UK spouse visa financial requirement

What is the minimum income requirement for a UK partner visa?

You and your partner usually need to prove a combined income of at least £29,000 a year. This is the minimum income requirement for a partner application under the current rules, in force since 11 April 2024 and checked against GOV.UK on 3 November 2026. The test belongs to the partner route. It covers a spouse, civil partner, unmarried partner, fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner, and it applies to a fiancé or proposed civil partner application on the same terms. Other family routes, such as the parent route, use different financial tests, and this page does not cover them. You face the same test more than once. It applies when you first apply, again when you extend, and again when you settle on the 5-year route. A figure that works at the first application has to be proven again, with fresh evidence, at each stage. The income can come from employment, self-employment, a pension, cash savings, or other specified income such as rent or dividends. Each source counts in its own way and carries its own evidence rules, and the sections below take the main ones in turn.

Does the £29,000 go up if we have children?

No. Under the current rules the £29,000 is the whole requirement for a partner application. It does not rise for a first child, a second child, or any child after that. Read the next section before you rely on that. Couples who started this route before 11 April 2024 work under a different set of figures, and children do change the maths for them.

We first applied before 11 April 2024 and we are extending: which figures apply to us?

If you first applied as a partner before 11 April 2024 and you are extending with the same partner, the older figures apply to you. The same is true if your first application was as a fiancé, fiancée or proposed civil partner. You need to prove a combined income of at least £18,600 a year. On top of that you need an extra £3,800 a year for the first child and £2,400 a year for each additional child who counts. If the total comes to more than £29,000, you only need to prove £29,000. The figures in this section were checked against GOV.UK on 3 November 2026. The children who count are the ones applying with you, the ones already in the UK as dependants on your family visa, and the ones already here as your partner's dependants. A child who is a British or Irish citizen, who has pre-settled status, or who is permanently settled in the UK does not add anything to the figure. Savings work for this cohort under the same counting method set out below, against the lower threshold. Savings of £62,500 held for the full 6 months meet the old test on their own: (£62,500 − £16,000) ÷ 2.5 = £18,600. Keep the two sets of rules apart. If your first application was on or after 11 April 2024, the £29,000 flat figure in the first section is yours, and the child amounts in this section are not.

My partner receives a disability or carer's benefit: do we still face an income threshold?

No. If your partner receives one of the listed disability or carer's benefits, there is no minimum income requirement for your application. The list includes Disability Living Allowance, Personal Independence Payment, Attendance Allowance, Carer's Allowance, Severe Disablement Allowance, Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, the Armed Forces independence and compensation payments, and the Scottish disability and carer payments that replaced some of them. A different test applies instead, called adequate maintenance. You must show that you have enough money to house and support yourselves without relying on additional public funds. The caseworker looks at your income and your housing costs together, and judges whether what is left covers your maintenance. The housing side counts in full: rent or mortgage payments and Council Tax costs are part of the picture the caseworker weighs. Savings can play a part here too. Where cash savings are used towards adequate maintenance, the decision-maker takes the savings that meet the same holding rules, divides them across the weeks of leave the visa would give, and adds that weekly amount to your weekly net income before housing costs come off.

Can we use savings instead of income?

