in this video we will discuss the UK spouse visa requirements in 2024 for both outof country and in-country applications including spouse visa extensions as an oisc regulated UK immigration law firm that has helped more than 3,000 partners with their UK partner Visa applications we're very well placed to discuss this before we discuss each requirement in turn it is important first to discuss what we mean when we say UK spouse visa importantly a UK spouse visa is for applicants who have a partner who is a British or Irish citizen has indeed leave to remain or settled status or has settled status under the EU settlement scheme or has a partner with one of these the applicant is always the non-uk partner that wants to obtain the spouse visa whether the UK partner otherwise known as the sponsor is helping by completing the online application form and Gathering the relevant documents does not change this the Visa will be valid for 33 months if the applicant is applying from outside the UK and 30 months if the applicant is applying from inside the UK and we'll discuss whether you'll be making an application from outside or from inside the UK too so don't worry if you're not sure about that yet a UK spouse visa can lead to indefinite leave to remain otherwise known as ilr and British citizenship and if the applicant gets a UK spouse visa unlike those in the UK on a fiance visa there will be no restrictions on being able to work in the UK will we be applying from outside or inside the UK is one of the most common questions that we see in the YouTube's comments box so we will quickly address that now this is something that is crucial to know because the application process is different the requirements are different and the fees that you will have to pay are different if the applicant the person applying does not have any UK visas or if they're in the UK as a visitor they must make the application from outside the UK this is the case even if the sponsor the UK partner helps with submitting the application form or if they help submitting the supporting documents if the applicant is in the UK as a visitor they'll be expected to return to their country of nationality or a country where the applicant holds any type of long-term residency and then submit the application there to make an application from inside the UK the applicant must be in the UK on a Visa that has been granted for longer than 6 months except if they're in the UK on a fiance or proposed civil partnership Visa those of which who can apply from inside the UK so common visas that allow making an in-country application include UK spouse and partner visas UK fiance or proposed civil partnership visas tier one visas tier 2 visas or skilled worker visas tier four long-term student or graduate feas and tier five feas including youth Mobility scheme feas some Partners may now be wondering what if the UK partner also known as the sponsor helps complete the application form gather the relevant documents and then submit the supporting documents by uploading it this does not change whether the applicant can apply from outside or from inside the UK because even if the sponsor deals with the application submission and helps submit the documents the applicant is always the non-uk partner that wants to obtain the spouse visa if you're still unsure whether your application was or will be an outof country or in-country application we discussed this in detail in a separate YouTube video this video will discuss the spous Visa requirement for both in country and outof Country applications the final bit of housekeeping is to mention that you should learn the requirements before you even consider submitting the application and this is because it's normally the case that the requirements must be met on the date that you submit the application by paying the home office fees on the online application we will first start with the UK spouse visa relationship requirements the first relationship requirement is that the applicant Must Fall with the definition of a partner in the immigration rules the applicant will only be a partner if they're a married partner a civil partner a fiance or propose civil partner or someone who's been living together with the sponsor in a relationship that's similar to a marriage or civil partnership for at least 2 years before submitting the application if you're considering applying as an unmarried partner the only difference between a UK spouse visa and a UK unmarried partner Visa is that you're required to show that you've been living together for 2 years in a relationship similar to a marriage or a civil part partnership instead of providing a marriage certificate as we discussed in our partner Visa common mistakes YouTube video however this has a relatively high threshold and we'll keep the discussion to that video for now if you and your partner are married or in a civil partnership when you submit the application it's important to know that the marriage or civil partnership must be valid under the law en force in the relevant country where the marriage or civil partnership took place so for example if you married in Denmark this is fine as long as the marriage is legally recognized by Denmark the second relationship requirement as we previously discussed is that the sponsor of the application otherwise known as the UK partner must be one a British or Irish citizen or two present and settled in the UK or the sponsor must be one of these the third fourth and fifth requirements are that you both must have met in person you and your partner must be aged 18 or over when the online application is submitted and you both must intend to live together permanently in the UK the intention to live together permanently in the UK requirement is worth elaborating on here firstly you will not generally be expected to provide supporting documentation to show that you intend to live together in the UK permanently rather it is ordinarily implied Because of You submitting the spouse visa application this requirement tends to only be problematic if there's information in the application that calls into question your intention to live together in the UK such as one partner mentioning that they intend to relocate overseas secondly you should know that the intention to live together requirements will apply to each of the applications up to and including the indefinite leave to remain application so if you anticipate that one or both Partners will spend some time overseas before applying for indefinite leave to remain this requirement may require careful planning the standard route to indefinite leave to remain via the partner Visa route involves one submitting the first partner visa application two submitting the first partner visa extension using the flrm application form where another 30 months leave will be granted this partner visa extension should generally be submitted within the 28-day period before the partner Visa or leave expires and then three the indefinite leave to remain or ilr application so if the applicant and or sponsor have spent a significant amount of time outside the UK after being granted the first partner visa application but before the ilr application this can call into question the intention to live together permanently in the UK requirements when you submit either the first partner visa extension or the ilr application the immigration rules as it relates to these applications do not State the amount of time that can be spent outside the UK until the intention to live together in the UK requirement can be problematic and the reason for this is because the reason is very relevant one or both Partners going on a study trip is part of a course and or working overseas are examples of good reasons which justify spending extended periods outside the UK without calling into question the intention to live together requirements for each of these applications requirement number six any previous relationships of the sponsor and or applicant must have broken down permanently unless it's a relationship that falls within one of the very few and rarely relied on exceptions the home office is primarily concerned about previously legally recognized relationships in other words previous marriages or civil Partnerships the breakdown of previous marriages and previous civil Partnerships must be evidence accordingly for previous marriages it is mandatory to provide either a decree absolute or an overseas equivalent decree nisses or decree nissy equivalents are not considered final and therefore will not suffice the other acceptable documents depend on the particular circumstances but include a death certificate and nment or final order of civil partnership disillusion document or overseas equivalence the next requirement that we will discuss is that you and your partner must not be in a prohibited degree of relationship this basically means that the applicant and sponsor cannot be immediate family members this is the list of the prohibited degrees of relationships if this requirement concerns you feel free to pause this video to have a longer look the final relationship requirement we will discuss is a genuine and subsisting relationship requirement yes it is a requirement for the spous Feer application to prove Pro that your relationship is genuine they will not need to be 100% sure that your relationship is genuine but rather you must prove to the home office that there's a greater than 50% chance of your relationship being genuine when deciding on the genuine and subsisting relationship requirement the home office will consider your application as a whole they will therefore look at the supporting documents that you submit the factors of a genuine and subsisting relationship and how they apply to your application regarding the supporting documentation that you submit Partners often submit as many relationship documents that they think are relevant despite this we know from my colleagues who worked in the home office that a lot of these such as letters from family or friends money transfers social media logs and gift invoices are in fact completely disregarded by home office case workers this is not to say that all relationship documents tend to be disregarded by the home office letters of support discussing the development of your relationship for example are often very good to submit but the reality is that the genuine relationship requirement is decided more in light of the relevant factors of a genuine and subsisting relationship than the documents that you submit common examples of documentation that is given no or very little weight include hotel bookings flight tickets money transfers statement from family or friends social media posts wedding invites and receipts home office case workers will consider among other things whether you've cohabited whether you visited each other's home country and family whether you share financial responsibilities and whether you have children so if you're watching this and are slightly anxious about the fact that only a few of these apply or if none of these apply this is not necessarily problematic in fact it's fairly common for partners not to have cohabited before submitting their first partner visa application often applicants will not share any substantial financial responsibilities such as a shared mortgage or a joint bank account and not having children is certainly not going to go against you another main consideration is how long you've known each other on this point the home office guidance does not specify a minimum length of time that you and your partner must have known each other or have been in a relationship with each other in fact many applicants from certain countries first meet on their wedding day and then submit the UK spouse visa application shortly after this is not necessarily problematic because home office case workers are