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.

They’re not deciding whether you get to marry someone. You can still do that and not live here.

But where would you live? It wouldn’t be possible to have a marriage if you can’t live together!

@Relaxingweekendmaybe
Aren't you mixing up a work visa and a spouse/partner/fiance visa?
I think the 38K is for a work visa, isn't it?

This hits very close to home.

DC met someone who was in uk on a Masters scholarship programme. STEM subject, graduated with distinction.

They got engaged-had to pre-pay around £3000 NHS insurance as part of the very expensive visa application. but when they get a job they don't get that back so essentially paying twice. It is so expensive and complicated.

No one going through the steps can complain because they won't get in but it is outrageous.

They are now making over the threshold but if they had to apply now I think they would not have met the criteria.

It just doesn't seem like it is going to achieve what we need

You can still do that and not live here.

You approve of a policy which forces our own citizens to emigrate permanently if they want to live with their wife and kids?

And what do those of us do who married someone from another country 20 years ago and now can't come home unless we leave our spouse behind - either taking the children or leaving them - separating them from one parent?

The Netherlands has something called the Chavez arrest, if a Dutch national has a child with a non-Dutch or EU citizen, the child (who is a citizen based on their Dutch parent) has the right to have their other parent live near them.

I don’t know and to be honest can’t say I particularly care given you left 20 years ago?

Wow.

Unless you believe in global free movement (which most don’t) if you left 20 years ago I wouldn’t consider you coming ‘home’. Surely wherever you live now is your home? I think you also said you’ve been out of the traditional work place, whatever that means, for some time - so surely you’d not think it would be easy?

DH is British and earns under the threshold, my earnings are more than double his.

We moved away from the UK. If my Settled Status lapses there is no easy way back for us, so we won't be moving back. It's not worth it when we can live in any of the EU countries without hassle.

The kicker is that DH has a vital job that the UK is now missing out on.

This is why truck drivers can now earn easily over £50k, with more specialist ones earning £65k+. A decade ago many were on £9-10 an hour rather than close to £30.

I'm weeping with rage for you.

It's abhorrent.

😂😂😂Sorry, but the reply made me LOL

Yes well it's not a prison, he chose to leave and that's fine. But I'm OK with the rules being changed to suit those of us who live here rather than those who've left but want to keep their options open.

Wow, so native-born British people, who by the way may not have any other nationality, shouldn’t have the right to return to the Uk?

The kicker is that DH has a vital job that the UK is now missing out on.

Don't worry yourself, poster* *@beanontoast won't even notice your DH is missing. (Sorry, couldn't helping it, in light of their tone on this thread)

Oh and poster @Tacotortoise is also fine with the UK missing out on your DH's unique skills.

Edited to add poster Tacotortoise as I only saw their post after I posted. So it's fair it is not just one poster being quoted here. Or should I also add that these views are also held by some other people in the population?

Would you like to detail where these Eldorados may be?

Where did I say that? The poster I replied to presumably can return as a native citizen but whether her husband can not as a native is another matter. Personally I think it’s fairly obvious moving abroad for 20 years makes it risky as to whether you’ll be able to return with your family in tow and I’d expect the rules to change during that time too?

I'd worked enough in the UK before I left to have earned my full pension credits in the UK, so definitely contributed to the UK.

My whole family outside of my husband and daughter are in the UK and I've visited 2-3 times a year since I moved apart from the Covid years.

I returned for five months to nurse one parent through end of life illness, and another for four months for the other parent to support through a major operation. I'm an only child so all falls on me.

I do consider the UK home. I am only living abroad while my husband has to work here.

I have had a freelance career to enable me to take care of my daughter through the early childcare years, to return to nurse and take care of my parents through their needs, and here in the US to take care of my inlaws through their operations. My spouse has earned enough to take care of the family here and our private healthcare.

As I mentioned I'd been planning to bring DH and DD to the UK to live for a period of time so that we can look after my Dad and keep him in his own home.

These rules are discriminatory. They affect anyone like me living abroad who has had to take time out of a regular job and income to take care of family. (this is usually the wife in the marriage).

But they also discriminate against any UK worker (who has never left the country like me) who happens to live in the part of the country where a good full time job for certain professions just doesn't meet this new level. The previous one was far more reasonable.

Without any provision for using a third party sponsor, or other economic options to tally the 'risk' to the country of a burden by the immigrant - it is a horrible policy.

This country is fucked irretrievably if people can't see how immoral this is.

Quite. 74% of the U.K. earn less than this. So by the poster’s reckoning, the vast majority of us are not viable.

I am gutted by the ruling. I earn under 38k and though my American OH and I would be earning a really great wage combined, I don’t earn enough to get him here under these new rules.

I guess I am no longer welcome in my own country. So much for love, hey?

Another thing that I find abhorrent about this is that it appears that it's just care workers who can't bring their family, as opposed to doctors etc. Why's that? Is it because they're somehow less human? Less important? Less worthy?

The whole thing stinks.

Does anyone know if the new rules scrapped the ten year route? Right now the salary threshold for a British person to bring in a spouse is for the five year route to settlement partner visa. But there is also a ten year route to settlement partner visa for those who do not meet the salary threshold.

Does this scrap that whole route? It was originally designed for Brits who are disabled and their nonBritish partner is their carer. Or SAHP Brits where their partner will later meet the threshold after they move to the U.K. and can then upgrade from the ten year route to the five year route?

If they’ve scrapped this route for those who do not meet the salary threshold, it should be legally challenged as directly discriminatory towards disabled British and indirectly discriminatory towards female British parents.

I live in Japan with my Japanese husband. He earns about 120K a year and I am a part-time worker who earns below this threshold. Pretty sure we’d be barred from the UK under these rules, even though my husband is a high earner and our family would be a net contributor to the public purse!

Can they not at least look at both spouses’ incomes or the combined income, and make some sort of distinction between developed and developing countries? The rules are being brought in, I suspect, to stop “chain migration” where people bring in cousins from developing countries as spouses. Perhaps that is a bit dysfunctional, but there are surely more sensible ways of stopping such migration.