Spouse or Civil Partner

The UK Spouse visa category is for partners of British citizens or persons settled in the UK, who wish to join, or stay with, their husband or wife in the UK. You can also apply if your partner has refugee status or humanitarian protection in the UK.

If you meet the eligibility, financial, and English language requirements, you will be able to get a visa to stay in the UK for 2.5 years. You can also apply for a UK Spouse visa if your Spouse is outside the UK, but intends to return to the UK with you.

If you are unable to meet the financial requirements through the employment of your sponsor, you may still be granted a Spouse visa. The sponsor needs to show that he can meet the financial requirement with the help of a third party or prospective earnings from employment or self-employment. If you have any dependent children who you want to bring with you to the UK, the Home Office will consider that.

After entering the UK, you will need to enroll your biometric. After 2.5 years of your entry, you will have to extend your visa. To extend your visa, you need to meet the financial and English language requirements. In this way, you will be eligible to be settled in five years of residence in the UK.

However, you may also be able to extend your visa even if you cannot meet the requirements, if you have a child who is a British Citizen. In this way, you may be eligible to be settled in the UK in 10 years.

Eligibility

Meeting the financial requirement is often the most crucial part of the application and requires acute attention to detail. When making an application for a spouse only, the threshold is set at £18,600. This increases incrementally depending on the number of children enclosed with the application. This is the following:
– 1 Child – £22,400
– 2 Children – £24,800
– 3 Children – £27,200
– Additional Children = +£2,400

There are several different ways in which one can meet the financial requirement and the evidence that one will need to provide changes depending on your employment status. To give you the best chance of success, it is paramount that you be guided by the experience of our team.

Different ways of meeting the above threshold can be through:
– Employment
– Self-employment
– Cash savings
– Pension

Exemptions

If the spouse residing in the United Kingdom receives any of the following benefits, they will not need to meet the strict requirements necessary for the categories above. Instead, they will need to meet the lesser threshold of showing that they are able to ‘adequately maintain’ the applicant without recourse to public funds. The benefits applicable are the following:
– Attendance allowance
– Carer’s allowance
– Disability living allowance
– Personal independence payment
– Armed forces independence payment or guaranteed income payment under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme
– Constant attendance allowance, mobility supplement or a war disablement pension under the War Pensions Scheme
– Severe disablement allowance
– Industrial injury disablement benefit
– Police injury pension

Additional Requirements

– Show that there is nothing adverse in the way of; previous convictions, breach of immigration rules, or medical conditions that would make entering the UK undesirable.
– It is important to note that the above does not necessarily fall for a ground of refusal. Indeed, they need to be declared and require the applicant to have submitted documents to evidence their claim.
– Prove that they are in a ‘genuine and subsisting relationship
– Adequate UK accommodation
– Speak English to an A1 level