instructed to take into account cultural considerations the genuine and subsisting relationship requirement is a requirement that causes a lot of partner's anxiety but fortunately this is not a requirement that tends to be problematic rather it's the financial requirement that tends to cause issues with spouse visa applications as we'll discuss later on in this video the genuine and subsisting relationship requirements tends to only be problematic where the applicant Andor sponsor have a questionable immigration history or if they've only met in person once or twice very briefly and there are no cultural considerations that would be relevant we will now discuss the UK spouse visa English language requirements and the numerous ways that you can satisfy this requirement firstly if the applicant is aged 65 or over when the application is submitted the English language requirement will automatically be met secondly if the applicant has a majority English-speaking nationality the English language requirements will also automatically be met the majority English-speaking nationalities are listed here the only thing that you'll have to do if the applicant has one of these nationalities is to submit their passport that shows this thirdly if the applicant already has an academic bachelor's Master's or PhD awarded in the UK the degree certificate can be submitted to satisfy the English language requirement as long as the certificate shows one the applicant's name two the title and date of the award and three the name of the awarding institution the fourth way to satisfy the English language requirement is to have an english-taught academic Bachelor Masters or PhD that was awarded outside the UK academic qualifications awarded outside the UK unlike qualifications awarded from inside the UK must be accompanied by documentation from ectis which was previously known as UK Nar the documentation required from ectis depends on the country in which the qualification was awarded if the qualification was awarded in one of the countries listed here you will only need to obtain I documentation confirming that the qualification meets or exceeds the recognized standards of a bachelor's Masters or PhD in the UK there's no need to acquire documentation from etis stating that the qualification was taught or researched in English at or above the necessary level as it will be assume that this requirement has been met the required documentation will change if the qualification was not awarded in one of these countries in such a case you must provide one documentation from ecus which confirms that the qualification meets or exceeds seeds the recognized standards of a bachelor's Master's or PhD in the UK and two documentation from etis which confirms the degree was taught or researched in English at or above the required English language level which is A1 for the first partner visa application and A2 for the partner viser extension after at least 30 months in the UK the fifth way to satisfy the spouse visa English language requirement is to pass a secure English language test which is otherwise known as a selt the first thing that must be stressed is that any English language test test will not suffice rather the English language test must be a secure English language test secure English language tests were introduced several years back as a response to dodgy English language test centers selling English language tests without testing the applicant's English language ability so secure English language tests or selts are essentially English language tests that are approved by the home office and are taken at home office approved English language test centers this is the list of the current secure English language tests the IELTS life skills test is very commonly relied on and is the one that we most commonly recommend not only are all iots life skills tests taken at home office approved test centers but a lot of test guidance can be found online and in local bookstores worldwide unless you have a specific reason to do so we do not generally recommend taking the IELTS for ukvi tests which are essentially I for UK academic and IELTS for ukvi General training tests and this is because of two reasons firstly we've seen that those who intend to book the iots for UK VI tests sometimes become a non-secure English language test version which are simly named this is one of the most common causes of refusal due to the English language requirement for example this is an IELTS for General training test certificate that was taken at a home office approved test center since this contains a ukvi number this test certificate type is fine to rely on this is an ielt academic test certificate for a test that was not taken at a home office approved test center the certificate looks almost identical to a secure English language test certificate except it does not contain a ukvi number secondly you are only required to set a test that assesses the applicant's ability in speaking and listening this test along with a few other tests that were previously listed also unnecessarily assesses reading and writing so in this list here you can see tests ranging from A1 being the lowest level to C2 being the highest level if the applicant is applying for their first spouse visa a minimum level of A1 will be required this is the case even if the first spouse visa application is being made from inside the UK If the applicant is applying to extend their first spouse visa after 30 months in the UK then a minimum level of A2 will be required to save money and time if the applicant's English language ability is good enough you may decide to arrange an A2 or B1 secure English language tests for the first partner visa application and then reuse this in subsequent applications if an applicant sits an A2 test for their first spouse viser application they can normally rely on this test for their first UK spouse VIs application and their spouse viser extension application if an applicant sits a B1 level test for their first spouse viser application they can normally rely on this test for their first spouse visa application their spouse visa extension application the indefinite leave to remain application and the British naturalization application if the applicant chooses to apply for that so some of you may be wondering the official gov.uk website told me that the secure English language tests are only valid for 2 years why then can they be relied on in the subsequent applications the answer to this is found in paragraph 32d of appendix fmse which states that if the home office has already accepted it as part of a successful previous partner viser application the decision maker will accept that certificate or result as valid if it was pass its validity date we will make two final points regarding secure English language tests firstly YouTube is a great resource to help identify whether the applicant should be able to pass the A1 A2 or B1 tests in speaking and listening since the secure English language test typically cost between 50 to 00 per test attempt passing it the first time will save you money and time secondly please book the test on the English language providers official website and this is because there are several dodgy thirdparty websites that deceptively try to appear to be the official website but in the tiny small print you'll read something like we're not affiliated with the English language test providers but are agents that help applicants book English language tests we will now discuss the two situations where the applicant will be exempt from the spouse visa English language requirement firstly the applicant will be exempt and therefore will not have to satisfy the English language requirement if they fall within the disability exemption this will apply if the home office casew worker believes the applicant to have either a physical or mental condition that prevents them from either learning English or taking an approved English language test at the required level whilst each application will be decided on a case-by casee basis if the applicant can provide medical evidence from a medical practitioner qualified in the appropriate field which states that the applicant is deaf is a person with without speech or has a speech impediment which limits their ability to communicate in English the exemption will likely be approved secondly the applicant will be exempt if there are exceptional circumstances that prevent the applicant from satisfying the English language requirement this exemption is most commonly inquired about whether there are no home office approved secure English language test centers in the applicant's country of residence and on this point the guidance states that in such a case applicants will generally be expected to travel to another country to take the test we elaborate more on these two exemptions on our website www. migrate org.uk so if you think that the exemption May apply feel free to give that a look we will now discuss the tuberculosis requirement otherwise known as the TB requirement certain applicants applying from outside the UK will have to submit a TB certificate showing that they're free from active pulmonary TB spouse Fe are applications from inside the UK on the other hand will not be required to provide a TB test certificate so if you're making an in country application feel free to skip to the next section in this video Let's now discuss specifically which applicants must submit a TB test when it comes to outof Country applications the starting position is a TB test will be required if the applicant is living in one of the listed countries on the gov.uk website or have been living in one of the countries 6 months before submitting the application so what is the list of countries this list can be found by Googling countries where you need a TB test for your UK visa application for your convenience here is a link list at the time of shooting this video just because the applicant has lived in one of these countries does not always mean that a TB test will be required however because as is common throughout the immigration rules there are exceptions firstly a TB test will not be required even if the applicant is or has been living in one of the listed countries if the applicant is a diplomat accredited to the UK secondly a TB test will not be required if the applicant has lived for at least 6 months in a country where TB screen is not required and they have been from that country for no longer than 6 months so this means that if the applicant only visits a country that requires a TB test this does not necessarily mean that they must submit a TB test it also means that if an applicant relocates to a country that requires a TB test just before applying this again does not necessarily mean that they must submit a TV test for example Nick a New Zealand national previously lived in New Zealand which is not on the list Nick moved to India which is on the list two months months before submitting the spouse visa application Nick does not need to arrange a TB test because the exception applies he has lived for at least 6 months in a country which is not on the list New Zealand and has not been away from New Zealand for longer than 6 months it is crucial to stress that not any TB test will suffice as the test must be taken at a home office approved Clinic the list of home office approved clinics can be found on the same gov. UK page we discussed earlier here you can see that all you'll need to do is click on the relevant country click on the documents here and then you will see more information about booking the TB test and you'll also see the list of home office approved clinics the certificates from TB tests taken at home office approved clinics look like this in some instances the TB test certificate will state home office instead of UK visas and immigration whilst in other