under GEN.3.2, any child's best interests, and why the public funds condition should not be imposed.
5. Biometrics and decision: fingerprints and a photograph at an appointment, then a grant as an eVisa in your UKVI account.
6. If refused: if you had no leave when you applied, or your leave had already expired and was continued only by section 3C, a refusal of your human rights claim carries a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal under section 82(1)(b) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, and you have 14 days from the date the decision is sent to appeal. If you still hold leave of your own, Home Office guidance, following Mujahid v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWCA Civ 449, is that you cannot make a human rights claim, so there is no right of appeal and no administrative review: your options are a fresh application or judicial review, brought promptly and in any event within three months. See our human rights appeals page.

When Legal Advice Is Especially Important

• You are an overstayer, on immigration bail, a visitor or hold six months' leave or less
• You are not married or in a civil partnership and have been together under two years
• You are engaged but did not enter the UK with fiancé(e) entry clearance
• You are on the 10-year route and could now meet the five-year route

If the relationship ended through abuse, call 999 if you are in immediate danger, or contact the National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247, and see our ILR after domestic abuse page.

How RakLAW Solicitors Can Help

RakLAW Solicitors act for partners from 42 Shad Thames, near Tower Bridge. We run the route check, build the evidence bundle, draft the representations and ask for the public funds condition to be lifted where the criteria are met. Book a free 15-minute consultation on 0203 345 2000 or through our contact page.