You have checked your salaries, looked at your savings and found the income figure online. You may already be asking your employer for a letter.
Before collecting those documents, establish which financial test your application must meet.
The standard spouse visa minimum income requirement is currently £29,000 a year. However, transitional rules protect some applicants on an earlier route, while certain benefit cases require an assessment of adequate maintenance.
Even after identifying the threshold, you need to establish whose income counts, how it must be calculated and which period the evidence must cover.
At Knightsbridge, our view is that these decisions should come before the document checklist. They determine whether the financial case you are preparing actually answers the question the Home Office will assess.
Start with your application history
For a couple preparing their first application under the standard partner route, £29,000 is the current starting point. That threshold does not increase because dependent children are included.
If you already hold partner permission, find the application and decision that established your current route. Record when you applied, what permission you received and whether you are applying with the same partner.
These are more useful starting facts than the date of your wedding or the number of years you have lived in Britain.
Our Spouse Visa page explains the wider route. Here, the task is to choose the correct financial assessment before deciding how to prove it.
When the older income threshold can still apply
The £18,600 starting threshold can still apply when you seek permission to stay with the same partner and hold permission as a partner on the five-year route, or as a fiancé(e) or proposed civil partner. Your first qualifying application made before 11 April 2024 must have been successful.
Having made an earlier visa application of any kind is insufficient. Check the actual grant against the transitional provisions. Permission on the ten-year partner route does not itself qualify someone for the older threshold when moving onto the five-year route.
Under these arrangements, the requirement increases by £3,800 for the first child who counts and £2,400 for each additional child, subject to a £29,000 cap. Children who are British or Irish citizens, permanently settled or have pre-settled status do not require these additions. Other exemptions also need checking.
The practical point is to establish each child’s position before calculating the family’s threshold. A total based simply on the number of children can be wrong.
Keep the earlier application confirmation and grant alongside your financial planning notes. They explain why the threshold you are using belongs to your application.
Specified benefits can change the test
Where the sponsoring partner receives a qualifying benefit, such as Personal Independence Payment or Carer’s Allowance, the application can fall under adequate maintenance instead of the minimum income requirement. The exemption depends on the particular benefit received.
Adequate maintenance assesses the family’s financial position after housing costs, using a comparison with the Income Support level for an equivalent British family. Adequate accommodation must also be established.
This changes the work required. A couple should check the benefit award, household composition and housing costs before assuming that an income below £29,000 prevents an application.
Equally, receiving benefits does not remove the need for financial evidence. The application must demonstrate the test that actually applies.
Whose income counts for a spouse visa?
For an application from outside the UK, the applicant’s own employment earnings do not count towards the standard minimum income requirement. The sponsoring partner’s qualifying employment income can count, including under specific provisions for a sponsor returning from overseas.
For an application made inside the UK, the applicant’s employment income can also count, provided the work is lawful and the relevant requirements are met.
The restriction on overseas applicants’ earnings does not automatically exclude their qualifying savings, pensions or permitted non-employment income. Each source needs to be considered separately.
This distinction can change an assessment completely. A couple may have substantial combined earnings while only part of that money is available for the particular immigration calculation.
Separate the applicant’s income from the sponsor’s before adding anything together. Then record the source and where each person is living and working.
It also helps to distinguish money already earned from income expected after the move. A household budget can reasonably include future plans; the application needs a permitted basis for relying on them.
Identify the permitted financial sources
The spouse visa financial requirements can be met through more than employment income. Depending on the circumstances, permitted sources include pensions, certain non-employment income, qualifying cash savings and income from self-employment or a specified limited company.
Use this as an initial sorting exercise:
| Financial source | Question to resolve before calculating |
|---|---|
| Employment | Whose earnings qualify, and which employment history and pay pattern must be assessed? |
| Self-employment or company income | How is the business structured, and which accounting period governs the evidence? |
| Pension or non-employment income | What is the source, who receives it and what evidence establishes the payments? |
| Cash savings | Who owns and controls the money, where did it come from and how long has it been held? |
These questions help you choose the relevant calculation. They do not establish eligibility by themselves.
Some sources can be combined, but the combinations are restricted. For example, cash savings cannot simply be added to self-employment income to make up a shortfall under that calculation.
A useful financial summary therefore keeps salary, business income, rent, pensions and savings separate. Combining everything into one household total too early can conceal the issue that needs resolving.
For employment, the threshold concerns gross income before tax and National Insurance. The amount arriving in your bank account will usually be lower. Record both figures accurately so that you can explain how the payslips and bank entries correspond.
Where several sources appear available, identify which ones the application actually needs to rely on. This helps you focus the evidence and spot dependencies. If your proposed approach relies on savings as well as salary, establish that the combination is permitted before asking whether the total is enough.
Your application date affects the evidence
A salary figure on an employment contract is only part of the assessment. Employment history, the income received during the relevant period and the applicable calculation also matter.
The evidence and calculation rules sit in Appendix FM-SE. A recent job change may require assessment under a different employment category, including a check of earnings over the preceding 12 months. Specific company income and self-employment have their own accounting-period requirements.
Consider a hypothetical couple whose sponsor has recently started a better-paid job. They can see that the new salary exceeds the threshold. The next question is whether the applicable calculation and evidence requirements are met on their intended application date.
Another hypothetical sponsor may earn exactly the same salary but have held the job throughout the relevant period. The current salary figures match; the employment histories require separate examination. Copying the second couple’s document list would leave the first couple’s central question unanswered.
That question deserves an answer before they book travel or commit to a moving date.
Waiting may be useful where it allows a relevant evidence period to be completed. It should be a deliberate decision tied to a specific requirement. Simply collecting more months of paperwork without understanding the category can waste time.
For employed applicants or sponsors, the evidence commonly includes payslips, corresponding bank statements and an employer’s letter. Our guidance on visa supporting documents explains how to plan evidence around what it needs to establish.
If the standard requirement is not met
A shortfall needs an accurate diagnosis. Check whether the problem concerns the threshold, an ineligible source, the calculation period or missing evidence.
Those are different problems and may call for different next steps.
Exceptional circumstances and family-life provisions can be relevant where the standard requirements are not met. They involve a separate assessment, including whether refusal would have unjustifiably harsh consequences under Article 8. Missing the income threshold by a small amount does not automatically establish exceptional circumstances.
Where those issues arise, obtain an individual assessment of the relevant provisions and evidence before deciding how to proceed.
Make the financial case clear before you apply
Before submitting, you should be able to explain which test applies, whose money you are relying on, how the permitted sources meet it and what documents prove each part.
That explanation is a useful check on your preparation. If it is difficult to write clearly, identify the unresolved point before adding more documents.
The objective is to prepare an application whose financial evidence supports the correct assessment from the outset.
If you would like Knightsbridge to consider your circumstances and the appropriate next step, Request a Case Assessment.
3 comments
Comments are closed.