instances it will be completed by hand rather than electronically importantly the test certificate needs to state that there's no evidence of active pulmonary TB the certificate normally States you must carry this certificate with you in your hand luggage when you travel to the UK and present it to the immigration officer on arrival failure to do so will result in a delay to your journey and you may be required to undergo the tests again whilst the applicant should bring the TB document to the airport if it was required in the first place it is very rare for the immigration officer on arrival to request to see it TB test certificates are valid for 6 months however the only date the TB test needs to be valid is when you submit the application by paying the home office fees therefore it does not not matter if the TB test has expired when the applicant attends the visa center appointment and it does not matter if the TB test has expired when the applicant arrives in the UK finally it's worth noting that sponsors are never required to take TB tests the TB test requirement can also apply to dependent children that are applying and it's only the first outof country spouse feaser application that can require a TB test none of the extension applications will require a TB test we will now discuss the adequate accommodation requirement for UK spouse fees feas this requirement requires you to submit documentation that shows that there will be adequate accommodation without recourse to public funds for the applicant sponsor and any dependent children if relevant so when does there need to be adequate accommodation for outof Country applications the documents must show that there's adequate accommodation when the applicant arrives in the UK for in-country applications the documents must show that there's adequate accommodation for when the application is decided this accommodation must be accommodation which the family own for which they occupy exclusively so if the applicant Andor sponsor owns UK accommodation this aspect of the requirement will be fine but what does occupy exclusively mean here occupy exclusively does not mean that the whole property must be owned by the applicant and or sponsor but rather that there must be at least one part of the accommodation for the exclusive use of the family as sleeping accommodation therefore it's fine if you rent or rely on a family or friends accommodation just for the purpose of satisfying the adequate accommodation requirements in fact in fact relying on a friend or family member's accommodation just for the application is commonly done for good reason it will not normally tie you down to a financial contract there are commonly no or minimal costs associated with this and the friend or family member is ordinarily happy to help you by providing you with the required documentation however just because there is at least one part of the accommodation that is for the exclusive use of the family as sleeping accommodation does not suffice alone this is because the accommodation cannot be overcrowded then considering whether the accomodation will be overcrowded we must first consider the number of rooms available as sleeping accommodation not to the number of bedrooms the accommodation currently has kitchen and bathrooms cannot be counted as rooms available as sleeping accommodation here whilst reception or living rooms can we must then consider the listed number of people permitted to sleep in the accommodation without it being overcrowded so for example if there are two rooms available as sleeping accommodation and there are three people that will be residing in the accommodation the St starting point is that it will not be overcrowded I use the words starting point because when it comes to this table everyone is not treated equally here the age of the persons is relevant as children under a year old are not counted or as children aged between 1 and 10 are counted as half a person whether the persons in the accommodation are a couple and the person's gender are listed as relevant in the home office guidance furthermore the home office guidance states that the accommodation cannot contravene Public Health regulations with this being said this is not something think that tends to be problematic rather it will only really be problematic if the home office caseworker has reason to believe that the accommodation contravenes Public Health regulations I've personally been involved with more than 3,000 partner Visa applications and I've not once seen this to be an issue the final thing worth noting regarding the adequate accommodation requirement is that the accommodation cannot be prospective this essentially means that you'll be required to provide documentation when you submit the application showing that there will be adequate accommodation in place you cannot simply stay we will arrange the accommodation once the Visa has been granted we will now discuss the UK spouse visa Financial requirement if you're preparing and submitting the applications yourselves this is certainly something that you want to focus on as the financial requirement is the most common cause for spouse and partner Visa refusals we will start by discussing some important General Financial requirement principles that Partners often Overlook firstly unlike the genuine relationship requirement the financial requirement is an objective standard in other words it is largely a box sticking exercise is to not only show that you earn enough money or have enough cash savings but also that each of the document specific immigration rules are met an application that evidences employment income of1 million per year is as good as an application which evidences employment income one pound above the required amount and being able to evidence a very high income will not make up for not satisfying the other requirements such as the relationship or accommodation requirement also where one source of income satisfies the financial requirement alone it is not necessary to evidence other sour sources of income in fact doing so will only increase the requirements that you will have to familiarize yourself with as well as increase the number of supporting documents that you will have to provide for example Luke receives a gross annual income of £50,000 from his employer he's been employed for S months neither Luke nor his family-owned shares of the employing company and Luke also receives 00,000 per year from being a self-employed Soul Trader Luke would likely be better off only evidencing his employment income here is evidencing self-employment income is often much more burdensome than evidencing employment income furthermore when employment income is combined with self-employment income this changes the employment income calculation and requirements as we'll discuss later on in this video another thing worth noting here is that the only time that the financial requirement needs to be met is when the application is submitted by paying the home office fee which is known as the date of application so if you rely on employment income and cash savings to satisfy the financial requirements but then quit that job and spend all of the cash savings one day after submitting the application this does not technically affect the application furthermore you'll be glad to know that you do not need to calculate the amount of income that is being included towards the financial requirement exactly the home office will not penalize you because you calculated your income differently than what the home office guidance States as long as your income satisfies the financial requirements in accordance with the home office guidance and immigration rules with this being said please do not get too complacent about this because how the income is calculated in the financial requirement is certainly not always intuitive we will now focus on three very important aspects of the financial requirement firstly we'll discuss the level of income you'll need to meet the financial requirements secondly we'll discuss the requirements for each of the different sources of permitted income and thirdly we'll discuss exactly how you can calculate the income in accordance with the immigration rules and home office guidance so how much income will you need to satisfy the UK spouse fees of financial requirements you must first ask yourselves whether the sponsor the UK partner receives any of these whether that's on behalf of their child or not if one of these is received by the sponsor the good news is that you'll need to show much less income than is ordinarily required because the adequate maintainance test applies if the sponsor does receive one of these benefits we've written a detailed step-by-step adequate maintenance guide on our website www.r.org do.uk if the sponsor does not receive one of these benefits the starting point is that you must show that the gross annual income that is the income before tax is greater or equal to the minimum income threshold when you submit the application since the minimum income threshold applies to most applications this video will assume that the sponsor does not receive one of these benefits so as of shooting this video the minimum income threshold is currently under a lot of scrutiny firstly on 4th of December 2023 it was announced that the minimum income threshold is set to increase from £18,600 to £ 38,700 in Spring 2024 however it has since been announced that the minimum income threshold will be raised incrementally in stages in Spring 2024 the minimum income threshold will be raised from 18,600 to £29,000 on the 21st of December 2023 the gov.uk website stated that the minimum income threshold will subsequently be raised to the 40th percentile of earnings for jobs at the skill level of R qf3 which is currently 34,500 and the 50th percentile of earnings for jobs at the skill level of R qf3 which is currently £ 38,700 exact dates have not yet been provided £29,000 is expected to take effect in Spring 2024 whilst £ 38,700 is expected to take effect in early 2025 so the current understanding is that applications submitted by paying the home office fee before April of 2024 will be unaffected by the minimum income threshold change for such applications the starting point is that the minimum income threshold will still be £18,600 for applications submitted after the minimum income threshold increase it is expected that for those applying for their first partner Visa the minimum income threshold will be the minimum income threshold on the date the online application is submitted but what about Partners who are already in the UK on a partner Visa before the proposed change in April 2024 it has now been confirmed that the following will not be required to meet the increased threshold one applicants already in the UK on a partner Visa within the 5-year partner Visa route two two applicants already in the UK on a fiance visa and three applicants who apply before the minimum income threshold is raised therefore if you were required to show a gross annual income of £18,600 for the last partner visa application and you'll be extending your partner visa application after April 2024 you will once again be required to show a gross annual income of £18,600 there have been no announcements that any other aspect of the financial requirement will change so even if the minimum income threshold changes after the release of of this video the other things we discuss regarding the financial requirements are expected to be applicable obviously in any event we will continue to keep our website www.r.org updated this table shows how dependent children applying will affect the minimum income threshold you'll note that for applications that have to meet the new increased minimum income threshold the number of dependent children applying will not affect the minimum income threshold for applications