Financial Requirements for a Spouse Visa coming to the UK..
A UK citizen sponsoring a Non European partner must be able to satisfy financial requirements when applying for a partner Visa.
From Briefing Paper Number 06724, 22 February 2017 pdf
The sponsoring spouse or partner is required to show a minimum gross annual income (or equivalent in cash savings) of £18,600, plus an extra £3,800 for one dependent child and extra £2,400 for each additional child. The income must come from:
- Sponsor’s earnings in the UK, or sponsor’s overseas earnings and confirmed job offer in the UK.
- A visa applicant’s own employment income can only be taken into account if they are already in the UK with permission to work.
Migrant spouse’s overseas employment income or offers of employment in the UK, and offers of third party support cannot be taken into account.
Ways of satisfying the minimum income requirement
If cash savings are being relied on to satisfy the minimum income requirement, they must have been held by the applicant, their partner or both jointly and under their control, and for at least the six months prior to the date of application.
The first £16,000 in cash savings are not taken into account. This is because £16,000 is the level at which a person generally ceases to be eligible for income-related benefits.
When applying for temporary leave to remain, the amount of cash savings that can be counted towards the income requirement is calculated by dividing the amount of savings over £16,000 by 2.5 (this is equivalent to the number of years of temporary leave being applied for).
When applying for Indefinite Leave to Remain (after five years), all cash savings over £16,000 can be considered.
In practice, therefore, when applying for temporary leave as a partner:
- £62,500 in cash savings is required if no other income sources are being used to meet the income requirement: (62,500-16,000) / 2.5 = 18,600
- £17,500 in cash savings is required if the sponsor’s income is £18,000, in order to make up the £600 shortfall: (17,500-16,000) /2.5 = 600
77.1 - 813,325