Do you think the new £38K income visa threshold for UK spouse visas is fair?

[zendeveloper]

It is set at the same level as for work visas.

Feels completely crazy to me, but then, I am also an immigrant (although the changes don't affect me), so probably too sensitive to the topic. Would be interesting to hear MN opinion.

@CormorantStrikesBack
Once he’s here on the Youth Mobility Visa they can use the two years to live together and then apply for either the unmarried partner visa or get married and apply for the spousal visa. They’re the same visa so requirements are the same (only difference is unmarried partner visa requires them to live together for two years). But he will be able to use any earnings from his job to count for the total financial requirements for the spousal visa as income is based on earnings from both of them, so would probably make it easier for them if he could get a job here first and prove he has an income before going for spousal visa. Info here (obviously income limits haven’t been amended yet): https://www.gov.uk/uk-family-visa/proof-income

I have gone through the full process including Youth Mobility Visa, Spousal, ILR and now British Citizenship. It’s a long and very expensive road so I have every sympathy.

For migrant workers and students who cannot bring their families, it’s their choice whether to come here or stay in their native country or migrate to another country which will allow them to take their families. They have options.

for spousal visas I think the spousal support amount is fine, the person has to make enough money to support their spouse or the spouse can get a job or they can live in the spouses country. The 38k means they will be paying tax so will be contributing tax to pay for spouse and what they may need from the NHS.

The families already pay an exorbitant NHS immigrant surcharge every couple of years on top of their own NI contributions from wages.

None can answer you 100%, so don't believe anyone, but be prepared.

I was under a Highly Skilled Visa which after 4 years I could apply for indefinite leave to remain. One year in and that was changed to 5 years, and although I was already on the scheme, I was captured by the new change, so I also had to do 5 years.

I wonder if they will change the rules and permit the non-UK partner to count their income towards the requirement for an entry clearance application, unlike now? That would seem a fair way to balance out the higher threshold.

If the goal of the policy is to prevent dependants coming to the UK and not contributing anything, which is what the Home Office statement says, then surely a couple should be able to take into account the non-UK partner's earnings history and job offer in the UK?

@Ifonlyoneday immigrants pay doubly for the NHS. They pay an immigration surcharge for every year their visa is valid for and it’s currently £624 PER YEAR. So for a 5 year visa (how long it takes before someone can apply for ILR at minimum) it’s an additional £3,120 on top of the THOUSANDS each visa costs.

But you can't get the foreign spouse in the country to get a contributing job under the current rules if the British spouse doesn't meet the income threshold.

I am in this situation - I can't currently come home to live with my British citizen daughter because I don't meet the income threshold - and would be unlikely to meet it with the full time jobs available in the northern town where we would want to live, with my American husband who once here would definitely be able to earn way above the limit.

It looks like we may be able to retire here using his retirement income in several years, so I just hope my 80 year old Dad can hang on long enough without our help until then.

The introduction of salary thresholds for spouse visas was always a racist policy. It was identified that the biggest numbers of spouse visas were granted to spouses coming from South Asian countries, which was perceived to relate to arranged marriages involving people (especially women) who were relatively low skilled and less likely to be economically active once they arrived in Britain. The salary threshold for the British spouse was introduced as a blunt mechanism to exclude these people. It’s also the reason why the earnings of the non-British spouse can’t be counted, because they weren’t really thinking about scenarios of educated couples where both partners work, returning expats or retired people.

The existing threshold has already led to many perverse and unintended consequences, I can’t even imagine how many more we’re going to see now that it’s being raised to £38k.

@wordler In your situation the 'easiest' thing for you to would be to find an employer to sponsor your husband on a Skilled Worker visa, then once you have all arrived he can switch to the Spousal visa using his employment income.

@IceandIndigo
the biggest numbers of spouse visas were granted to spouses coming from South Asian countries, which was perceived to relate to arranged marriages involving people (especially women) who were relatively low skilled and less likely to be economically active once they arrived in Britain

We have a cultural expectation that able bodied adults be economically active. Why not these women too?

I think your definition of easiest is different from mine - you might mean 'only'.

The frustration with this visa is that it's got no flexibility for personal situations.

We would have free accommodation, family who would pay for any needs and private health insurance. We'd be able to afford the visa fees, the NHS surcharge, and we'd be saving the state a potential lot of money and resources if we came back to take care of my elderly Dad in his own home.

What it means in reality is if the worst happens then we will just have to live apart in two different countries for at least six to 12 months.

Full time job as a receptionist, careworker, or office administrator in the North West - outside of major cities - isn't that being economically active? Doesn't meet the income requirements for this though.

I guess if you are an office administrator you don't deserve to have your foreign spouse come and live with you.

^ I absolutely agree. The whole thing is sickening.

If you're an office administrator, which i have been, where are you spending enough time with a foreign person who isn't already here too, to make a sensible judgment call about marrying them?

I think the only thing @lkwhjis missed in the good analysis is that the cheap laborers artificially keep the wages low. So instead of increasing demand for the lower paying jobs by increasing wages. You just bring in more labor willing to work at the lower wages.

It’s unlikely you’ll ever increase wages if there’s a steady supply of cheap labor.

It goes without saying that increasing wages is a magic bullet for all low wage jobs, but as a general rule it’s true. And it has to happen organically or it can go wrong in a hurry.

@SpacePatch thank you. Really appreciate that

And it means that the average person in their 20s or early 30s (when most people get married, particularly if they want children) would not be able to bring in their spouse.

A lot of Britons are going to give up and just go live abroad and raise their kids with their foreign spouses somewhere where it isn't so fucking hard and expensive just to live and be.

Right to a family life? What a fucking JOKE.

You're an English man or Scottish woman who fell in love during a stint abroad? Had kids with some dirty American or New Zealander or Polish man? The message is STAY THERE, WE DON'T WANT YOU BACK.

Do you actually have the fucking cheek to tell people who they are allowed to marry and build a family with?

But surely these are things you should think about.

My point was that when I was doing that job, I had limited holidays, so wouldn't have built that kind of relationship abroad. It's a bit different from.a year's secondment to the New York office.

@Tracker1234 I believe they keep going because the staff are essentially slave labour, and the whole operation is a front for drugs and money laundering. Like the Turkish barbers that have sprung up everywhere.

I'm speechless

Same places as those who make more than £38k?