that do not have to meet the new increased minimum income threshold the current guidance states that an additional £3,800 is required for the first charge sponsored in addition to the partner and an additional £2,400 for each further child if this changes in the future we will update the YouTube description and our website Mig grate. org.uk to reflect this let's address the question when will dependent children also be applying is this is not something that is always clear to Partners firstly if you have children who are British or Irish citizens or have settled status then this will not affect the minimum income threshold figure as they will not be applying as part of the UK spouse visa application secondly if the applicant has a child who will remain in their home country they will also not increase the minimum income threshold figure as they will not be applying On a related note the requirements relating to applying dependent children are not always straightforward particularly where the dependent child's biological parents are not the applicant and sponsor we discussed the dependent children requirements in our partner Visa mistakes YouTube series which can be found on our YouTube channel another thing worth noting here is that you do not necessarily need to rely on income to satisfy the financial requirement since cash savings can be used to satisfy the financial requirement cash savings can one meet the minimum income threshold alone two be combined with other sources of income to satisfy the minimum income threshold or three be completely disregarded if another source of permitted source of income meets the minimum income threshold even though cash savings are not inherently an income as we'll discuss later the home office will follow a formula to create a gross annual income in equivalent figure so hopefully you now have a better idea regarding how much income you will need to show let's now discuss the various sources of permitted income that you can include as well as how to calculate that income when discussing the various sources of permitted income we will refer to categories a to G despite the online application form not referencing the word category once you really should know what category or categories your income falls under this is because each category has different requirements calculations and require different documentation we will now discuss category a which is the category for including non-specified limited company employment income towards the financial requirement we will elaborate on what non-specified limited company means so if you're unsure this should soon become clear category a is split into two categories one where the employed partner is residing in the UK and two where the sponsor is residing outside the UK and is returning to the UK with the applicant the calculation and requirements slightly vary if you're relying on the sponsor's employment income where the sponsor is residing overseas and is returning to the UK with the applicant in such a case the overseas-based sponsor will also need to provide a job offer in the UK that satisfies the minimum income threshold whether alone or in combination with other sources of permitted income this video will discuss the calculation and requirements where the employed partner is residing in the UK since that is by far the most common type of employment income relied on on this point if the employed partner is a UK SE fa farer who spends most of their time at C and who qualifies for hmrc C far as earnings deduction they will normally be considered to be resident in the UK for the purpose of assessing the financial requirement let's discuss the category a requirements the first requirement to note is that the person must be employed whilst this may seem obvious it is sometimes the case that upon further inspection those who initially said that they're employed are technically self-employed we won't elaborate on this too much here since this mistake is only made by a few Partners but if the person does not receive pay slips that reference pae or an overseas equivalent of Pye you should familiarize yourself with the difference of being employed and self-employed an exception here is those who are subcontractors under the construction industry scheme who can choose to employ their self-employment income as employment income under category a if the specific documentary requirements are met the second requirement is that the employer must not be a specified limited company if the employer is a specified limited company the requirements are different the calculation is different and the required documents are different a specified limited company is not the same as a limited company they are completely different a specified limited company income is included under category F or G not category a a specified limited company is something that is defined in the immigration rules as a limited company that is registered in the UK and the person whose income you are relying on is an employee and or director of that company and the applicant sponsor or family members of the applicant or sponsor hold shares in that employing company and any remaining shares not including the applicant sponsor or family members of the applicant or sponsor must be held either directly or indirectly by fewer than five other persons I Tred to stress each of these ands because all of these need to apply for the employer to be a specified limited company for example if the company's registered over sees it will not technically be a specified limited company with this being said you should be prepared to explain this to the home office case worker is this is a point that is sometimes overlooked by them you can do this by copy and pasting paragraph 9 of appendix fmse which specifically states that the UK company must be based in the UK If the applicant sponsor or family members of the applicant or sponsor do not hold shares of the employing company that company cannot be a specified limited company if Shares are held but there are more than four other persons that hold the remaining shares it will not be a specified limited company if the employing company is a specified limited company we discuss this later in this video when we discuss category F if at this point you're still unsure whether the company's specified limited company or not we discuss this further on our website www.my.org the third requirement is that the person must have been employed for 6 months or longer when the application is submitted if the person will have been employed for fewer than 6 months when the application is submitted you should then look to category B and this is the case even if the employment will have been held for longer than 6 months when the applicant attends the visa center since the important date is again the date the online application is submitted fourthly applicants can include their employment income if they're in the UK and working legally the implication of this is that for outof Country applications applicants cannot include their employment income towards the financial requirements this is the case even if they earn a lot overseas or have a job offer in the UK for in-country applications this means that most applicants can include their employment income towards the financial requirements sponsors on the other hand will always be able to include their employment income towards the financial requirement it is also worth again emphasizing that the relevant date that the requirements must be met is the date the application is submitted by paying the home office fees this is called the date of application if the employed person stops working after submitting the application this is technically irrelevant to the application since the requirements must only be met when the application is submitted so what is the category a calculation the first step is to identify whether the employment is salaried or non-salaried salaried and non-salaried employment income is calculated completely differently and so this is particularly important to identify salaried employment normally involves the employee receiving a contractual fixed basic amount per year such as £22,000 per year in addition to the fixed basic amount the employee can earn overtime bonuses commission and the like on the other hand non-salaried employment normally involves the employee receiving payment based on the hours or days worked for example £17 an hour or $350 a day in addition to the standard pay based on the amount worked non-salaried employees can receive commission bonuses and overtime the salary non-salary distinction is not always clearcut but pay slips are often very helpful here this is an example of a salaried pay slip this pay slip shows a basic monthly pay of £ 3,213 46 and a bonus of 1,466 the basic monthly pay figure here which again in this pay slip is £ 3,213 46 tends to stay the same month after month until the employee receives a pay rise or pay cup the bonus figure here tends to vary month after month this is an example of a non-salaried pce SL here you can see the words hourly pay and importantly the other pay slips that cover the 6 months before submitting the application show that this hourly pay figure varies month after month to calculate salaried employment income under category a first gather the pay slips that cover the 6 months before submitting the application then identify the pay slip that shows the lowest total gross pay you can take into account the basic pay overtime commission-based pay payments to cover travel time bonuses and skills in UK location based allowances for example using this example here since we're concerned about the total gross pay the relevant figure here will be £ 4,679 46 we are not concerned about the py and National Insurance deductions and we are not concerned about the net pay you should then multiply the lowest total gross pay figure by 12 if the pay slips are monthly pay slips or by 52 if the pay slips are weekly pay slips since this is a monthly pay slip £ 4,679 46 multiplied by 12 is £ 56,57 52 therefore if the visa application is evidenced correctly this 56,000 £53 and 52 P figure is the figure that can be relied on to satisfy the financial requirement if the figure that you reached here is above the minimum income threshold all is well if the figure you reached here falls short of the minimum income threshold you can use the longer calculation method to see if the minimum income threshold is met and this relates to the earlier point that once you must ensure that the minimum income threshold is met you do not ordinarily need to calculate the exact amounts includable first multiply the lowest total basic gross pay as seen in the pay slips covering the 6 months before submitting the application by 12 if monthly pay slips are received will buy 52 if weekly pay slips are received going back to this pay slip this will be the 3,2 £346 figure not the £ 4,679 46 figure the figure that you reach here will be the gross annual basic salary that can be included in the financial requirement the second step is to Total the overtime bonuses commission-based pay payments to cover travel time and skills and UK location based allowances as shown in the pay slips which cover the six months before submitting the online application step three involves dividing the figure Reach In step two by six and then multi Ling this by 12 and then step four involves adding this figure to the gross annual basic pay figure reached in step one again most Partners can skip this more convoluted calculation since it'll only be in a tiny minority of instances where the first calculation discussed will not satisfy the financial requirement but satisfied using this calculation to calculate non-salaried employment income under category a the first step will be to gather the pay slips that cover the six months before