Yes. Cash savings can replace income in full, or cover part of it. The Home Office counts savings under Category D of the financial requirement rules, and the counting works like this. Only the part of your savings above £16,000 counts. The first £16,000 is ignored: it is the level of savings at which a person generally stops being eligible for income-related benefits. You must have held the savings for at least the 6 months before you apply, in an account in your name, your partner's name, or both names jointly, and the money must be under your control and available to withdraw at once, with or without a penalty. At the entry and extension stages, the amount above £16,000 is divided by 2.5. The divisor reflects the 2.5 years, or 30 months, before you have to apply again. The formula is: (Savings − £16,000) ÷ 2.5 = the amount that counts as income Two examples from the Home Office guidance show what this means in practice. Savings of £88,500, held for the full 6 months, give (£88,500 − £16,000) ÷ 2.5 = £29,000, so savings alone meet the requirement with no other income. Savings of £25,000 give (£25,000 − £16,000) ÷ 2.5 = £3,600, so £25,400 still has to come from income the rules allow. At the settlement stage the divisor drops away. The whole amount above £16,000 counts, so the formula there is savings − £16,000 = the amount that counts. You can combine cash savings with employment income, non-employment income such as rent or dividends, and pension income. You cannot combine them with self-employment income. Run the formula backwards to find the savings a shortfall needs: say your countable income is £20,000. The shortfall against £29,000 is £9,000, so the savings you need are £9,000 × 2.5 + £16,000 = £38,500, held for the full 6 months. Money that started as something else can still count. Savings that came from investments, shares or a property sale inside the 6 months before you apply can qualify, as long as the asset was yours for the full period and the paperwork shows the ownership, the value, and the move into cash. The detail sits in Appendix FM-SE, paragraphs 11 and 11A. The evidence for savings is your personal bank statements, showing at least the amount you rely on held across the whole 6 months, plus a declaration from the account holder naming where the savings came from. The full counting rules, with worked examples for both thresholds, are in the Home Office guidance "Family Migration: Appendix FM and Appendix HM Armed Forces — Minimum income requirement" (version 13.0, November 2025), and the evidence rules are in Appendix FM-SE of the Immigration Rules.

Whose income counts, and how do we prove it?

Whose income counts depends on where the applicant is. If you apply from outside the UK, your partner's income is the one that counts. Your own employment income counts only once you are in the UK, aged 18 or over, and working legally. A job you have been promised does not count, with one exception: a partner who is returning to the UK can count confirmed UK employment that starts within 3 months of their return. The rules sort income into categories, and each category has its own evidence. Categories A and B cover salaried and non-salaried employment. Category C covers non-employment income, Category D is cash savings, Category E covers pensions, and Categories F and G cover self-employment and income from a specified limited company. For employment income under Category A, the evidence is payslips covering the 6 months before you apply, bank statements for the same period showing the salary going in, and a letter from the employer confirming the job, the gross annual salary, how long it has run, and the type of employment. A partner who has been with their employer for less than 6 months falls under Category B, and the payslips can cover any period within the 12 months before the application. Self-employment income is counted over the last full financial year, or as an average of the last two. Non-employment income, such as rent or dividends, is counted on what was received in the 12 months before the application. Evidence that covers a period ending on the application date has to be dated within the 28 days before you apply; older documents get disregarded. The document list for each category sits in Appendix FM-SE, and the category you claim decides the papers you need. A returning partner gets a specific version of the employment test. If your partner has worked overseas for the same employer for 6 months or more and is coming back to a UK job that starts within 3 months of the return, the rules let their income be counted on the overseas job and on the confirmed UK job in turn. The Home Office checks both, and the guidance works through the combinations case by case.

What happens if we cannot reach the figure?

There is no near-miss band. An application that falls short on the money test fails that test, however close it lands. An application may still be possible in defined circumstances. Two examples the rules name: you have a child in the UK who is a British or Irish citizen, or who has lived in the UK for 7 years, and it would be unreasonable for that child to leave; or refusing the application would breach your human rights. Where an exception is in play, the decision-maker can also weigh other credible and reliable sources of income or funds available to you as a couple. That road has a price. The earliest you can settle on it is after 10 years in the UK, not 5. Couples who might fall into these circumstances need advice on their own facts before they apply, not after a refusal.

Where to go next

This page covers the money test only. The full list of documents a partner application needs is on the UK spouse visa hub: https://uk.immigrationhelp.app/spouse-visa If you want a second pair of eyes on a finished evidence pack, the evidence review page explains what that service checks: https://uk.immigrationhelp.app/spouse-visa-evidence-review

Frequently asked questions