Category A: 6 Months Employment

What Category A is

"Category A" and "Category B" are Home Office labels for two ways of calculating employment income, set out in paragraph 13 of Appendix FM-SE. Category A is paragraph 13(a), which applies where the person:

• is in salaried employment in the UK at the date of application;
• has been employed by their current employer for at least 6 months; and
• has been paid throughout the 6 months before the date of application at a gross annual salary equal to or above the level relied on in the application.

Where it applies, the gross annual income counted is the total of:

1. the gross annual salary relied on;
2. the gross amount of any specified non-employment income, other than pension income, received by the person or their partner in the 12 months before the application; and
3. gross annual income from a UK or foreign state pension, or a private pension, received by the person or their partner.

The figure that must be reached is £29,000 for anyone whose first application on the partner route was made on or after 11 April 2024, and £18,600 with additions for children only for those extending who first applied before that date. Our financial requirement guide covers which figure applies.

One boundary is easy to miss: paragraph 13(a) says "salaried employment in the UK". Employment outside the UK is dealt with by paragraphs 13(c), 13(d) and 3, which allow a sponsoring partner returning to the UK to rely on a UK job starting within 3 months of their return, evidenced by a job-offer letter or signed contract under paragraph 4.

When Category A cannot be used

• Under 6 months with the current employer. Paragraph 13(b), Category B, applies instead. It is not just a longer look-back: it has two limbs and both must be met. The current gross annual salary must meet the figure, and the income actually received from salaried employment in the 12 months before the application must meet it too.
• Self-employment. Paragraph 13(e) sets a different calculation over one or two full financial years. See our self-employment guide.
• Not paid at the relied-on level throughout. A pay rise partway through the 6 months means the level that can be relied on under Category A is the lower one, because the test is what was paid throughout the period.

Paragraph 13(k) adds a rule for couples relying on both incomes: where the applicant's and the sponsor's employment income are both used, all of it must be calculated under Category A or all of it under Category B, never a mixture.

The three specified documents

Paragraph 2 of Appendix FM-SE lists what must be provided for salaried employment in the UK. This is a closed list, not a suggestion.

1. Payslips

Payslips covering the 6 months before the date of application. Paragraph 1(bb) sets the only format requirement: they must be "formal payslips issued by the employer and showing the employer's name", or else be accompanied by a letter from the employer, on the employer's headed paper and signed by a senior official, confirming the payslips are authentic.

The Rules specify nothing about a PAYE reference, a National Insurance number, or how the payslips are laid out. What matters is that they are the employer's own formal payslips covering the period.

2. A letter from the employer

From the employer who issued those payslips, confirming four things and only four:

• the person's employment and gross annual salary;
• the length of their employment;
• the period over which they have been or were paid the level of salary relied on in the application; and
• the type of employment — permanent, fixed-term contract, or agency.

3. Personal bank statements

Covering the same period as the payslips, and showing the salary paid into an account in the name of the person, or of the person and their partner jointly. Under paragraph 1(a) they must be from a financial institution to which Appendix Finance applies, cover the period specified, and be either on official bank stationery or electronic statements accompanied by a letter from the bank on headed stationery confirming they are authentic, or bearing the bank's official stamp on every page.

Paragraph 1(aa) allows alternatives: a building society statement or pass book, a letter from the bank or building society, or a letter from a financial institution regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority — provided the same information is shown.

Two documents that are optional

Paragraph 2A says the applicant "may" also submit the P60 for the relevant period, and "may" also submit a signed contract of employment. If they do not, the decision-maker may still grant the application if otherwise satisfied — though they may also request the documents. They are useful, not required.

The 28-day rule

Paragraph 1(l): where this Appendix requires evidence relating to a period which ends with the date of application, that evidence, or the most recently dated part of it, must be dated no earlier than 28 days before the date of application. In practice this is what fixes how stale the last payslip, the last bank statement and the employer letter may be.

What counts towards the salary

Paragraph 18 governs this, and it is more precise than most accounts of it.

• Basic pay, skills-based allowances and UK location-based allowances count, provided they are contractual. Where those allowances make up more than 30% of the total salary, only the amount up to 30% is counted.
• Overtime, payments to cover travel time, commission-based pay and bonuses count "where they have been received in the relevant period(s) of employment". Tips and gratuities paid through a tronc scheme registered with HM Revenue and Customs are included. The Rules draw no contractual-versus-discretionary line here.
• How much of that variable income counts. Paragraph 18(bb): for a person in salaried employment at the date of application, the amount added to the gross annual salary is the annual equivalent of their average gross monthly income from that source, in their current employment, over the 6 months before the application.
• What does not count at all. Paragraph 18(c): payments relating to the costs of UK or overseas travel, including travel and relocation expenses and subsistence or accommodation allowances, and payments towards the costs of living overseas.

Hourly and variable-hours pay

Paragraph 18(d) splits employment in two. Salaried employment is that "paid at a minimum fixed rate (usually annual)" and usually subject to a contractual minimum number of hours. Non-salaried employment is that "paid at an hourly or other rate (and the number and/or pattern of hours required to be worked may vary), or paid an amount which varies according to the work undertaken".

Non-salaried employment is calculated on the same basis and needs the same evidence, with one change that matters. Under paragraph 18(e), for Category A the level of gross annual salary that can be relied on "shall be no greater than the annual equivalent of the person's average gross monthly income from non-salaried employment in the 6 months prior to the date of application", where the employment was held throughout that period.

So an hourly-paid job is not annualised from the contracted hours. It is the actual average of the last 6 months, multiplied up.

Some general rules that apply across the whole calculation

• Paragraph 1(c). An applicant's own employment or self-employment income is taken into account only if they are in the UK, aged 18 or over, and working legally. Prospective employment income is not counted, apart from the returning-partner exception.
• Paragraph 1(d) and 1(e). All income and savings must be lawfully derived, and savings must be held in cash.
• Paragraph 1(k). Where the gross amount of income cannot be properly evidenced, the net amount is counted — including towards a gross income requirement.
• Paragraph 1(j). Any document not in English or Welsh needs the original plus a full, dated translation confirming it is accurate and naming the translator and their contact details. For an application made inside the UK, the translation must be certified by a qualified translator with details of their credentials.
• Paragraph 14. Where the requirement is met by the combined income or savings of more than one person, the same money is counted only once.

Where Category A applications come apart

These follow from the rules above rather than from any published statistics — GOV.UK does not publish a breakdown of refusal grounds on this route.

• A gap in the payslip run, so the 6 months before the date of application is not covered.
• Bank statements that do not show the salary being paid into an account in the right name, or that do not cover the same period as the payslips.
• An employer letter missing one of the four things paragraph 2(b) requires — most often the period over which the relied-on salary was paid.
• Evidence dated more than 28 days before the date of application.
• A job change inside the 6 months, where paragraph 13(b) applies instead.
• A salary reached by adding travel or relocation allowances, which paragraph 18(c) excludes.

Our guide on refusal reasons and on reading a decision letter cover what happens after a refusal. For the other ways of meeting the figure, see Category B, self-employment and the cash savings route. The fees on the route, including the healthcare surcharge, are separate from the income figure and set out in our fees guide.

Questions and answers