✔️ 10 common mistakes when meeting the Financial Requirement £18,600 for a UK Spouse visa
#1 Most common - submitting “everything I have’.
Some payslips, a tax return, some savings plus a property deed for good measure. Surely, should work? It may sound logical to provide as much as possible, this is often a nightmare scenario for immigration lawyers and often a direct path to a visa refusal. Financial Requirement is strictly based on the ‘rules’: what income can be used, how various sources can be combined and what documents are needed. We often say there is 70-page office guidance just on the finances.
#2 Savings - it’s not £18,600 and not £16,000.
The amount for a Partner visa application is £62,500! Higher if children are also applying.
#3 Employment - the minimum is 6 months for the same employer.
In short, you can’t get a job today and apply for a visa tomorrow. You have to stay on that job for 6 months first.
#4 Employment again - the maximum is 12 months for the calculation. But don’t need to be all 12 months.
If you can't meet the previous 6-month rule, let’s say you started your current job last month and your salary is £18,600 pa. You have to meet the additional rule of having earned £18,600 in the last 12 months- from any number of jobs.
This may sound straightforward but there is a lot of confusion about this 2nd rule. For example, the 12 months in question are 12 months immediately before the date of visa application and NOT 12 months on the previous job! Also, 12 months in maximum, so if you have earned £18,600 in, say, 8 months, that’s sufficient.
#5 Returning to the UK from abroad - more serious than you think.
This tends to be one of the biggest problems people face. Normally, a British spouse needs a job offer in the UK, which is difficult to find while living abroad.
Also, we often see the non-British husband working in a well-paid job in their home country of, say, Australia, while the British wife stays at home looking after their children. In this case, the UK Partner visa rules expect the British wife to have a job offer in the UK. The common-sense arguments - that the husband is a skilled professional who would find a job in the UK in no time - will fall on deaf ears.
#6 Property.
A very British thing! How can we use it for the UK Spouse visa?
You cannot use the value of the property. But if you sell it, and deposit the cash in a bank account, then you can. After all applicable deductions (mortgage, fees etc) and taxes. The amount you need is the same as under the savings category above (ie not £18,600). You don’t have to keep the cash for 6 months.
You can also use income from property if it adds up to £18,600 in the last 12 months (not in a tax year!). Interestingly, here the amount we use is gross rent as on the tenancy agreement - not the profit. Be careful if you own a property through a holding structure, such as a limited company, which will be very different.
#7 Self-employment income is different from the rest and it's based on what’s “on paper’.
We are one of just a few specialist firms that work with self-employment income for UK visas. The biggest challenge is to establish what the client has "on paper”. Are you a sole trader or have a limited company? Is your business in the UK or abroad?
If you are a contractor, we will still treat you as ‘having a business’, even if in your mind you have a ‘job'. You may count income paid by your ‘employer’ but we will count income you personally receive from your ‘business’.
You also have to go by the last financial year, even if it was only finished yesterday. The normal HMRC deadlines of submitting the tax returns 9 months later won’t apply!
#8 A tax return is rarely useful! And usually too old.
Another common-sense approach would be to use your latest available tax return, showing income of minimum £18,600. Perfectly understandable and useful in all walks of British life - except when it comes to the Partner visa applications.
Speaking with a good-natured humour (there is place for it in the visa work), we have to ‘fight’ with accountants on the daily basis. Unless you have a business under your own name (a sole trader, ie ‘self-employed’ as HMRC calls you), your tax return is NOT relevant for a UK visa. We simply don’t need it.
If we do need it, what do we mean by ‘too old’? As above, it has to cover the tax year that’s passed, even if it finished only yesterday.
Let’s say today is 6th April and the UK tax year finished yesterday- 5th April. You have to prepare tax return for the year finished ‘yesterday’, even though HMRC gives you time until 31 January next year.
If you have a limited company, your tax return is still irrelevant because your income will be calculated on salary and dividends during the company’s year.
#9 Family support.
Under the current rules, support from any third party isn’t allowed, even if it is a close family. Even if it is a joint bank account with a close family member (other than your partner).
But that’s on the date of visa application. If your family wants to help with a visa, they need to deposit money to your and/or your partner’s account, then you need to wait for 6 months, not touching it. Only then can you apply for a visa.
#10 What can increase your chances?
Nothing. You either meet the requirements, or you don’t. Doesn’t matter if you meet the £18,600 threshold by £££ or by £1 as you long you meet it!
As always, we are here to offer individual advice, you can book a consultation here.
1st 4Immigration is one of the most experienced UK immigration law companies, OISC - accredited at the highest Level 3. We have been in business for over 10 years, our OISC reference is 200800152, in which 2008 stands for the year accreditation. Office: Tower 42, 25 Old Broad Street, London, EC2N 1HN.
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