Spouse visa income requirement

[Shardonneigghhh]

Can we talk about how the increased income requirement for spouse visas if affecting British citizens with a partner of a different nationality?

The policies it seem we're introduced to reduce the number of migrants, by preventing workers who come to the UK from bringing their family members with them.
This also affects British citizens who with to bring a spouse of family member to the uk to live with them.

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9920/#:~:text=The%20spouse%2Fpartner%20visa%20minimum,report%20by%2014%20May%202024.

If someone falls in love with a non British person, and they want to live together in the uk, it is expected that the British person earns enough money to support their spouse without claiming any public funds. You have to evidence this when applying for a spouse visa, along with proving that your relationship is genuine. This minimum income requirement was £18,600, but was increased on April 11th to £29,000, with a further increase expected in 2025, to £38,000 per year.

This means that the British spouse will have to earn £38,000 in order to live together with their spouse in the uk. This income is out of reach for so many people. Basically if you are on a low income, you have no hope of your partner living with you in the uk. Women are often disproportionately affected by this as we learn less money overall, and if there are children to care for this may impact how much they can earn, bearing in mind if the husband is overseas he cannot look after the children while she works.

There is also a visa fee of £1846 and minimum nhs surcharge of £1035 per year (this is paid upfront to cover 3 or 5 years at point of application).

Please consider signing this petition.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/652602

And I agree it impacts on women more than men. I also think it impacts on northerners more than southerners. Cost of living is cheaper in the north for rent, mortgage, etc and wages are often much lower.

As an ordinary person with an ordinary family, can I just say I find the racism and xenophobia of some of my fellow citizens as evidenced in this law (and this thread) wholly deplorable.

If one of my children were to fall in love with a non-British person, I would wish them both (and any grandchildren) to be able to set up home here in GB. Given that wish, I would expect the same to apply to anyone else's children. Visas? Payment? Minimum income? No!! That's just mean-spirited xenophobic prejudice; deplorable, ... hateful! ...

I'm perfectly happy to pay tax and have some of it used to help other people's children and their spouses/partners, no matter where they were born, just as I would expect for my own children. Share out any burden; that's just an aspect of what is known as civilisation. Great Britain used to be a civilised country; I'm not so sure any more.

Shame on all you racists and xenophobes! Shame on you!

@jinag2

On a similar theme - why is it any business of the government who a British citizen (or anyone else) chooses to marry, which is the unintended(?) consequence of these laws? There are already sensible laws in place to prevent "sham" marriages, inappropriate marriages (e.g. siblings) and forced marriages, but that should be the limit of government interest and intervention.

I think it’s perfectly reasonable and fair

The point is that you have to be able to support your family without help from the government

But what are the SAHM and her husband who doesn’t have a job in the U.K. yet doing for money in the period between their arrival and him receiving his first pay check? What if it takes him six months to find a job, or a year? Maybe I’m being obtuse, but that’s the part I’m genuinely not seeing an answer to. If you don’t earn enough to support both yourself and your foreign spouse, how are you going to cope financially if they aren’t able to find work?

I’ll concede that perhaps there are parts of the U.K. where under £29,000 would be enough to comfortably support a household; but you can’t issue visas which enforce living in those areas rather than choosing to settle in London, where you’d be risking living in near-poverty.

Foreign spouses can still come into the country via the work route rather than relying on their British spouse, my DDs dh has that route though is still debating whether to take the job, his employer will be sponsoring his visa (high earner) as an EU citizen (maybe it's easier if EU?) she doesn't work due to health reasons.

Nobody is really disagreeing with the principle that couples should be able to support themselves if they move to the UK.

The problem arises because the criteria is for the UK spouse to be able to demonstrate that they already earn over £29k (and over £35.7k from 2025).

For example - Even if the couple earn a comfortable combined salary of, say, £60k - £70k they cannot move to the UK unless the British partner earns at least £29k, which if she is a woman or intends to be a SAHM is going to be very difficult - and will be even more difficult when the lower limit is raised to £37.7k.

Couldn’t they go down the 90k savings route if she’s such a high earner surely they have savings?

@ComtesseDeSpair

"But what are the SAHM and her husband who doesn’t have a job in the U.K. yet doing for money in the period between their arrival and him receiving his first pay check? What if it takes him six months to find a job, or a year? Maybe I’m being obtuse, but that’s the part I’m genuinely not seeing an answer to. If you don’t earn enough to support both yourself and your foreign spouse, how are you going to cope financially if they aren’t able to find work?"

The answer is obvious - and is the point of the thread. The couple and their family cannot move to the UK.

A British person should have the right to move with their family to the UK if that is what they choose to do. The rights to family life are enshrined in various international Human Rights treaties to which the UK is a signatory.

Even if financial restrictions are in place (and there are some arguments for this, but also reasons why this might be unreasonable) the criteria should take into account the couple's combined financial situation - and not be dependent on the earnings of the British spouse.

You correctly point out one of the biggest hurdles. It takes time and money for both the British citizen and the foreign spouse to find work if they are moving to the UK. Many months to find the right job(s); months to find accommodation, schools etc.; items that require upfront payment (visas, translations of certificates, accommodation deposits, travel to interviews etc.); and months in which they might not be paid. Plus time spent apart while one or other travels to the UK. All in all making it expensive and all but impossible for a family to return to the UK - even if the foreign spouse is one of the few who is fortunate enough to qualify for a visa via another route such as a key worker / skills shortage visa.

