Understanding the Financial Requirements for a UK Spouse Visa

Author: Jason Krlal

Are you planning on shifting to the UK with your partner? If that’s the case, then you should be looking to have your spouse visa application approved. However, you will need to know about the requirements if you want the application to go through unhindered.

The spouse visa is meant for those who are married to or in a long-term relationship with a British citizen, or someone who holds settled status in the UK or has indefinite leave to remain in the UK. This visa allows the partner or spouse to stay in the UK as well. But, there are quite a few spouse visa requirements to be met for this application to be approved. And, these include some serious financial requirements as well.

Financial Requirements for a UK Spouse Visa Application

Before discussing any other requirements, we will first take a look at the financial necessities that you will need to fulfill. This happens to be quite a serious clause and there are many people who have had their application rejected based on financial grounds.

Minimum Income Requirements

To start with, you and your partner will need to show that you both can stay in the UK without financial support or facing any difficulties. The most basic way to establish this will be to show your combined annual income. The family visa that you and your partner will be applying for will require that you and your partner have a combined income of at least £29,000 per annum. This is the minimum income needed under the spouse visa requirements.

However, this requirement will change under two circumstances:

  • If your partner is getting disability or carer’s benefit

  • If you and your partner applied before 11th April 2024 and now you are trying to extend that visa with the same partner. This will include those cases wherein the previous application was as a fiance, fiancee, or proposed civil partner.

Partner with Disability or Carer’s Benefit

In this case, there is no requirement for any minimum income to be shown. However, you will need to provide documentation showing that your partner is receiving certain disability benefits. These will include one of the following benefits:

  • Severe Disablement Allowance

  • Disability Living Allowance

  • Personal Independence Payment

  • Attendance Allowance

  • Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit

  • Guaranteed Income Payment Under The Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or Armed Forces Independence Payment

  • Carer’s Allowance

  • Constant Attendance Allowance, Mobility Supplement, or War Disablement Pension under the War Pension Scheme

  • Police Injury Pension

  • Adult Disability Payment

  • Child Disability Payment

Your caseworker will try to determine that you and your family have enough money to self-sustain without having to depend on Government schemes.

For People Who Applied Before 11th April 2024 and Applying For Extension

In this case, your and your partner’s combined income needs to be £18,600 per annum at least. This requirement will increase in case you two have kids along with you. For the first kid, your minimum combined income needs to increase by £3,800 and for the second child onwards this requirement will increase by £2,400 per annum for every kid. However, if the minimum requirement exceeds £29,000, you just need to show that you two have an income of £29,000 per annum. This requirement for extra income in the case of kids is not applicable if the kids that you have fall into one of the following categories:

  • Have British or Irish citizenship status.

  • Have permanent settled status in the UK

  • Have pre-settled status

There are a few more citizenship statuses under which your kids might not add the requirement of extra income. It is best to check at the time of application if you will need to show the extra income for your kids.

If you and your income is not as much, you can also include the savings you two have to meet the requirements.

If Financial Requirements Are Not Met

There are certain conditions under which you will still be able to apply for the visa even if you fail to meet the financial requirements. Here are a few conditions that will give you the right to apply for the visa even without meeting financial requirements:

  • If you have kids who are British or Irish citizens or have been staying in the UK for 7 years or more shifting the kid to a different country will be unreasonable

  • If not allowing you to visit the UK or making you leave the country will mean that it will breach your human rights

In case you are not meeting the financial requirements as per the spouse visa requirements, you will be able to get permanent settled status after 10 years.

Additional Requirements for Spouse Visa

Now that you have the financial requirements sorted, let’s take a quick look at some of the other mandatory requirements that you will need to fulfill for your spouse's visa application.

Proof of Relationship

As the visa application is based on your relationship with your partner, one of the basic spouse visa requirements includes proving your relationship status. You and your partner will need to be married and should have a valid marriage certificate to prove it. This will need to be provided at the time of applying for the spouse visa.

If you are not married, you can still apply if you and your partner have been in a relationship for at least 2 years. You will need to provide proof of the relationship.

If you and your partner stay together, you will need to provide proof that you two share the same address. This can be in the form of a bank statement, a document by a dentist, utility bills, or others.

If you do not stay together because of work, study, or cultural reasons, you will need to provide proof of relationship in the form of regular communication with your partner, or proof of going on vacation together.

For those who are applying as fiance, fiancee, or proposed civil partner, you will need to get married within a matter of 6 months. The visa that you will get will have a validity of 6 months only and you two will need to be married in the UK within that time. Then you two can apply for an extension of stay.

English Language Knowledge

You will also need to show that you have knowledge of the English language. For this, you will need to get a certification. That will be uploaded along with the spouse visa application.

Now that you have a clear idea about the requirements, you can go ahead and start your visa application. If you are not sure then you will also find assistance for the visa.