submitting the application and then total the gross amount re received here you can include the standard basic pay for example the £17 an hour commission-based pay overtime payments to cover travel time bonuses and skills in UK location based allowances for example this table shows the total monthly gross pay as seen on the monthly pay slips that cover the six months before submitting the application these six figures total £17,000 step two divide this figure by six regardless of whether the pay slips are issued weekly or monthly £17,000 divided by 6 is £ 2,833 33 and then finally step three will require you to multiply this figure by 12 2,833 33 multiplied by 12 is £ 33,976 96 it is this figure that is the amount includable as non-salaried employment income under category a if maternity paternity adoption or sick pay has been received in the 6 months before submitting the app application there is greater flexibility regarding the calculation of the gross annual income that you can include towards the financial requirement in such a case you'll be able to choose the relevant period for calculating employment income to be either the 6 months before submitting the application as is standard or the 6 months before the commencement of the maternity paternity adoption or sick pay we discussed this in more detail on our website migrate org.uk category a employment income can be combined with other category a employ ENT income for example if the person is employed by two employers both of whom have employed the person for 6 months or longer when the application is submitted employment income from both employers can be included similarly for in-country applications if both the applicant and sponsor are employed for 6 months or longer when the application is submitted the applicants and sponsors employment income can be included under category a it can be combined with nonemployment income under category C cash savings under category D pension income under category e we discuss these other sources of income later in this video category a employment income can also be combined with specified limited income and self-employment income as a soul Trader under category F however this will change the calculation and relevant period for including the employment income we discussed this later in our video when we discuss category F incomes category a employment income cannot be combined with category B employment income in such a case both employment incomes must be included under category B we will now discuss non-specified limited company employment income in the UK under category B like category a category B is split into two categories one where the employed partner is residing in the UK and two where the sponsor is residing outside the UK and is returning to the UK with the applicant this video will discuss the calculation and requirements where the employed partner is residing in the UK since that is by far the most common type of employment income relied on in short category B is for employees who have been employed for fewer than 6 months when the application is submitted it is also for employees who will have been employed for longer than 6 months when the application is submitted but do not meet the financial requirement under category a again if the financial requirement is met under category a feel free to ignore category B the category B requirements for the most part are similar to category a first the person must be employed second the employer must not be a specified limited company third applicants can include their employment income if they're in the UK and are working legally the implication is that for outof Country applications applicants cannot include their employment income towards the financial requirement the main difference between the requirements for category A and B is that unlike category a there is no minimum length of employment requirement so as we elaborate on later some Partners can satisfy the financial requirements under category B after only one month or even one week there are two tests that must be satisfied under C category B if you only meet one of the two tests then unfortunately the financial requirement will not be met the first test that must be satisfied is that the current gross annual income from employment must equal or exceed the financial requirement that applies we use the word current because here we're only concerned about the gross annual income that is being received when the application is submitted this gross annual income calculation varies depending on whether the employment is salaried or non-salaried for salaried employment you should multiply the total gross employment income from the most recent pay slip that is being submitted before the submission of the application by 12 if monthly pay slips are issued or by 52 if weekly pay slips are issued for non salaried employment you should follow the following Three Steps step one total the gross employment income received since employment started up to a maximum period of 12 months step two divide this number by the number of month months if monthly pay slips are issued weeks if weekly pay slips are issued or by days if daily pay slips are issued since employment started again up to a maximum period of 12 months step three multiply this figure by 12 if monthly pay slips are issued 52 if weekly pay slips are issued or by 365 if daily pay slips are issued the result will be the figure from non-salaried employment that you can include towards the financial requirement in test one the figure in test one can be combined with other category B employment income non-employment category C Income such as property rental income cash savings under category D and pension income under category e the second test requires the person to have received the level of employment income required in the 12 months before the application submission to calculate this second test first gather the pay slips covering up to the 12 months before the submission of the online application and then total the gross amount received under category B you can include basic pay or salary payments to cover travel time overtime commission based pay skills and UK location based allowances and bonuses for example using this pay slip we will add this £ 4,679 46 figure here please note that we're not concerned with the deductions and we're not concerned with the net pay figure and importantly unlike test one you can also include employment income from previous non-specified limited company Employers in the 12 months before submitting the application so I specifically use the words up to the 12 months because the employee does not need to have been employed for each of the 12 months before submitting the application so there's nothing necessarily wrong with there being gaps in employment in the 12 months before submitting the application furthermore unlike category a which requires the person to have been employed for 6 months when submitting the application category B has no requirement relating to a minimum length of employment rather the employee must be employed when the application is submitted and must provide at least one pce lip so technically for particularly High earners it is possible to satisfy category B by only relying on one week's employment if weekly pay slips are issued or by only one month's employment if monthly pay slips are issued for example Jane has been employed for only one month in the previous 12 months she receives £480,000 per year and her first monthly pay slip totals £40,000 this pay slip meets part one of the two-part test because it shows that her current gross annual employment income is greater than the minimum income threshold that applies to her this pay slip also meets part two of the two-part test because this pay slip shows that she received more than the minimum income threshold in the 12 months before submitting the application part two of the category B test can be combined with other category B employment income non-employment category C Income such as property rental income and the gross amount of pension income received in the same 12-month period under category e importantly cash savings canot canot be combined with part two of the test only part one so if you do not satisfy the financial requirement combining employment income under category B with cash savings under category G Partners often get around this by waiting until the employed partner has been employed for 6 months and then combine employment income with category a with cash savings under category D since there is no such restriction regarding being able to combine cash savings we will now discuss specified limited company income the first requirement to include specified limited company income towards the financial requirement is that the company that provides the income must be a specified limited company we discussed the specified limited company definition earlier on in this video to quickly summarize this definition again a specified limited company is where all of the following apply the company is a limited company registered in the UK and the person whose income you're relying on is an employee and or director of the company and the applicant sponsor or family members of the applicant or sponsor hold shares in the employing company and and any remaining shares not including the applicant sponsor or family members of the applicant or sponsor must be held either directly or indirectly by fewer than five other persons if you're still unsure whether the company is a specified limited company or not you may want to check out our specified limited company article on our website which among other things provides you with a step-by-step account you can follow to identify whether the company is a specified limited company or not the second requirement is that the specified limited company must have had one full Financial year and this is because you'll be required to provide company related documentation such as accounts and business bank statements specifically relating to one full Financial year if the specified limited company does not have one full Financial year the two options are normally one rely on another source of income to satisfy the financial requirement or to wait until one full Financial year has passed and then submit the application if the financial requirement is met the third requirement is that the most recent full Financial year should be a 12month financial year while whil UK limited companies normally have a 12-month Financial year there are some cases where the company's Financial year is not 12 months particularly in the first year of trading as the First Financial year can sometimes be shorter or longer than 12 months long if the specified limited company's most recent Financial year is not 12 months this may be problematic depending on the home office case worker you're assigned as 12 months is specifically mentioned in the home office guidance therefore in such a case you can one ask the accountant if the accounting year can be changed to a 12-month Financial year two wait until the specified limited company's most recent Financial year is 12 months or three rely on another source of permitted income to satisfy the financial requirement or four submit the application despite the most recent Financial year not being 12 months the most important factor regarding whether this will be problematic or not will again be the home office casew worker that you're assigned if the financial year is fewer than 12 months this is less likely to be problematic whilst if the financial year is longer than 12 months this is more likely going to be problematic the next requirement that we will discuss is that there must be ongoing receipt of employment and or dividend income since the specified limited company's most recent full Financial year ended if you're not able to