Minimum wage full time times 2 is nearer £45k than £35k!!

I think it's right to be increased. May stop women from being scammed into thinking the bloke is in love with her when all he wants really it to come to the uk

Not all UK citizens with a foreign spouse would be subject to this. I'm a UK citizen but DH was able to get a work visa as he was sponsored by his US company to work in the UK. He is highly educated and has an advanced level of sought-after skills. I have a low income and claim some benefits, but that has always been irrelevant.

This highlights another problem with the legislation.

Marry a highly-paid foreign professor, doctor, banker or whatever and you'll have no problems getting your spouse and family to the UK. Marry someone in an "ordinary" job and the process becomes harder, if not impossible.

Which creates two classes of citizen - when legislation is supposed to be equitable towards all citizens.

I don’t agree with you, OP.

This seems reasonable. The cost of living is going up and people need to be able to support any dependants they want to bring into this country.

I want to add seeing as many say about how the sponsor should be able to support the spouse and by making the minimum income what it is now means they will be able to, that if the sponsor is in receipt of universal credit, then that can not be used as income unless going down the adequate maintenance route ie disabled in receipt of pip, dla or carers allowance

The foreign spouse is not entitled to any public funds until they have ILR meaning they can't get any UC, however their income will reduce the overall award.

Now, let's say you have a parent working full time on UC, they sponsor their spouse to come live with them, their UC will rightly reduce with any income they make, reducing the overall award and the amount the government pays to the sponsor. Surely that's a good thing?

I live in one of the cheapest parts of the country but living off a household income of £18k would be pretty impossible.

29k sounds reasonable. The minimum wage at 39 hours a week is £23,200.

Perhaps the 35k should take into account regional differences. The lowest average wage in the UK is just short of 32k for north east and 44k for London.

Overall I do think it should increase but perhaps the proposed threshold needs some tweaks.

DH came via spouse visa.

Let me tell you, the process is horrible and deliberately designed to be off-putting and confusing.

I still remember bawling my eyes out in the bank because they wouldnt print and stamp my bank statements because the Home Office used to not accept online statements (which was hidden in a HUGE index of additional info).

Tricky questions like 'Could you live in another country'?

And obviously, massively expensive. The visa fees, the NHS surcharges, it all adds up.

I work abroad, am a high earner here but in the same job in the UK, even if I found, probably wouldn't meet the earning threshold (and certainly wouldn't if I returned to my home in the north of England).

My DH has had a lifelong career in hospitality, his old work in the UK would have him back in a heartbeat, but doesn't have the kind of budget to sponsor a visa. But they are constantly scrambling for staff.

Life is short, I wouldn't want to live six months apart even if I could meet the earning threshold.

Essentially, I've had to resign myself to not coming back.

I've assumed this is one of those vanity increases. Makes good headlines that government is doing something about immigration when in reality it affects only a small percentage of people as collateral damage.

@ameliapond - in the appeal process they consider the application based on the rules which were in place at the time of application. The new rules will only apply to you if you have to submit a second application for any reason. Good luck.

@Shardonneigghhh - just a heads-up that I've just had an e-mail from Petitions: UK Government and Parliament (in connection with a different petition), which states, "Because of the General Election, the closing date for the petition you signed has changed. All petitions now have to close at 00:01 am on 30 May. This is because Parliament will be dissolved; which means all parliamentary business - including petitions - must stop."

Yep. Don't go to Spain to teach, and fall in love. My friend did this, wants to come back to the UK to look after her elderly mum, can't bring hubby and her young child unless she's earning £29,000 for six months.

So she has to leave her kids or leave her DH for at least six months, and it's set to rise again before she's even got going on that!

So it's an elderly person with no care of a family torn apart for God knows how long.

All for a few shitty immigration statistics

Insane!

Read about a family who immigrated to Australia and got stuck trying to come back to the UK for the same reason. The British husband ended up leaving his family behind to go ahead for six months to look after the relative, find a job and then have proof of the income.

My DF was an academic and brought my mum to live here while he was a postdoc at Oxbridge. He then went on to work in one of the new 1960s universities - now RG - doing research that boosted British industry. My mum was a maths teacher.

No way can any postdocs afford to bring a spouse in now. Together with the cap on student visas this is going to destroy the universities. But who cares, we'll have BRITISH universities with no money and no staff.

It actually affects a huge number of British people.

There are over a million British passport holders who live in the EU - from my own admittedly non-scientific observations, at least half are married to, or living together with a foreign spouse or partner.

Many of these couples also have children, who might also have UK passports but who are not counted in the "Brits abroad" statistics if they have dual nationality through their EU parent.

Both of these examples relate directly to my own family. I cannot easily return to the UK with my partner and having gone through the hassle once (even when the UK was part of the EU) I'm reluctant to go through the process again and be officially treated as a second-class "citizen or nowhere" simply because I have a non-British partner. By comparison, moving the the EU was a simple process and we were made heartily welcome.

Likewise, my daughter grew up in the UK but moved abroad to complete her university education and to maintain her contacts to the wider family abroad. Not surprisingly she now has a spouse from that EU country, and children, but has virtually no possibility of ever moving the family to the UK as she has never worked in the UK and would be unlikely to find work in her specialist area or work that would pay the minimum amount required.

Now add on the millions of UK citizens living in Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and elsewhere and it is clear that more than just "a few" people are potentially affected.