The Home Office today moved to clamp down on family visits to Britain from overseas, while making it easier for sports and media stars to gain entry.

In future British residents will face prison or fines of up to £5,000 if they fail to ensure that visiting overseas relatives do not outstay their visas, under the latest reforms to tighten the visa system.

People will have to obtain a licence if they wish to "sponsor" a family member to visit from abroad. The role of sponsor will entail a duty to ensure that the visitors go home on time and do not remain in Britain illegally.

The rules will affect any British resident whose relatives need a visa to visit, including new mums inviting their own mothers or sisters to help with childcare.

Liam Byrne, the border and immigration minister, described the reforms as firm but fair.

"Now we are introducing an Australian-style points system for selective migration, it makes sense to tighten visit visas at the same time," said Mr Byrne.

"The changes I am announcing today will help create a fairer Britain with fair treatment for those who play by the rules, but tough action against those who break the law.

"We want the UK to stay open and attractive for both business and visitors. But at the same time we are determined to deliver a system of border security which is among the most secure in the world."

Visa rules are meanwhile to be relaxed for visiting sportspeople and entertainers, who will benefit from two new business visas. The Home Office is also introducing a new visa for people coming to Britain to perform at one-off cultural events such as the Edinburgh Festival.

New short-term group visas costing only £44 are also to be introduced in order to promote Britain's £85 billion tourism industry.

Gerry Sutcliffe, the minister for sport, said: "If we are going to make the UK the world's best cultural and sporting nation by 2012 then we need to make sure that talented sportspeople and entertainers from all over the world come here to take part in the many sporting events, festivals, and shows we have on offer. Their presence makes our country a richer, more inspiring place to live and encourages more tourists to visit. We want next year to be a golden decade of sport, so it's good news that sportsmen and women competing in events here will keep the concessions that they previously enjoyed."

The changes follow a consultation which ran from December to March, with foreign communities abroad questioned as well as UK communities. Mr Byrne said: "I travelled around the UK listening to people, and led my own delegation of community leaders and businessmen to India to review firsthand some of the issues in one of our most important overseas markets."

The Points Based System replaced around 80 different work permit routes with five tiers. The Home Office says that people travelling in and out of the UK will in future be traceable through the introduction of fingerprinting for all visa applicants, a new hi-tech system for counting people in and out of the country, and ID cards for all foreign nationals.

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