show that there is ongoing receipt of employment Andor dividend income for example if the company has since been liquidated you will not technically be able to include the income from the specified limited company the fifth requirement is that if the company is not required to produce annual audited accounts which is the case for the vast majority specified limited companies the company will need an accountant since you will also need to provide an accountant certificate of confirmation which is something that we discuss further on our website migrate org.uk we will now discuss how to calculate the amount of specified limited income that you can include towards the financial requirement firstly it's worth noting that in approximately 99% of applications specified limited company income is included under category f it can also be included under category G but since category G involves involves a lot more paperwork in 99% of instances Partners can completely disregard category G the first step to calculating specified limited company income is to identify the specified limited company's most recent full Financial year that past by looking at the ct600 company tax return document here is a ct600 company tax return document example zooming in we can see that in this example the financial year starts on the 1st of April and ends on the 31st of March so using this financial year as an example which starts on the 1st of April and ends on the 31st of March if an application is submitted on the 30th of March 2024 I.E a day before the financial year ends the relevant Financial year will begin on the 1st of April 2022 and end on the 31st of March 2023 if however an application is submitted one day after the financial year ends on the 1st of April 20124 the relevant Financial year will begin on the 1st of April 2023 and end on the third 31st of March 2024 so in a lot of instances accounts for the new Financial year will need to be filed much earlier than what the UK tax rules require the Second Step requires you to total the gross amount of employment income that was received in the financial year that you identified in step one if the person also received dividend income that was declared during or in respect of the relevant Financial year that income received can also be included so the words or in respect of means that the end income does not actually need to have been received during the relevant Financial year rather it is fine if it was received after the relevant Financial year but before the application is submitted since this goes against the general approach in the immigration rules which requires the income to be received in the relevant Financial period if you choose to rely on income that was received after the relevant Financial year ended but before the application was submitted you should make it clear to the home office case worker that this is permitted by citing par paragraph 9di of appendix fmse and by highlighting the words or in respect of the total of the employment and dividend income as previously discussed is the amount that you can include towards the financial requirement under category F if everything is evidenced correctly so for small business owners it's commonly the case that the business owner takes money out of the business when and as they need it and then lets the accountant deal with the accounts and how those payments are labeled since it's the accountant's job to make these payments as tax efficient as possible we commonly see that they can be creative and label payments as something other than salary or dividends such as the repayment of a director's loan the amount of employment and dividend income you're relying on should be made clear in your application as it is only these two types of income that can be included in your application if the financial requirement is met under category F feel free to ignore category G completely as it involves submitting much more paperwork while category f is based on the company's most recent full Financial year category G is based on the company 's two most recent full Financial years and not only requires documentation relating to two Financial years but it will also require you to calculate the mean average of the employment and dividends that was received in the two most recent full Financial years what about combining specified limited company income with other sources of income specified limited company income under category F can be combined with non-specified limited company employment income other non-employment income under category C such as property rental income and pension income under category e however when specified limited company income is combined with other sources of income the relevant Financial period for the other source of income generally changes to match the same period as the specified limited company income for example this table shows the amount of specified limited company income received the numbers 13 to1 here relate to the number of months before submitting the online application the months 13 up until 2 are highlighted in Orange because that is the specified limited company's most recent full Financial year and thus is the amount that can be included towards the financial requirement month one here will be irrelevant regarding the amount that can be included towards the financial requirement as it's outside the most recent full Financial year if we total up months 13 to2 here this will mean that 15,000 specified limited company income can be included towards the financial requirement for non-specified limited companies under category a the relevant period will generally be the 6 months before submitting the online application however when you combine specified limited company income with non-specified limited company income in this example it will only be months 13 to2 I.E the relevant period for this specified limited company income which are relevant when determining the amount of non-specified limited company income that can be included towards the financial requirement and this is because when you combine specified limited company income with other sources of income the general rule is that the relevant period changes to match the specified limited company's relevant period an implication of this is that other specified limited company and self-employment income as a sole Trader partner or franchise can only be combined when the relevant Financial period is the same specified limited company income under category F cannot be combined with cash savings and sources of income which are not still a source of income when the application is submitted continuing with the example of combining specified limited company income with non-specified limited company income here you can see that the non-specified limited company income stopped becoming a source of income 4 months before submitting the online application therefore in this instance as The non-specified Limited company employment income is not being received when the online application intends to be submitted the non-specified limited company income cannot be included towards the financial requirements let's now discuss other non-employment income other non-employment income which is included under category C comprises of numerous types of income a list of which you can see here unlike employment and self-employment income both the sponsor and applicant can include this income towards the financial requirement for outof country and in country applications let's discuss the other non-employment income requirements under category C there are two general mandatory requirements firstly the relevant asset on which the income is based on must be in the name of the applicant sponsor or both jointly secondly the relevant asset on which the income is based must be held or owned when the application is submitted by paying the home office fees so so if for example you want to rely on property rental income but you sold the house that was being let out that income will not be able to be included towards the financial requirement this does not mean that the asset needs to have been held for 12 months before submitting the application however for example if the property was held for 5 months before submitting the application and generated rental income for those 5 months income from those five months can be included towards the financial requirement each of the category C sources of income can come with additional requirements which can be found in appendix FM 1.7 and appendix fmse the general rule for these an exception being maintainance grants and stipend is that you can include the gross amount received in the 12 months before submitting the application each of the category C sources of income can have further peculiarities regarding the calculation of which are discussed further in appendix FM 1.7 for example regarding property rental income the amount generally includible is the gross amount of property rental income received in the 12 months before before submitting the online application before the deduction of any management fees category C can be combined with employment income under category A and B are non-employment Income under category C cash savings under category D pension income under category e specified limited company income under category f and g and self-employment income as a soul Trader partner or franchise under category f and g please note however as we discussed earlier in the video when category C income is combined with with category F the relevant period of the category C Income changes to the category F relevant period we will now discuss relying on cash savings for UK spouse visa applications which is included under category D there are three different types of cash savings applications one where cash savings have been held for at least 6 months when the application is submitted to where cash savings have been held for fewer than 6 months when the application is submitted but Are the proceeds of a sale of property that took place within the 6 months before submitting the application and three where cash savings have been held for fewer than 6 months when the application is submitted but there has been a liquidation or transfer of Investments stocks shares bonds or trust funds within the 6 months before submitting the application this video will discuss each of these different types of cash savings applications let's first discuss the cash savings requirements that are relevant to all cash savings applications in all cases the cash savings must be held in either the applicant's personal account the sponsor's personal account or the applicant and sponsor's joint account so yes applicants can include their cash savings toward the financial requirement for all applications the immigration rules however do not state that the cash savings can be in the applicant or sponsor's account which is a joint account with someone other than the applicant or sponsor so for example if the account that holds the cash savings is in the name of the sponsors and the sponsor mother jointly this does not technically satisfy the immigration rules the cash savings does not need to be held in British Pounds rather the cash funds will be converted using the closing spot exchange rate found on oanda.com on the date that the application is submitted the cash savings can be held in a bank or savings account that is a current deposit or investment account and this is worth noting because with other sources of income such as employment income you were specifically required to provide personal bank accounts not savings accounts the cash savings must be immediately withdrawable with or without penalty and the implication of this is that if when the application is submitted the funds are in the form of a fixed deposit account where the funds cannot be accessed immediately the fixed deposit accounts