You apply for a spouse visa to join your partner in the UK, who must be a British citizen or have ILR or Settled Status under the EU Settlement Scheme. Your partner must sponsor you for this visa. You are required to meet several requirements, including relationship, English language, and financial requirements. Meeting the financial requirement for a fresh spouse visa in 2026 means showing that your partner has a gross annual income of at least £29,000. This threshold includes any number of dependent children.
If you are applying to switch to this visa from inside the UK and you are working and earning an income, you can combine your income with your partner’s income to meet the requirement.
However, sometimes you may not be able to meet the financial requirement, for example because your partner’s income is below the required threshold or has income from a source that cannot be counted.
Can you apply if you do not meet the financial requirements? We explain this in this article.
Apply for a UK Spouse Visa without meeting the financial requirement
Usually, you must meet the financial requirement when applying for a UK spouse visa (entry clearance or permission to stay). However, if your UK partner is in receipt of certain state benefits or allowances, you do not need to show that you meet the financial requirement. For example, Disability Living Allowance, Scottish Adult Disability Living Allowance, Severe Disablement Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Pension Age Disability Payment, or Carer’s Allowance.
But what if you cannot meet the financial requirement?
If you cannot meet the financial requirements applicable on the date you may still be able to apply for a spouse visa if:
• you have a child in the UK who is a British or Irish citizen or has lived in the UK for 7 years or more, and it would not be reasonable for that child to leave the UK. It applies where you have a genuine and subsisting parental relationship with a child who:
• is aged under 18;
• is in the UK;
• is either a British citizen or an Irish citizen or has lived continuously in the UK for at least 7 years immediately before your application; and
• taking the best interests of the child as a primary consideration, it would not be reasonable to expect the child to leave the UK.
• it would breach your human rights (your right to respect for family and private life under the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights) – Article 8) to stop you coming to the UK or make you leave. This means that, while considering your application for a spouse visa where you fail to meet the financial requirement, the Home Office must consider whether refusing your spouse visa application would interfere with your family life in a way that would be disproportionate when balanced against the government’s legitimate reasons for enforcing immigration rules or cause “unjustifiably harsh consequences.” You need to provide evidence to establish “unjustifiably harsh consequences.” For example, your child in the UK has serious learning difficulties and is receiving specialised education and treatment in the UK. Independent medical evidence shows that comparable treatment and educational support would not be available in the country where you would have to live.
If you cannot meet the financial requirements, you will be placed on the 10-year route to settlement which means you will be able to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain after 10 years of continuous residence in the UK (this is known as long residence ILR).
Summary
You can apply for a spouse visa without meeting the financial requirement, but only in specific circumstances. The normal financial requirement remains the starting point; being unable to meet it does not automatically give you a spouse visa.
Also, if you are already on a spouse visa and are applying for an extension, the rules can be different because the £18,600 transitional arrangements may apply to you.
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