Table Of Content
- Who must be your UK partner
- UK Spouse Visa Financial Requirement
- What counts as income
- Director or employee of a specified limited company
- Cash savings
- Exceptional Circumstances
- Conclusion
The UK Spouse Visa comes under the UK Family Visa category. The visa allows a foreign
national with a spouse in the UK who is either a British citizen or has settled status to join them
and live with them in the UK. The UK Spouse Visa is a route to settlement. You can apply for a
UK spouse visa if you meet the eligibility requirements.
Who must be your UK partner?
Your partner, who will sponsor you, must be one of the following:
1. A British or Irish citizen One who has settled status in the UK, such as indefinite leave to remain or pre-settled status or settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
2. One with a Turkish businessperson visa or a Turkish worker visa
3. One with refugee status or humanitarian protection in the UK
UK Spouse Visa Financial Requirement
Out of all the requirements for a UK spouse visa, the financial requirement is the crucial one. Financial requirements are not easy to meet, especially after the changes made last year. You need to be aware of the financial requirements and the ways to meet them.
The minimum annual income threshold to meet the financial requirement for those applying on or after 11 April 2024 is £29,000. This threshold includes dependent children applying with you.
If you are applying from outside the UK for a first-time UK spouse visa, only the income of your UK partner will be counted. However, if you are applying for a visa extension or switching to the UK spouse visa from inside the UK, you can combine your income with your partner’s income.
In most cases, applicants and their UK partners meet the financial requirement through employment income alone. But if you cannot meet the minimum annual requirement through employment, there are alternative options available to meet the financial requirement as well.
You can meet the financial requirements using a combination of income and savings. You don’t need to meet the requirement if your sponsoring partner is a recipient of one of the following benefits. These provisions remain unchanged under the new rules.
- Personal Independence Payment
- Attendance Allowance
- Bereavement Benefits
- Disability Living Allowance
- Severe Disablement Allowance
- Carers’ Allowance
- Armed Forces Independence Payment or Guaranteed Income Payment under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme
- Mobility Supplement, Constant Attendance Allowance, or War Disablement Pension under the War Pensions Scheme
- Police Injury Pension
- Industrial Injury Disablement Benefit
What counts as income?
Income from jobs (salaried and non-salaried), self-employment, or directorship/employment of a limited company, as well as other sources of income such as pension income, rental income, and dividend income, all count as income.
Employment Income
If your UK partner is sponsoring you, their salaried or non-salaried income can be used to meet the financial requirement. Their minimum annual gross income (income before tax) has to be £29,000 if they apply for a UK spouse visa after 11 April 2024. If you are applying for leave to remain, then your income can also be included to meet the minimum threshold of £29,000.
The sponsor and/or applicant must be employed with the same employer for the last 6 months before making the application. If the employment was not for the last 6 months, then you need to prove that you still have £29,000 income in the last 12 months, even if it came from multiple jobs.
The supporting documents must be submitted to prove the employment income. For example: salary pay slips and bank statements showing that salary was regularly being credited to your bank account.
Self-employment income
The minimum income requirement threshold can also be met by self-employment income. The sponsor’s and/or applicant’s income can be combined. The income for the full financial year in case of self-employment, that runs from April to March, has to be £29,000 or above. You must submit self-assessment tax returns with the application.
Non-employment income
You and/or your partner’s non-employment income can also be counted to meet the minimum annual income threshold. The non-employment income includes, but is not limited to, the income from one of the following sources:
- Rental income from property
- Pension income
- Dividend income from shares, mutual funds, bonds, etc.
- Income from interest on savings account
- Maintenance Payment
- Ongoing insurance payments
- Ongoing payments from a structured legal settlement
- Ongoing royalty payments
Director or employee of a specified limited company
If you and/or your partner are a director or employee of a specified limited company, you can meet the financial requirement through income earned as a director or employee of the company. A specified limited company is one where:
- You and/or your partner are either a director or employee of the company, or both, or of another company within the same group; and
- You and/or your partner hold the shares (directly or indirectly), or shares are held by you or your partner’s family members, such as a parent, grandparent, child, stepchild, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, or first cousin; and
- Any remaining shares are held (directly or indirectly) by fewer than five other persons.
Cash savings
You can meet the income requirement through cash savings alone or combine it with income from employment and self-employment. Cash savings do not mean a saving of £1 is equal to £1 income. The minimum level of cash saving is £16,000. Any amount saved over this limit is divided by 2.5 to calculate its contribution towards the income requirement.
If you only have cash savings to rely on, then it must be a lump sum of £88,500. You can solely rely on the employment income of the sponsoring partner (in the case of a fresh spouse visa from outside the UK) or the sponsoring partner’s and/or applicant’s income to meet the minimum income threshold.
You can also make various combinations of employment income, self-employment income, savings, and other incomes to meet the requirement.
As mentioned above, if your sponsoring partner is a recipient of one of the state’s benefits, you will be able to meet the income requirement through their income from these benefits.
Exceptional Circumstances
If you and your sponsoring partner cannot meet income requirements through any means mentioned here, you can still apply for a UK spouse visa under exceptional circumstances. You need to prove that not granting you a visa would be a breach of Article 8 because it could result in unjustifiably harsh consequences for the applicant, their partner, or a relevant child.
Conclusion
After the increase in the minimum income threshold it has put big impact on the British Citizens to bring their foreign spouses to the UK. There is also proposed increase of income level going up to £38,700 in the future which will make UK spouse visa route even more difficult.
So, this would be important for all applicants and their UK based partners to keep an eye on updates from the UK government which may come up with further changes in the future.