funds will not be includable towards the financial requirement the source of the cash savings must be legal and whilst you need to declare the source of the cash savings it is generally the case that the home office will take your word for it they will not conduct forensic accounting regarding the cash saving source the account the funds are held with must be a financial institution regulated by the appropriate regulatory body for the country in which the institution is operating in the UK this is the financial conduct Authority otherwise known as the FCA or the Prudential regulation Authority otherwise known as the P the home office doesn't list the relevant bodies for the other countries so if you're relying on an overseas account it will be your responsibility to ensure that the relevant body is an appropriate regulatory body and finally in all instances you'll will be required to provide regular bank or savings statements again understandably the home office does not elaborate on what a regular statement looks like but in most situations this should be rather obvious the statement will need to identify the account holder or account holders and should have an identifiable account number should show the name of the financial institution and be complete meaning that the statements will need to show the relevant information required to establish whether the immigration rules are mat and on this point please do not redact your state ments so how does the home office calculate the amount of cash savings you can include towards the financial requirement we will start with the standard cash savings application where the cash savings will have been held for 6 months when the application is submitted step one involves identifying the lowest total amount of includable cash savings held at one point in time in the 6 months before submitting the application if you're relying on cash savings held in only one account this will be rather simple as you would just need to identify the lowest figure as seen in the statements if however you're relying on cash savings held over numerous accounts if it's not immediately clear after scanning through the statements that the financial requirement is met we would normally recommend creating an Excel sheet like the one here which makes it clear what the relevant figure is not only will this make the home office case worker's job easier which is certainly something that you want to do but this also helps you ensure that you satisfy the financial requirement whilst creating such an Excel sheet which covers each day in the six months before submitting the application can seem like an incredibly mundane task many banks allow you to download statements in Excel format which will save you a lot of time comparing to manually inputting the figures and as this screenshot shows if the cash funds are not in British Pounds you should list the relevant British pounds conversion figure using the conversion rate found on oanda.com on the date that you submit the application the Second Step will require you to minus the figure in step one by £16,000 the implication of this is that if you have cash savings of £16,000 or less your cash savings will not help you satisfy the minimum income threshold the final step step three will then require you to divide this number by 2.5 assuming you're applying for a spouse or partner visa and not indefinite leave to remain where this step is not relevant the figure that you reach here will be the cash savings gross annual income equivalent figure that can be included towards the financial requirement the second type of cash savings application is where cash savings have been held for fewer than 6 months when the application is submitted but Are the proceeds of a sale of property within the 6 months before submitting the application the relevant calculation here is not the lowest amount of cash savings held in the 6 months before submitting the application rather the six-month period will be reduced by the amount of time that passed between the start of the six-month period and the deposit of the proceeds of the property sale so for example if the deposit of the proceeds of the property sale was received 2 months before submitting the application to rely on the cash savings from the sale of property you will only be required to provide personal bank statements or savings statements that cover the two months before submitting the application if ownership of the property was shared with a third party I.E someone other than the applicant Andor sponsor only the proceeds of the sale of the share of the property owned by the applicant sponsor or both jointly can be counted the third type of cash savings application is where cash savings have been held for fewer than 6 months when the application is submitted but there has been a liquidation or transfer of Investments stocks shares bonds or trust funds within the 6 months before submitting the application here the relevant calculation is not made using the lowest amount of cash savings held in the 6 months before submitting the application rather just like where there's been a sale of the property the standard six-month period will be reduced by the amount of time between the start of the six-month period and the transfer or liquidation into cash so for example if a stock portfolio which was held for longer than 6 months before submitting the application was sold 1 month before submitting the application to rely on the cash savings from the stock portfolio you will only technically be required to provide personal bank or savings statements that cover the one month before submitting the application combining cash savings with other sources of income cash savings can be combined with employment income under category a and part one of the two-part category B test and non-employment income under category C and pension income under category e cash savings cannot be combined with specified limited company income under category F or G or self-employment income as a soul Trader partner or franchise under category F or G let's now discuss including pension income towards the spouse fees of financial requirements which is included under category e firstly both the applicant and sponsor can include their pension income towards the financial requirement in both out of of country and in country spouse viser applications secondly the pension income must have become a source of income at least 28 days before applying you can include State Pension whether that's from the UK or overseas and you can also include occupational or private pension the amount of pension income that you can include is the gross amount that is being received when the application is submitted in most cases because there are some exceptions it is not the gross pension income received in the 12 months before submitting the application for example the person started to receive £1,000 a month in the form of a pension annuity approximately 2 months before applying since the person receives £1,000 a month gross we will multiply this monthly figure by 12 to come up with the gross annual figure which is £12,000 £12,000 is therefore the amount includable in this instance the relevant figure will not be £3,000 which is the gross amount received in the 12 months before applying combining pension income pension income can be combined with employment income under category A and B and it can also be combined with other non-employment income under category C cash savings under category D specified limited company income under category F or G and self-employment income as a soul Trader partner or franchise under category F or G as we discussed earlier in this video however when pension income is combined with category F income the relevant period of the pension income changes to the relevant period in cat F self-employment income is a soul Trader partner or franchise under category f and g the first requirement is that the person must be self-employed as a soul Trader partner or franchise if the person owns a UK limited company that income is ordinarily treated as specified limited company income assuming there are not more than four other persons that hold the remaining shares we elaborate further on specified limited company income in this video the second requirement is that one Financial year must have passed since the person became self-employed this is because as we will discuss later you will need to provide documentation relating to the most recent full Financial year that passed which in the UK is from 6th of April to 5th of April thirdly there must be ongoing self-employment when the application is submitted this will need to be evidenced in the form of a bank statement dated no more than 3 months before applying shown transactions relating to ongoing trading or evidence stated no more than 3 months before applying of the renewal of a license to trade or of ongoing payment of business rates business related insurance premiums employer National Insurance contributions or franchise payments to the parent company fourthly applicants can include their self-employment income if they're in the UK and are working legally the implication is that for out of country applications applicants cannot include their self-employment income towards the financial requirement regardless of how much they earn finally the immigration rules makes a distinction between those who are self-employed in the UK when the application is submitted and those who are self-employed overseas and will be returning to the UK with the applicant to work for those self-employed overseas who will be returning to the UK with the applicant to work will need to provide evidence that one that their self-employment income is ongoing and will be continuing in the UK or two a confirmed job offer of salaried or non-salaried employment in the UK starting within 3 months of their return let's now discuss how to calculate self-employment income the first step is to identify the most recent Financial year that passed for those self-employed in the UK this will be the most recent 6th to 5th of April self- assessment tax return period that passed for example if the application is submitted on the 4th of April 2024 just before the financial year ends the relevant period will be from the 6th of April 2022 to the 5th of April 2023 on the other hand if you apply on the 6th of April 2024 just after the financial year ends the relevant Financial period will be the 6th of April 2023 to the 5th of April 2024 two points are worth making here firstly if the person is self-employed overseas this period will vary according to the country the person is tax resident in secondly the immigration rules can require the self-employed person to submit their self assessment tax return period much earlier than what the UK tax rules do therefore if you apply shortly after the 5th of April of Any Given year even though hmrc will not require you to submit the self assessment tax return the immigration rules unfortunately do the second step is to identify the gross taxable profits from the person's share of the business in this period not including any deductible allowances expenses or liabilities which may be applied to the gross taxable profits to establish the final tax liability the easiest way to do this will be to ask the self-employed person's accountant if they do not have an accountant you will likely need one to satisfy the immigration rules depending on your circumstances it will be this figure that is includable under category F if the application is evidenced accordingly self-employment income can also be included under category G the difference in calculation here is that under category G you must calculate the mean average of the two most recent full Financial year figures however it is very rare for partners to rely on category G for good reason since category