Supreme Court backs the rule to have income of £18,600 for spouses and partners of UK citizens. But asks for more flexibility to apply it, which may put more spouses/partners into the 10-year route.

By 1st 4Immigration - #1 UK Immigration Experts -
The story of the minimum income for a Spouse/Partner visa is very much alive even almost 5 years since it was introduced in July 2012. Last week’s decision of Supreme Court to back the threshold of £18,600 was widely reported in the press, such as in the Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4248506/Supreme-Court-throws-foreign-spouses-case.html or The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/feb/22/supreme-court-backs-minimum-income-rule-for-non-european-spouses or The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/22/supreme-court-ruling-due-challenge-foreign-spouse-income-limit2/  

We are waiting to see how the policy guidance is going to be changed by the Home Office (UK Visas and Immigration). The threshold, in principle, remains are £18,600 for a spouse/partner, more if children are also applying for a visa. On the other hand, as they say “The devil is in detail”, it will be all about how it is applied.

Generally, it is moving towards the following compromise: if the couple have a British child, the foreign spouse will almost likely to be excepted from the Financial Requirement but put into the 10-year route. It means he/she would have a UK visa but would have to spend 10 years in the UK to qualify for permanent residence. Those who meet all the requirements, including the financial, are put into the standard 5-year route and would qualify for permanent residence twice sooner – after 5 years in the UK. Those without children are unlikely to be excepted, so would have to consider finding the ways to meet it (or to produce a child!)

It is also worth reminding that those on disability benefits continue to be exempt from the income threshold.

For an individual advice or to make your application as successful please contact us: info@1st4immigration.com or visit http://www.1st4immigration.com.

If you are an Immigration Adviser or a Solicitor please visit our immigration Training and CPD website: www.1st4immigration.com/training. We have a OISC Level 1 course as well as a Points-Based System course and we also have online training courses, including Online OISC Level 1 course and courses focusing on Spouse/Partner visas. All our training courses are CPD-accredited with CPD credit accepted by OISC.

 

   

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