10 Common Mistakes - Financial Requirement for UK Spouse Visa - #3 thinking you can get a job with salary £18600 and apply for a visa immediately.

Ah, if only it were as easy as that! The visa officers have also thought of that. They don’t want people to secure employment, apply for a Spouse visa and resign the day the visa has been issued.

There are 2 ways to “use” employment income from (not counting combinations with other sources), both can be found in Appendix FM of the Immigration Rules.

Category A: based on your current employment in the UK. Here you need to have for this employer for the last 6 months before the date of visa application. You can still secure a job just for the Financial Requirement and can still resign the day after the visa has been approved. But you have to work for this company for 6 months!

Also, you need to have a salary of £18600 (ie based on £18600 per year) for the whole 6 months. If you had a lower salary during the probationary period (usually 3 months) and then had a rise to £18600, you can’t apply for a visa until you have had 6 months of salary based on £18600 (ie have to wait until 9 months of working in this example ).

A variation of this scenario leads to a no less dangerous mistake:  when you have worked for the current employer for the last 6 months but your salary was below £18600 until, say, 2 months ago. Then you had a payrise and are now earning £18600. This still won’t work! You need to have the whole 6 months if earning a salary based on £18600 per annum.

We will cover in the next separate post about Category B, this is where you haven’t worked for the current employer for 6 months. It needs a separate post because it’s open to several misinterpretations of its own.

All the posts of our original series are here: 10 Common Mistakes - Financial Requirement for UK Spouse Visa


We also have posts “advising” Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on her UK visa. It’s fun to read but legally accurate and the cover the same Rules as would apply to an ordinary  British-foreign couple, including the author of this blog, who had been through this process in 2003 and worked in immigration law since


For individual advice or to make an application, please visit our website: Spouse Visa page or contact us: info@1st4immigration.com. We respond emails on the same working day.

1st 4Immigration Ltd, authorised by the OISC, ref 200800152. We operate at the highest Level 3 of expertise. Office address: 68 King William Street, City of London, London, EC4M 7DZ.

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