G requires providing a lot more documentation relying on category G is only something that is seen as a last resort if the financial requirement is not met under category F self-employment in as a soul Trader partner or franchise can be combined with non-specified limited company employment income other non-employment income under category C and pension income under category e however when self-employment income is combined with one of these the relevant Financial period for the other sources of income normally changes to match the same Financial period as the self-employment income which is 6th of April to 5th of April for those self-employed in the UK for example the applicant wants to submit the application in June 2024 the applicant wants to combine their partner's non-specified limited company employment income with their partner's self-employment income as a soul Trader in the UK normally the relevant period for the employment income will be the 6 months before applying under category a or up to the 12 months before applying under category B the amount of employment income includable will be the gross amount received during the 6th of April 2023 to 5th of April 2024 period self-employment income is a soul Trader partner or franchise can also be combined with other self-employment as a Sol Trader partner or franchise if the relevant Financial period is the same and specified limited company income if the specified limited company's Financial period is the same self-employment income under category F cannot be combined with either cash savings or sources of income which are not a source of income when the application is submitted so for example the applicant wants to submit the application in June 2024 they want to combine their partners non-specified limited company employment income with their partner's self-employment income as a soul Trader in the UK If the employment income stopped becoming a source of income in May 2024 before the application is submitted the employment income will not be able to be included towards the financial requirement let's now address the sources of income that cannot be included in the financial requirement firstly as we discussed earlier for outof Country applications the applicant's employment and self-employment income cannot be included towards the financial requirement secondly the starting point is that income from benefits cannot be included in the financial requirement for UK spouse visas the exception to this is if the sponsor receives whether that is on behalf of their child or not one of the following permitted benefits as we've previously discussed if the sponsor does receive one of these benefits the adequate maintainance test applies which will only require you to show that your weekly net income minus housing expenses is greater or equal to the amount of income support an equivalent British family of your size can receive thirdly loans and credit facilities cannot be included towards the financial requirement for example you cannot technically loan £80,000 from the bank and then rely on that as cash savings to satisfy the financial requirement fourthly in nearly all applications third parties in other words people other than the applicant and sponsor cannot sponsor the spouse visa application just because the financial requirement is not met based on the permitted source of income we already discussed for example a wealthy friend or family member cannot say here are my bank statements showing a million pound I'm happy to sponsor the applicant spouse viser application there are exceptions to this general rule however one if you have a generous friend or family member who can gift but not Loan cash savings this can be includable towards the financial requirement you will however need to wait 6 months until the cash savings has been held in your account before you can apply relying on the cash savings for example on the 1st of January 2024 the sponsor's father gifted the sponsor £200,000 by transferring it to the sponsor's bank account on 1st of July 2024 6 months after the date the cash savings were gifted the sponsor submitted the application since the sponsor's personal bank statement shows the sponsor held the cash savings for 6 months and that the cash savings did not fall below the required level the financial requirement will be met if the application is evidenced accordingly another exception to the rule that there cannot be third party sponsorship will apply if there are exceptional circumstances which could render a refusal of the application a breach of article H because it could result in unjustifiably harsh consequences for the applicant sponsor or a relevant child with this being said it is almost always the case that circumstances are not exceptional enough for the home office as this is a very high threshold let's now discuss the spouse Fe at suitability requirements the suitability requirements essentially provides the home office case worker with a list of situations where the application must be refused a list of situations where the application will nor normally be refused and a list of situations where the application may be refused the suitability requirements dictate that an application must be refused if one the applicant is currently subject to a deportation order two if the secretary of state has personally directed that the exclusion of the applicant from the UK is conducive to the public good and three if the applicant left or was removed from the UK as a condition of ACC caution issued in accordance with Section 22 of the criminal justice act 2003 less than 5 years prior to the date on which the application is decided so these three will only be relevant in a tiny minority of applications since they are all quite serious therefore you should know if any of these apply for if the applicant without reasonable excuse is failed to comply with a requirement to attend an interview or provide physical data or information the application will be refused this again is very rarely applicable and is only something that will be problematic if you don't follow the standard application process five if the applicant without reasonable excuse has failed to undergo medical examination or provide a medical report where asked or required the application will be refused an example here is the tuberculosis requirements which as we discussed earlier in this video is only relevant for certain outof country applications and six the application will be refused if the applicants conduct character associations or other reasons is such that the home office case worker thinks that their presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good so this is one of the criteria that allows the home office case worker to refuse application for different reasons based on their discretion it will be clear when a spouse visa application will be refused in some situations such as when the applicant has been convicted of an offense for which they've been sentenced to a period of imprisonment of at least 4 years due to the discretionary nature of the suitability requirements however if you're particularly concerned about anything we discuss here you may decide to speak with a qualified and experienced immigration advisor let's now discuss the situations in which the spouse viser application will normally be refused the application will normally be refused use if the applicant has provided false information representations or documents or has fa to disclose material facts in relation to the application whether that's intentionally or unintentionally whil you should absolutely double and triple check your application you'll be glad to hear that simple typos such as misspelling a name or misstating a date of travel are not something that would ordinarily cause refusals rather this depends on the particular facts not declaring a previous criminal conviction for instance will be an example which could cause an application to be refused secondly spouse visa applications will normally be refused if a maintainance and accommodation undertaking has been requested or required and has not been provided we've been involved with more than 3,000 partner Visa applications and we've not seen this suitability requirement to cause an issue once one common question is whether the su7 sponsorship undertaking form is required for spouse Fe or applications this is not a document that is generally required and for out of country applications the application will normally be refused if it is undesirable to Grant entry clearance to the applicant for medical reasons this is only relevant in very specific circumstances usually when the applicant is a specific infectious disease such as Ebola there are three more suitability Provisions that we will discuss so don't worry we're nearly finished the application will normally be refused if the home office decides that the granting of the spouse visa will not be for the public good because the applicant's offending has caused serious harm or the applicant is a persistent offender who shows a particular disregard for the law another common question is whether traffic and Petty criminal offenses could be problematic P traffic and Petty criminal offenses are not something that would ordinary cause refusals however as we mentioned earlier providing false information or failing to disclose material facts in relation to the application can cause refusals so such offenses should be disclosed when asked in the online application form if you're unsure whether a particular situation constitutes an offense we'd normally recommend declaring it in the application form and elaborating in the person's letter of support because again whilst it is is important to disclose certain information such offenses should not detriment the application however for some it's worth noting that the application will normally be refused if the home office decides that the granting of the spouse visa will not be for the public good because the applicant has been convicted of or admitted an offense for which theyve received a non-custodial sentence or other outof court disposal that is recorded on their criminal record within the 12 months before the application is submitted so if there may have been such an offense within the 12 months before submitting the applic a but if you're not sure whether this constitutes a non-custodial sentence or rather outof Court disposal that is recorded on their criminal record the best person to speak to you regarding this will be a criminal lawyer and then finally if the applicant has failed to pay NHS charges amounting to at least £500 or if the applicant has failed to pay litigation costs awarded to the home office the application may be refused regarding NHS charges if you're unsure whether there are outstanding NHS charges amounting to at least £500 you should speak with a relevant clinic or Hospital in in the UK and regarding litigation costs because this is rather serious you really should be aware if there are any outstanding or not so I know I've said the word refused many times in this video which understandably can be rather anxiety inducing the good news is that it's very uncommon for applications to be refused due to the spouse visa suitability requirements rather it is most commonly the financial requirement that causes spouse visa refusals so please ensure that you spend a rather considerable amount of time familiarizing yourself with that if you found this video helpful and want to see more videos like this please let us know in the YouTube comments by liking the video and by subscribing we have many detailed articles about each of the spouse visa requirements on our website my.org so you're welcome to check that out let us know in the comments what you want us to create videos about in the future and we'll do our best to accommodate as many requests as possible
